Whats going wrong?

Hi All.

OK, my missus wanted me to plant some chinese lanterns, and so i planted them in my propogator. I had the lids on the trays but did NOT have the heated element of the propogator on.

They cameup and seemed to be doing quite well and then a good few of them withered and fell over (see pic). The soil constantly seems dry and I water very little (use a device that puts out a mist rather than running water).

On top of that they seemed to get to a cerain size and then get no bigger. Just trying to understand whats going wrong as ive the same issue with some Basil i planted too.

 

Think its what is called damping off.
The atmosphere is far too damp, they need fresh air.
But do it carefully, they are very soft and need to acclimatise slowly.
Water from the bottom, and stop misting its causing the problem.

 

Thanks Pete, how can i water from the bottom, jsut sit in a tray of shallow water i assume?

The lids on the tray have vents which ive had open, i even tried leaving them off for a few days but it got worse.

 

Keep them out of direct sunlight for now, assuming the trays have holes in the bottom, just put the tray in shallow water when its dry, dont keep the compost sodden, let the surface dry out.
You will still probably lose a few but they have been too damp for too long.

At this time of the year I would have just planted the seed and not bothered with a propagator at all, you dont really need them now.

 

WIll do, they sit in the propogator tray but ive turned the heat off, but did have the lids on, ill stop doing that for now.

thanks again