I am the seed killer

[LadyWellian]

I was so enthused by my seeds a couple of months ago, but to date I am down from 38 Dianthus seedlings to about 3, 500 potential verbena bonariensis to 1, 0 out of a packet of strawberry (Sarian) and a packet of delphinium seeds, some very sickly looking sunflowers, 3 (admittedly of 4) dichondra and about four tomatoes out of about a dozen.

I've planted out some sweet peas that are still not all that and some nasturtiums that are holding their own, but I can remember my sister successfully growing nasturtiums at about age 7, so I'm not about to waste too much energy congratulating myself.

I've got some container sweet peas, some beans, foxgloves, cucumbers and melons (the last were free so I don't mind about them) that are still alive but I'm feeling a bit discouraged.

I haven't had kitchen table space for anything but seeds for about 2 months. Should I just give up trying to save money and get out and buy some plants?

I'm the same. Best luck with hardy veg. My FIL is the seed king, and apparently it's a combination of:

seed compost they make themselves, a combination of John Innes number something, and their own compost

a cold frame/greenhouse and opening/closing doors as necessary

religiously watering seedlings

magic.

My most disappointing ones are always the sunflowers. So spindly. It can't be that hard. I'm trying scabious, mint, cucumbers and sempervirens at the moment. I hold out no hope whatsoever.

BTW I decided that in the long run, plants do work out cheaper than seeds if you are not that great with the seeds. I bought a lot of veg plugs this year.
Prices have really gone up.

LadyWellian - a tip I picked up a while back was to use Cheshunts Compound. It is a fungicide which helps prevent a problem called damping off. You see this when seeds germinate but then wilt and die. You can buy this from garden centres (and is great for feeling like a 'real' gardener with mysterious potions!).

Is your problem (a) that they don't come up, (b) that they come up and don't thrive, or (c) that they come up, are ok, then keel over?

Takver it's a combination of a, b c!

and I used John Innes seed compost and vermiculite, and while I don't have a greenhouse I did disport things between the kitchen, utility room and summer house to try to get them at the right temperature.

I did have a bit of a damping off problem owing to not having made clear to my friend who was looking after the seedlings I had just potted on into modules that they only needed the plastic cover over them for 24 hours to re-establish humidity, not the whole week! That did for most of the dianthus and half of the tomatoes, though I lost a few more of them to slugs/snails when I left them outside on one of the warm nights recently.

Thanks for all your responses. It's the first time I've had a garden all my own so it's a bit of a learning curve.

Seeds are tough and some are tougher than others. Kitchen tables are not great places to use as seed benches either, not enough light. I have also struggled with John Inness seed compost in the past. Go for some plants for this year definitely. Dianthus are better from slips than seed, verbena b often available at village plant fairs etc from gardeners who have weeded out superfluous self seeded ones - they self seed like weeds but can be devils to start deliberately as really hate to be coddled.

Most seedlings benefit from being stroked in my experience - some say the movement makes their stems toughen up but I know they appreciate the love and affection.

OK, I don't really do flowers, only veg, but for those my guess would be a mixture of:

Compost perhaps not great. I'd go for a general purpose peat free mix, but if you can have a look at it before buying to make sure that it isn't too 'lumpy', IYKWIM, as they do vary.

Temperatures - its very easy to overestimate how warm it is in a summer house, utility room etc. If you aim for a daytime temperature of at least 18 - 20C, not dropping below say 12-14 at night, that should suit most things. If you run to a cheap max-min thermometer, that helps figure out good locations.

You can get things going by putting them in the airing cupboard if you have one, loosely wrapped in a plastic bag to keep them damp, but check first that it isn't going to cook them (not over say 30-35C), and you need to check them every day & take them out as soon as they start to germinate. They'll grow on then at lower temps. Its still good if you can though to keep toms, peppers, etc above 6 or 7C even at night (we have our pots in crates in the greenhouse, and bring them into the kitchen at night until it warms up).

If you can, start things in modules/small pots, so that you don't have to handle them while they're tiny. Its much easier to sow 2-3 seeds to a good sized module, then let them grow on in there to a decent size, rather than start things in a seed tray then have to prick out. I tend to start all my toms in small pots that will do them until they're ready to plant out into the greenhouse. The ones to go outdoors do go through a couple of moves - into an 11x11x12 pot a week or so back, then they'll go into their full size pots once its definitely warm enough that they won't need to come inside overnight.

Outside - stand them on bricks, a table, anything to keep the slugs away!