Growing Herbs from Seed - Beginner Gardener Needing Tips & Advice on Seedlings

Littlemissgardener

Hello there,

I am completely new to 'growing your own', and would really appreciate some tips & advice on growing herbs from seed! I have placed the trays on a sunny windowsill and I am watering them with a spray bottle. So far, I have pricked out each seedling and placed them into individual cells (some with another seedling as I didn't have enough trays). Some seedlings seem to appear alright, while others don't seem to be doing so well. 

The basil and mint seem to be alright. However, the Rocket does look a little poor.



Here are some photo's of the Rocket close up.



Here is a photo of some Rosemary & Thyme seedlings, which look pretty much non-existent. 



The coriander started to curl up at the edges and doesn't look too good.



As for the Parsley, most seem to look good while others seem to be a little shrivelled up.



How can I improve their growth and what is it I am doing wrong? I am a little worried about my seedlings!

Thank you!

herbaceous

Not sure you are doing anything wrong Littlemissgardener but you do need patience.  Personally I would be watering them from below as a spray gun is likely to just lay them flat. They are very small and need to get going a bit first, lots of them still only have their seed leaves and if you have just pricked them out they need to get over the move.

Stand the seed tray in a dish of water but only enough to keep them from drying out. Good luck, they look good 

Littlemissgardener

Thank you for the advice @herbaceous! So I should put a little water in the dish just the same as I would when watering in the morning?

herbaceous

Enough water to just cover the bottoms of the modules but not necessarily every day, the water will be taken up by a capillary action.    You need to judge the moisture level in the trays and just add enough water to stop them drying out. Little baby plants don't like standing with their feet in water all the time 

Littlemissgardener

@herbaceous Great, Thank you! I will give that a go and hopefully it all works out 

GemmaJF

Nothing to add as @herbaceous has it covered and you are doing a great job, other than just to mention rosemary is super slow, if you get any from seed, it was good job!

Nurture any rosemary you have and in future take cuttings from the plants, to make new ones. It's much easier than doing rosemary from seed. We did a whole pot full and only have about 5 seedlings which are growing so slooooow compared to basil, thyme, mint and sage which we started at the same time and are well away now.

Littlemissgardener

@GemmaJF Thank you so much! I was a little worried I never thought about taking cuttings, will have to try that in the future! Yes it does seem to be taking ages to grow and are so small compared to the other herbs! Thanks again 

ju1i3

compost looks a bit coarse, similar to some homemade I used to grow some seedlings recently, they didn't do nearly as well as those sown previously in proper seed compost but you've got quite a few so worth persevering - which is what I'm doing with mine

Littlemissgardener

@ju1i3 I see, perhaps next time I will add some perlite/vermiculite to the compost? I guess it's all a part of learning 

herbaceous

Much simpler to just sieve it Littlemissgardener, an ordinary kitchen sieve is fine.  I use my own sieved compost but everything is in short supply just now isn't it?  Can't see you have a problem, if they want to grow they will!  Sadly, and that's just gardening for you, if they don't want to grow they don't 

Littlemissgardener

@herbaceous thank you for that tip! It is unfortunately. I've also moved the seedlings off the windowsill today as I was concerned that it was getting too hot there, perhaps that was affecting them?