Have you spent good money on seeds, soil, and containers for starting, taken time to plant them and water them, only to have nothing to show for it? It can be a real let down to wait for seeds to sprout that never do. To take the mystery out of it and help you take proper steps to prevent it from happening again, let’s look at a few reason why it might have happened in the first place.
Old Seeds
Let’s assume that you did everything right, and you still didn’t get any seeds to sprout, then it’s probably because your seeds were too old and went bad. To prevent this from happening again, store your seeds in the dark, in a cool location, and sealed in bags.
Improper Temperature
If you have had less than optimal results starting your seeds in the early spring, this could be because your seeds need more heat. You may want to move them to a sunnier location, put the starter lamp closer to the soil, or simply wait for weather to improve.
Improper Watering
A plant will never be more vulnerable than when it is just starting out. For your seeds to have the best chances the soil needs to remain moist at all times, if it dries out even for a short period the seeds could die. Likewise if the soil is too wet the seeds could rot before they germinate. Watering with too much pressure can disturb the soil and damage fragile sprouts. Placing seeds in starter containers with wicking soil in a tray with water, or using a fine mist are your best options.
Too deep
A good rule of thumb to determine the depth a seed should be planted at is the size of the seed. Most seeds do not want to be planted deeper than they are tall. Seeds that are extremely fine can just have a fine layer of soil sprinkled on top of them before being watered in carefully with a fine mist.
If you keep these tips in mind your success rate will increase, and so will your harvests.
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