Grow Your Own Magazine

I planted some garlic chives, parsley, coriander, lemon balm, mint and rosemary all at the same time but only the parsley and garlic chives have sprouted, after a few more days i put some more seeds in the other pots incase id drownded them or killed them another way but still nowt am i doing something wrong or are they just slow growers?

same with my tomatoes, i planted lettuce, spring onions, radish, tomatoes, and cucumber seeds the radish and lettuce are going doolaly and seem to be growing right fast, the cucumber has started sprouting a few days ago and this morning i noticed 2 little spring onions just popping out but no tomatoes.

thankyou

Hello Litha welcome to the vine.

Are you sowing them inside ? as it is abviously too early and too cold for certain veggies you mentioned to germinate. How long have you sow them ?
Reckon the mint to be the last to come as it can take months to germinate. Rosemary don't have good germinations rate it is easier to grow them from cutting.
Lemon Balm/mellisa should germinate in within a week to 10 days. cucumber and tomatoes need warmth to germinate.

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I grow, I pick, I eat ...

thankyou for the welcome momol

yes they are all in the kitchen, all the herby things were sown a few weeks ago all the salad stuff on the 14th of feb
wow i didnt realise mint would take so long.. eeekkk the pots going to be full of them then when they do decide to sprout cos after a week i thought they wasnt going to do anything so put some more seeds in.

i thing i need to practice the art of patience HAHA very dificult when its your first time and its so exciting seeing new shoots

I planted some corriander up just over a week ago in an unheated propogator on the window ledge. It's through already, as is the basil I planted at the same time.

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Wow, that's a lot of herbs growing from seeds. Personally I prefer to buy them as plants as they aren't that expensive (if you buy in a pack of 6 from B&Q) and esp. stuffs like Rosemary (also easily propagated from cuttings) and Mint (from pulling few plants from someone's garden and repot them). As for parsley, I heard they take a long time to germinate but they're worth it so I don't mind the hassle growing from seeds. It's good your parsley have germinated, maybe I should get on with mine .

The things with sown seeds is not to overwater or underwater but we can easily get it wrong, I tend to overwater mine too.

Unfortunately it's early for tomatoes (as is for chilli, pepper & aubergine) and they might not germinate unless you use a heated propagator. Believe me, I struggled with my tomatoes until I got myself a heated propagator early this month and even they were no good in 3" pot until I started using very shallow dish. All the best of luck and feel free to post for any queries. We all learn somewhere.

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Food for Free

Just want to add, the lettuce need cool temperature to help it's germination.
Happy growing.

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I grow, I pick, I eat ...

thankyou for all the brill advice. can you beleive i planted loads of tomatoes and my little lad planted his own in a pot at the same time 6 days ago and when he got up and had a look at his this morning it had sprouted.. typical LOL

silly daft question elert! ...... my lettuce and cabbage are just a long stringy thing with 2 leaves ontop do i have to top up the compost to cover its stringy body so just the 2 leaves are showing?

Sounds like leggy due to lack of sun. That is actually no cure (hate to say that really !). coulds you place them somewhere sunnier? by the south or west facing window sill perhaps or in your green house( watch out of frost). They will grow but you can't get them to be compact.
Good luck.

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when is it safe to use the greenhouse its been frosty and white over here just about every morning, do i have to wait untill we have no more frost at all before using it?

ohh is it called leggy, well yes mine are very leggy the cabbages can stand up but the lettuces are begining to fall over

I don't know how cold is your area Litha, you can place it in your green house now but if it is going to be hard frost, take them indoor again please and put them back in the green house the next day. If the night temperature don't fall to freezing, they should be ok to stay there. If your seedlings are way too leggy, you can always resow. I know the feeling of killing seedlings as I tend to try to keep them all (I hate thinning seedlings) but it is really up to you.

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I grow, I pick, I eat ...

THANKYOU for that, i think ill keep these ones anyway just to see how they turn out ( and because they are my very first babies )but i think id best sow some new ones aswell and make sure they get sunshine this time.

ill put the thermometer back in the greenhouse to check the temp, i took it out to check my window sill was warm enough at night time for my herby things