Seedlings are not happy!

Last year I grew my first plants from seeds. Simple little pansies that apparently any fool can grow. Anyway.... they grew like triffids (mahoosive) and not one solitary flower ever appeared. I'd fed and watered them... and fed them and fed them and fed them. In hindsight I think I over fed them (and I didn't know about pinching out either).

Fast forward to this year and I've got a lot of time on my hands so I thought I'd grow all my plants from seeds. I've had incredible germination success..... errrrr.... over 400 plants in the house (I don't have a green house only a large cold frame). I germinated them in the utility room where it is consistently warm, then pricked them out, planted in toilet rolls (been saving them all year) and moved to the sun room which hovers between 15c and 18c. I started them off in Grow sure seed compost. When I pricked them out, I potted them in 50/50 seed compost and multi purpose compost with a handful of perlite. I've been really careful with watering. Light is a problem. Although the sunroom has a vaulted ceiling with tall windows on three sides, the sun has barely shone in the last three weeks out here in Northern Ireland. When it does poke through the clouds, I'm moving the trays around like a demented person trying to catch the odd ray!

Now the problem.... they're not growing. The picture is of the Alyssum North Face and as you can see they are going a bit pale. Because of the disaster of the pansies, I've not fed them, assuming that there would be enough goodness in the new soil I'd just put them in.

Any ideas would be very much appreciated. If I don't save them, I'm going to have a very empty garden this year.

 

@SandyNI ,..as this is only our second day of Spring there is hope,..granted they appear a tad pale,..i would suggest IF you get a warm day take them outside until the sun has gone down,..then just in case you get a heavy frost take them back inside then repeat the move outside again,..this should give them energy from the sun,..touch wood this should work.

As for the pinching out with anything,..nip out the top leaves down to the next set of leaf,..in particular if a plant or seedling becomes leggy.

 

It's a waiting game with some things at this time of the year
Some seedlings romp away and get leggy, others just seem to sit and wait.
I'd say yours are the second category.
They are fine just don't over water and definitely do not feed until they are showing root right out the bottom of the pots which will be a long time yet.
Feeding and over watering are the to easiest ways to kill off young seedlings.

 

@glengarry23 and @pete thanks for advice. Looking on the bright side.... they're not dead yet! The sun came out for about five hours two days ago and I did take them outside (took me ages running back and forth!). It was a warm sun but it was only 10c outside and I worried it was too cold for them.

 

I don't feed seedlings. There's enough nutrients in my B&Q verve compost to keep them going for a month at least.. Maybe two.
When the plants reach a size to plant out, then i apply B.F.B to the planting area with added compost.
Agreed light is a crucial factor at this time of year. I get most of my plants into the unheated greenhouse and cold frame asap.. though i appreciate that's not possible with the more exotic tender one's.

 

Think we would have left the seedlings a little longer before potting on, typically they say wait until the first pair of true leaves appear.

Being so small and now in those relatively big pots it will be so easy for them to rot off because the compost is so wet.

Equally being such small plants putting out into direct sunlight can easily burn them, because they have grown 'tender' indoors, unlike seedlings grown outdoors.

Suggest you keep them indoors but place some form of light about 30cm above them.
Any type of bulb will do, led, tube, standard bulb and run them for about 12 hours a day.

As others have said, you have over fed them in the past, probably too much Nitrogen giving too much lush green growth and no flowers.
Once the plants are a decent size you should change from a general feed to one high in Potassium to encourage the flowers; typically thats a Tomato fertilizer.

A general rule of thumb, new compost has enough feed in it to last the plants for six weeks, so no need to add more.

 

The pic shows some of our Violas, a couple of seeds sown into each little cell, only now would we consider transplanting any, as they are a decent size and have formed their first true leaves.
If we have enough we just pull out the weaker seedling so the other one can grow on undisturbed.

hth

 

Hi @SandyNI Perhaps moving the seedlings in and out is not doing them favours. Since you have so many plants, maybe you could trial moving some of them into a constant temperature windowsill?

A new discovery for me this year are grow lights. £30 from Amazon and the difference is clearly visible when I compare seedlings that have been under the lamp and those that have just been in natural light.

Mr Google suggests that you can sow Alyssum until June. Later sowings often catch up with earlies quickly and with a lot less hassle as the conditions are easier.

And sometimes it just happens that plants that are described "vigorous, very easy to grow" germinate nicely and the sit doing nothing until they end up in the compost.

Good luck, keep us posted!

 

On another note, can you reuse the compost/soil that seeds have failed to germinate in?

 

I do, tend to mix it in with some new stuff.
Often get the odd surprise seedling.

 

@Selleri I've been looking at grow lights and the reviews were mixed. Which one have you got?

 

Hi, I've got these , rather utilitarian looking but they have great reach to cover a very long windowsill. Then, for a shelving in kitchen I bought these in both 3 and 4 lamp version. They have short reach but fit perfectly into my growing-on shelving and look better.

I can see that it was a good move to buy them early in the year, now the prices have gone seriously up

Anyways, they do make a difference and I can see seedlings without the lights bending towards the window, and those under lights growing straight up. Chillies under lights are a week ahead in bud forming compared with unlighted sisters on a bright windowsill.

The lamps are Chinese so being a bit sceptical, I can't vouch for longevity yet. Fingers crossed!

 

@Selleri thank you so much for that. They were the two I was looking at.

 

Done... grow light arrives tomorrow!

 

@Selleri Grow light arrived.... but no manual! How far above the seedlings do I position the lights please? I've set it to both colours and full beam. Jeez.... I feel clueless!