If you planted some seeds, and they didn't sprout...

[SaltyNuts]

after a few days, what would you guess the problem is most like to be? Panted to shallow? Planed too deep? Planted in soil not moist enough? Planted in soil too moist? Not enough light? Too much light?

I'm talking veggies seeds here like collard greens, kale, spinach, green beans, cucumbers, squash.

Thanks!

Moved from OT.
admin allisolm

 

[BoomerD]

What's the germination time for the seeds? MOST veggies don't germinate that quickly.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Some seeds can take a while to germinate depending on conditions. I wanted to grow a tree indoors for fun and it took like a month for it to germinate. I didn't really have a proper setup though. Cardboard box with LED grow lamp. It did not get warm enough as it was not insulated well enough so it took long to get it going. I think if I had built a proper insulated box and kept it around 25c or so it probably would have germinated faster.

 

[mindless1]

This should be in home & garden, but I would focus less on "most likely" and more on the specifics. I have grown many things for a long time, this is not "internet knowledge".

Some plants do take longer to germinate, but the greens should (typically) sprout in 3 days in good conditions. If it takes a week and you are just impatient, that can happen too! Too deep is easy to check, make sure you know exactly where you put the seed then dig it up and see if it tried but ran out of energy before it reached the sun.

It is not (necessarily) a matter of putting in soil not moist enough but you do have to keep them exposed to moisture. It is a matter of keeping the soil moist till they sprout, and also till the roots go deep enough that they can find water through the regular surface drying cycle.

You listed several different things, did you plant all those and none are sprouting or are you overgeneralizing beyond what you're currently doing?

Too moist soil can kill sprouts from fungus but they will have sprouted and you can see that digging them up. Light is not a factor whatsoever until they sprout and put out their first set of cotyledons.

Temperature very much can be a factor, though the things you listed, don't need especially warm temperature.

Another factor is seed quality. If the seeds are undersized or have a green tint, they may have been harvested immature. I'd like to think that seed packets you buy from a store would not have that problem, but I have experienced that myself the few times I try something new, despite mostly growing things from seeds saved from past seasons.

There is no such thing as too shallow "IF" you have the time to keep the depth of the seeds hydrated, but be careful because if you keep it constantly damp then fungus can set in, but you will see it on the soil surface, or even worse you will see fungus gnats.

I wrote too much already, we need more info about all the particular variables. Once you get a sense of what is going wrong, it does get easier. I'm happy to help if you can detail in enough specifics to get an idea what you're facing... at some point, growing things becomes something done on autopilot through repetition.

If your seeds are questionable you can get jump start on assessing them by germinating them in a dish, with just water or you can help it along with a (roughly) 10 PPM dish detergent solution to break the surface tension (or higher with oily seeds like hot peppers) and roughly 10% normal strength tea, which adds a mild acidic condition, particularly helpful to offset tap water which is usually slightly alkaline.

If you soak your seeds in a water bath and they don't even germinate then, you clearly have bad seed. Some things like okra or (*very* hot) peppers, I routinely soak in a bath before seeding... cuts out guesswork if you are doing it small-scale, but they are more sensitive to temperature, do better germinating at ~80F while what you listed, isn't so much, should germinate even at 60F.

 

[zinfamous]

Did you give them water, you dummy? Plants need electrolytes!

 

[OccamsToothbrush]

I'm talking veggies seeds here like collard greens, kale, spinach, green beans, cucumbers, squash.

Thanks!

Is that what the kids are calling pot nowadays?

 

[turtile]

after a few days, what would you guess the problem is most like to be? Panted to shallow? Planed too deep? Planted in soil not moist enough? Planted in soil too moist? Not enough light? Too much light?

I'm talking veggies seeds here like collard greens, kale, spinach, green beans, cucumbers, squash.

Thanks!

Where did you buy the seeds? Did they come with a germination test with a date? You might have old seed that is not viable. Depth doesn't really matter unless it is too dry.

I buy my seeds from Johnny's seeds since they always have high quality seed.

Since you have green beans, you can see if the seed rotted from being to wet (disease) or just not viable since it will be a pile of mush.

 

[Muse]

after a few days, what would you guess the problem is most like to be? Panted to shallow? Planed too deep? Planted in soil not moist enough? Planted in soil too moist? Not enough light? Too much light?

I'm talking veggies seeds here like collard greens, kale, spinach, green beans, cucumbers, squash.

Thanks!

Moved from OT.
admin allisolm

Some vege seeds can take literally weeks before they come up. 2, 3 weeks or more... Even in good growing conditions. The squash seeds I plant every year never come up before 2+ weeks.

I planted some onion seeds that never came up. IIRC, they were produced by planting small onions that I'd bought in local market. The seeds they produced apparently never germinated after I planted and watered them. I thought maybe they were hybrid onions whose seeds simply wouldn't germinate.

Late this summer I planted similar seeds produced by onions I had bought in the same store and they came up. They are tiny seedlings right now. I'm hoping they will provide me with a steady supply of green onions eventually.

 

[mindless1]

^ You may not be keeping them damp enough. If they are in containers you can bottom water them, allowing the soil to stay more moist while not having to water so often that the top of the soil never gets dry. You want the top of the soil to just get dry between waterings so you don't end up with fungus, especially if your soil is especially rich with recently composted brown matter.

Squash usually takes no more than 4 days to sprout. You might try soaking the seeds in a weak tea solution as I mentioned previously. The only things I've ever found that take 3 weeks or more are (very) hot peppers and I suspect a lot of the reason is they are coated in oil, naturally produced by the pod.

Soaking seeds is the great equalizer. You don't have to soak long enough to see them sprout, just exposing them to water for a day or two at 70F+ temperature greatly speeds up the germination process, then transfer them to soil as you would have normally done. Some people fool around with using a wet napkin till they see them start to sprout but frankly there is no benefit to it, is sort of a child's fascination hobby kind of thing... not that there's anything wrong with that, but keeping a paper towel moist is just more work than merely soaking them, then seeding them before they sprout (and then become fragile).