Heirloom Garden Fail

[Gingerella72]

Just a wee vent....

I purchased organic heirloom seeds from Seed Savers Exchange with the hopes of starting an heirloom garden this spring. Two months ago I started my seedlings indoors using organic potting soil. Note: I've never had difficulties starting seeds inside in the past.

That brings us to today. During those two months, most seeds sprouted and grew up about an inch in height. However, several have died off, and those that are still alive have only grown about another inch in height.

I have no idea what went wrong. They were in a very sunny warm location, watered as needed, and had containers with drain holes. Now I'll have to buy starter plants at a nursery, something I was trying to avoid. I'll keep babying the remaining sprouts along in the hopes that they *might* grow hardy enough to transplant outside, but I'm sure frustrated in my hope to start organic and heirloom gardening. Grrr. >:(

[CathyA]

You probably should have used a light for them. I grew some several years ago, put them out, and the rabbits ate them all immediately. I think they do take extra care.....which is probably why hybrid tomatoes took off so well. The back-up heirlooms I had, I planted, and they succumbed to various diseases alot more than the hybrids.
Wish I had some magic info for you. I now grow only Rutgers......which are standards, but seem really strong.
Its not always easy to grow tomatoes from seed.
If this was your first try, I'd encourage you to keep trying next year.

[Rogar]

I am no gardening expert, but the last two years I've purchased heirloom seeds from a local company called Botanical Interests and planted in the little Jiffy starter soil tablets from the local hardware store. For most of the perrenials and a few of the annual flowering plants I usually get almost full germination, but several die off in the first month or so, a few more during a hardening off outside, and a few more when I plant. The ones that seem to do the worse are the ones with thin stems. I figure I will need five or so starter pots to get one that will end up surviving outside. I've had luck started doing perennials in the late summer indoors to put out a few weeks before the first frost. My take is that it just requires a little patience and TLC. Vegetables with larger seeds do much better. At least from my experience, two inches in two months may not be abnormal.

[SRP]

Gingerella - do you remember how, exactly, they died off? Did they just sort of fall over? I'm wondering if it wasn't damping off disease. I have that problem when I start seeds indoors and don't have the light and moisture conditions exactly right. You'll notice that the stem turns brown and sort of rots away right where it comes out of the soil. As for Seed Savers Exchange - I love them! I've always had very good results with their seeds, unless of course damping off hits. But that's my fault, not the seeds.

[puglogic]

I had some similar years when I first start growing organic/heirloom. Miserable, isn't it??? :(
Nowadays I never start seedlings in potting soil -- only in a sterile mix intended for seed starting, even in peat or in coir (coco husks). Try that perhaps? I also use a chart like this one to make sure I'm starting the seeds at the temperatures they like to be started at, which makes them all stronger:
http://www.waldeneffect.org/blog/Soil_temperature_and_vegetable_seed_germination/

The only think I lost this year was my broccoli raab, where half the seedlings died. But the rest of my 200 seedlings are still going strong, much to my husband's chagrin :)

I love Seed Savers Exchange, RareSeeds.com, and SeedsTrust.com -- I've had nothing but good luck with everything I've gotten from them. Good luck with the next batch!!

[Gingerella72]

I guess because I never had problems with conventional hybrid seeds in the past, I assumed all seeds acted the same? lol

Next year I'll definitely be investing in a grow light. Plus, to be frugal I was using containers that normally would have gone into recycling, like empty plastic peanut butter jars that I punched holes in the bottom. I'm really not sure what killed them off, or why some are still alive but refusing to grow any bigger. Trial and error I guess. Oddly enough the lettuce seeds I sowed directly outdoors are doing well, if I can keep the rabbits off them.

[benhyr]

I can only offer my anecdotal experience... since we're "experts" having done it all of part of a season now! Still, we've started over 500 seedlings and had good success (knock on wood). Some are heirloom, some simply organic and a handful are hybrids.

We don't have nice, sunny windows to start our seedlings so we set up wire racks with adjustable shop lights and cheap fluorescents with a high CRI index. You can see our setup:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-CUrCw6uNjSE/TXvLbzCOY5I/AAAAAAAAA38/YOfxs16Er_Y/s1600/017.JPG

We used a moisture meter to help us judge when to water and were careful not to overwater (well, my wife was... usually going behind me and dumping out excess water from the trays since I over do it).

Also, every watering I used a brew of chamomile tea and cinnamon sticks. I had read, and can attest to it, that this brew will help keep any fungus at bay. If I saw white fungus in the trays, a quick spray with my tea mix (kept some in a spray bottle for that purpose) killed it off.

We cycled any used pots through a very weak bleach solution before replanting. I'd prefer not to use bleach and will look at alternatives in the future (I'm guessing a stronger vinegar mix would be as effective).

I did lose a couple seedlings to damp off but we pulled them out of the tray and tossed them (not in the compost) before the fungus could spread. This only came on with some I wasn't using my tea on but I can't prove a correlation.

Of course... all of this is likely beginners luck and lots of bad juju will be coming down any day/season now.

[daisy]

It might be worthwhile to start a few more seeds in a different potting mix to see if the problem is with the seeds or with the potting mix. I usually use a potting mix that I buy from a local nursery. It's expensive, but extremely light and fluffy and everything thrives in it. This year, however, I ran out of that after starting my tomatoes and purchased an organic seed starting mix from a local big box store. I started my eggplant and pepper seeds in that and out of about 40 pots with multiple seeds in each, I think I had 4 pepper plants that made it to the planting stage and 3 eggplants. Most of them sprouted and made true leaves, but then the plants slowly withered over time. I ended up having to buy pepper plants, which I've never had a problem with before.

All of my plants this year are heirloom or open-pollinated and the only ones that gave me trouble are the ones that were started in that organic seed starting mix.

[Aspen]

I order from Seed Savers and do pretty well. However, because I still feel like a seed starting newbie (after three years!), I also order seedlings from Seed Savers for my favorite plants as back up.

[Mrs. Hermit]

Damping off damage is definately more of a problem with heirloom seed. The hybrid seeds tend to be resistant to all fungal infections, which is part of why they are prefered. But, careful seed starting "hygeine" (like extra clean and loose potting mix) can help. Rutgers, and some other tomato heirlooms, have built in resistance to fungus, so can be home started successfully more readily.

I found if I saved seed from the plants I grew, they thrived under my planting "techniques" the next year. So if you can just get some of your plants to fruit, then save those seeds, next year you will have a unique variety that will grow well under "your" conditions. For example: I ordered open pollinated watermelon seed. The first year I grew them in Northern Michigan, they only rewarded me with one 3 lb watermelon. I saved the seeds, planted them the next year, and harvested a bunch of 20 lb melons. I saved those seeds, then had a reliable crop of 20-30 lb watermelons each year thereafter. It just took a while to get the outcome I wanted. So be patient: heirlooms can be more difficult than hybrids in the short run, but they are worth it in the long run.