Root Hairs or Mould?

februarysgirl

I planted some seeds a few days ago (Amaranthus, Calendula, Nicotiana and Rudbeckia) in seed trays with adjustable humidity vents and placed them near the window on a heat mat. Much to my surprise, the Amaranthus has geminated extremely quickly but they have some white fuzzy growth on them and I just wanted to check what it was.



When I used to try to grow seeds at school, they always went mouldy and died so I'm currently wondering whether it's happened again and I'm just doomed never to be able to grow from seed.

Dovefromabove

Now they've germinated I'd remove the lid to reduce the humidity.  I'd also turn the heat mat off.

Skandi

Root hairs from being so wet, get them into some better light and reduce the heat asap.

februarysgirl

They've been removed from the heat mat and are now on the living room windowsill. It's quite handy as I need the space on the heat mat for some other things I want to sow.

Thanks for the tips 🙂

Fairygirl

At this time of year, on a windowsill, they wouldn't need extra heat for germination.
It just creates more problems, and weak, leggy seedlings.

februarysgirl

@Fairygirl It's not a great windowsill. On paper it's east facing however, I'm an end terrace and directly ahead of that window is the wall of my neighbour's house. The light and heat there are poor, I'm actually surprised they managed to germinate at all! 

Generally speaking, what's the time of year when heat mats should be used? Our house has quite a bit of warming up to do before it gets to the recommended germination temperature. I bought the heat mats as there's no way OH would be down with me turning the heating up 24 hours a day so seeds would germinate 😂 This is my first attempt at growing annuals so don't really know what I'm doing which I think is noticeable! 

Dovefromabove

I use a heated windowsill propagator on an east facing windowsill to germinate tomatoes, chillies, squashes and sometimes sweetcorn (basically things that the packets say need heat above 15C ish)... but as soon as they've germinated I remove them from the heat and open up the vents, and as soon as they're showing their little seed leaves I take off the covers during the day.  

JennyJ

I do the pretty much the same as @Dovefromabove except that generally I leave the covers on (vents open) until the true leaves are showing. My window is upstairs and it gets quite a lot of sun until early afternoon, so I sometimes drape a sheet of thin paper over the top of the propagator lids if I think it's too strong for baby seedlings (using pattern drafting tissue at the moment because it's what I have to hand but newspaper would do).

Fairygirl

I've never used heat mats. I wait until temps are suitable for my conditions. It's why most of mine aren't sown until mid March or later, and it depends on the plant.
My kitchen windows face south east. On a sunny day [and we've had quite a lot of those recently] it can get into the 30s, so the blind is pulled down if there are young seedlings there, or they get moved to a different window. On cloudy days it might only reach 15 - it was certainly that the other day. If they're covered with a lid, that stays until they start into growth, then it's removed, and they're turned regularly.
It just takes a bit longer for germination if the temps are a bit lower. 

februarysgirl

Good to hear what other people do, I'll take all of the advice on when sowing my next lot