My seedlings are dying

First time tying to grow my own plants for the summer.
I'm not doing to well.
Some of the seedlings are dying.
I think I may have put them in to early.
The Marigolds are fine but the Asters :(
I think I might just leave it to the experts. :D

 

Where are they Lyn? In a greenhouse or inside?

 

I have them on the window sill in the laundry.
I don't have a green house.
I have a conservatory but it goes to cold in the night.

 

Be careful not to overwater the seedlings as this can cause the tiny roots to be drowned and unable to take up the water.
On the other hand don't let the top of the compost dry out too much so that the roots have nothing to feed upon. A delicate balance to strike, certainly! You'll only become an "expert" yourself by trial and error.

 

Lyn. When they are small you should water with a spray gun not a watering can. I agree with Jack that the probable cause is over-watering and a spray allows you to control very finely.

 

Can you not put them under a propagator lid.I grow mine in small seed trays under a lid (very cheap plastic with no ventilation - 99P). Once they have germinated I will leave them under the lid, often till they grow tall enough to reach the top.

Because the lid prevents loss of water, I don't need to water them much. Like John,I just spray occasionally. I use a weak copper compound mixture, which is used to prevent damping off. The lid also helps to encourage uniform dampness across the compost. Also I use a mix of 1/3 sharp sand to 2/3 compost to help drainage.

 

Thats it.
I've drown them.
OMG
I'll try and dry them out a bit and save what I can.

 

Lyn, get yourself some Cheshunt Compound as Peter recommended, it is widely available at GCs.
Asters are prone to seedling 'wilt' although most modern strains are resistant. I have Aster seedlings up and are fine at the moment but I will be watching them everyday. Growing for a Local Authority means working in 1,000s and 10,000s of one particular plant but I still have the same problems as everyone else so don't dispair, put it down to experience and try again, that's what most folk on this site giving advice have done.

 

Oh Lyn, i do feel for you. Only my second year & i've already lost one lot of seeds.

Keep trying, you will get there. You'll get all the help you need on here.

On a light note, & i really don't mean to be horrible, your comment earlier, with OMG in, just made me laugh out loud. I can so sympathise, it's how i feel sometimes & you just summed it up!

cheers

 

Or instead of a propagator lid I use food bags tied with the little ties and the Chestnut Compound is a good idea.

Try growing sweet peas they are relatively easy to get good results.

 

Stingo. If Lyn wants asters why should she try sweet peas? :confused: :D

 

Lyn, its early yet as far as I'm concerned, I think in your position I wouldn't have sown any seed yet, I'd wait another two or three weeks.
It hard to hold back when your keen to sow, but without the right conditions it all becomes much harder.
Two weeks earlier now would probably work out to, NO earlier at planting out time, they have a way of catching up the earlier sowings, and are usually better plants as well.

 

Lyn, just another point. I only ever sow half a packet at a time - there's usually plenty. I leave the other half of the packet for the inevitable disasters.

We all get them. I have just sowed some Echinacea seed, and I can see mould already growing on it. Its my fault, it was seed from my own garden. I wanted seed from a particularly good colour strain Rubin Stern, but I collected it too late. I really knew it was mouldy when I collected it. This time the other half of my packet isn't going to do me any good.

 

I`ve already pricked out my first crop of Dahlia seedlings, which are being grown in a cold greenhouse. :D The second batch are just coming through the compost.

 

I planted my first seeds of the new season in mid November last year. Salvia astrocyanea and some others are already over a foot high, and the Salvia coccinea was in flower in February. I cut the flowers off, but I see that they are about to flower again. However they did start off life in a light box - but are too big now, so they sit on the windowsill.