When I grow vegetables from seed, they nearly always germinate quickly,
but stop growing once they've produced their first true leaves. They
sit like this (no matter how long I wait) until I plant them out,
whereupon they rush forward again. I'm sure this isn't right.

I had been wondering whether my use of peat-free compost was at fault,
as it doesn't seem to hold water at all, so this year I mixed in some
perlite. However, it didn't seem to have much effect.

The only plants that don't seem to be affected in this way are peas and
beans, though they don't generally get left for very long in the pot in
any case. Since they are nitrogen-fixing, does this mean that the
compost is not nutritious enough for other seedlings? They don't seem
to get big enough to be using much of it though.

I don't want to use peat if I can avoid it. Once I tried mixing the
compost with rotted manure (got a 25kg bag from the garden centre), but
that didn't seem to help either.

What do people recommend?


Rhiannon