100921 Seed Pots Failure.

So, I've come to the conclusion that my seedlings are a loss. This means I will have no broccoli this time around, as the time to translate a healthy plant has passed now. Bear in mind that the sparseness you see Left is after TWO WEEKS. Pft, almost three.

~The Chives pot grew nothing, not even the little round leafed invader sprouts.
~The two broccoli pots have the invader weeds, and to brought my hopes up a little reddish-stalked sprout.
~The red cabbage pot had a strong looking seedling, but green..
~The two purple cauliflower pots had seedlings, but they looked just like all the others! Until three days ago when something sprouted up SO FAST and grew SO TALL that it fell over! Every two hours I noticed it have MOVED again! I was sure it must have been some green version of mushroom to grow that fast.
~The opal basil pot was my only hope, having a green spout with two "true leaves" beneath it that are kind of jagged.

I hadn't thought to look up what these sprouts were supposed to look like, but I knew two weeks was way too long to get no sprouts. Tonight.. I did so.

My "Basil" versus a true Opal Basil Seedling:

But look! There's a seed casing stuck to the sprout! I'd accidentally dropped a basil seed there, and expected it NOT to grow.. but it's something..  I'm keeping it anyway, just in case the "opal" they sent me were just regular basil, and even though the leaf shape if STILL not right. Sigh.

After generally finding out that most of my sprouts should have little heart shaped leaves, I grew hope for the fast growing invader from this weekend! He has heart-shaped leaves, and maybe he was a seed that only JUST sprouted! But there's still a problem, I have "Purple of Sicily" Cauliflower, and the sprout is completely green! I got both the basil and cauliflower from two different sources, so it's unlikely BOTH send me wrong versions of what I purchased.
Now I'm hoping it's a failing of the greenhouse, causing them to somehow not be colored right (though they are Full Spectrum bulbs). Click the image to see that Sicily should have purple stalks.


I also now know it's an invader in the Cabbage pot.. BUT, the purple plant growing outside IS a cabbage :D Too bad it's too late to plant more of them.

I'm super disheartened. I know my setup wasn't great, I poked holes in the bottom of yogurt cups (probably too-small holes) and filled them with garden dirt. I poked the seed holes with a pencil and didn't measure how deep they were, thinking that in such a "controlled" environment it wouldn't matter so much if they were 1/2 inch or 1/4 inch. The light (left on 16 hours a day and turned off for 8, as instructed) is a full spectrum CFL, that kind I use all over the house. I have a clear plastic sterilite box over the seed cups, to create a kind of greenhouse (also recommended to me by a website). I don't think the light or box was sufficient to warm the cups to cause the seedlings to grow. I thought initially that I wasn't watering enough, but I haven't watered at all since I noticed a pool beneath the cups that isn't receding at all. So, either they aren't drinking (but the soil is staying wet), or I over-watered. Sigh, I have no idea. I didn't want to put money out for seed starting kits just because I couldn't get certain things to start in the garden. So frustrated! Sigh. I haven't watered in a few days: still wet, still a pool, but now the pool is yellow. I'm going to mop up the stagnating water but what do I do about everything else!

I've missed my planting window for broccoli & cabbage (Aug29, to be transplanted/sprouted by Sep26), and missed the transplant/sprouted window for cauliflower (Sep05). I can't get chives to peek inside or out. The beet leaves are tiny and weak (overshadowed by the turnips I think), ants are eating my Sugar Squash flowers (thus killing future squash), and something's nibbling holes in the leaves of ALL my outsides plants regardless of how much organic big killer I douse them with! I'm terribly frustrated.

I think I'll throw this around some gardening websites and see if someone can gives the poor yellow-thumbed noob some advice.




Bibli:
Opal Basil seed photo: OrchardChronicles.com.
Purple of Sicily seedling photo: xobscura's Flickr.
Red Express Cabbage photo: The Illustrated Garden.