Why is my lettuce, spinach and dill not growing?

[AutumnMadness]

I have planted lettuce (mixed salad leaves), spinach (some standard variety) and dill (also standard) in three baskets that hang on the fence. All of them have germinated nicely, but all have been sitting at the same "one tiny set of secondary leaves" stage for about two weeks now, despite the recent good weather. Could anyone please tell me why?

Could it be because the soil is too wet? The baskets are of the type where the bottom 1/4 of space or so is sectioned off to hold water that then seeps up into the soil. The soil in the baskets is always moist (but not sopping wet) despite me never watering them.

The soil itself had loads of compost in. The baskets get full unobstructed sunlight for at least 2/3 of the day.

It is because they are too crowded? I was planning to thin, but when the leaves a big enough to make at least a small salad with. I put the stuff in the baskets in the first place to keep it away from slugs.

Takes a while, have patience, they are not dead so will grow. You could put tomorite or similar in the water when you water the basket.

Oh god, sorry, I made a mistake in m original post. It was not "two" but FOUR weeks (or even over) that the shoots are sitting at tiny almost-just-germinated stage.

But thanks, funnyperson, will investigate tomorite.

Autumn if it is 4 weeks they may. just. be. dead. 4 weeks is a long time to be a 2 leaf stage.Get new plants.

Oh no! But they look sooo fresh and green. Will be digging them up to check condition of roots.

Nonono dont dig them up. I could be wrong.

When you say the soil had lots of compost in, what exactly was this? Post a picture so we can have a look. They may be too wet. Tomorite will encourage flowering which you don't want, you need a veg fertiliser for stuff that doesn't flower.

Or cheat and buy fresh seedlings from the garden centre.

Cos it's miserably cold! I planted early April, lettuce about 8 cm high and dill nearly pick able but still small :(

And I've planted 3 lots of French beans and none have come up. I am in Surrey btw not the north

I'm in the north of Scotland and my lettuce, spinach and French beans are all up and doing. It should have been plenty warm enough for your seedlings as we last had snow on May 23rd and I'm assuming you've not been so bad as that? I sowed the lettuce and spinach five weeks (6th May) ago straight outside and we've been eating the spinach this week. I think you might be on to something with the wetness. Usually you'd get more than just a couple of leaves if it was too crowded.

Leave them alone for a while and see if that helps. In the meantime sow a fresh batch in a seed tray (those plastic veg box that mushrooms etc come in make a good sub) and put it on a sunny window sill.