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Old 21-08-2019, 09:37 AM posted to uk.rec.gardening
Martin Brown[_2_] Martin Brown[_2_] is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Mar 2017
Posts: 267
Default Disaster in the flower patch, 2019

On 20/08/2019 21:44, Another John wrote:
My wife's favourite, *favourite* annual is Cosmos.

This year, all her seedlings came to nought: they were already pretty
weedy when she set them out, but since then the vagaries of the weather
have made them all lose the will to live: the stunted remains, with
small weedy flowers, had to be pulled out last weekend.

She has sown from seed into trays for years and years, usually with
spectacular results around this time of year. We can't guess what she
may have done wrong this year, but for next January/February ....

What is the best way to grow from seed? My wife sows them indoors in
trays, and places the trays in front of a south facing window; they
usually germinate well (but to my own eye) they always grow up rather
leggy.


Leggy means they are growing with insufficient light. Your best bet is
plant the seeds two or three weeks later when the sun is getting higher
in the sky or find a away to supplement their light artificially.

She moves them to the greenhouse (unheated) when the weather warms up,
and when they're big enough she transplants them to individual small
plastic pots. She plants them out in April.


Once they are in the greenhouse then they should not be short of light.
But putting them out in strong spring sunshine after being on a
windowsill they may need a few days partial shade to adjust.

Hardening them off before planting out is the other essential step.
Otherwise you are just growing slug food.

Questions I have a what are the dangers of over-watering (could that
be the cause of legginess? And: what's the best sort of compost to use
for annual seeds?

We're in Tynedale, Northumberland.


You are further north than me so planting late makes even more sense.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown