seed starting advice?

[grandpasrose]

Hey Chad! Yes, if your plants are 2" tall and have their second leaves you can certainly repot them.
When you look at the ones that are falling over, close to the soil level does it look like the stem it has shrivelled and collpased? If so, this is called damping off, and is caused by a fungi. This most often happens if the soil becomes too damp on top.
If they are just falling over, then they are too tall, and need to be moved to their own pots!
Best of luck and let us know how you do!

Val

[Michigan2Iowa]

Chad,

I've had this experience when I first attempted to start some violas from seed. I would guess as Val did that you have some damping off problems. I've found that watering my seed trays from the bottom up helped prevent the problem from starting. I also used a small house fan and turned it on low to let some good air circulation flow over the seedlings, that really seems to help (and I think it strenghtens their stems, but that could just be in my head ).

Also...can I ask what kind of soil medium you're using? I too came from a very small town back in Michigan and getting the Vermiculite seed starting mix was difficult back then, but I found that any other kind of soil simply killed off every seedling I had. If you lose a lot of seedlings, I'd start over from scratch by emptying the seed trays, disinfecting them with a 1:10 bleach/water solution (afterwards giving them a good clean water rinse and letting them fully dry), then getting the right kind of seed starting soil mix with the right amount of light. I remember one year starting over 6 times until I got it right!

Hope this helps, and good luck!

-Paul-

[grandpasrose]

Thanks for that Paul!

Val

[The Helpful Gardener]

Good on ya Paul!

Scott

[Chad-K]

Thank you for that Paul! Now I don't feel like such a failure.

I transplanted a few to a bigger pot and they just fell over. But a lot are still doing good in the container I started them in.

[grandpasrose]

Chad, when you transplanted them to a larger pot, did you leave the soil at the same level as is was when they were where they started? If you did, that is probably why they fell over. When you transplant them, you should plant them a little deeper than they were to give them that extra bit of stability and to make the roots grow deepter.
Not to worry - we all have to learn somehow - and we have all been there so no need to feel like a failure!
Let us know how it's going!

Val

[opabinia51]

Yes, and be sure to snap off any lower branches on the stem before burying it.

I ideally, you should bury most if not all of the stem of a transplanted seedling.