I bought some organic tomato and cucumber seeds and put them in dixie cups with garden soil that I bought. about half of them came up but most of those look really sickly. I water them everyday and take them outside for sun. Am I doing something wrong do they need something the girls are really excited about them but I think they are going to die.
PLEASE HELP ME!
Comments
More sun and possibly less water. They should be moist not soaked. Common issue with using cups is not enough ventilation to the root system. Depending on where you are they may not be getting enough direct sunlight through out the day.
organic seed? I never thought about the seeds being organic. I always assumed it was what you used to grow the plants that made them organic or not.
buy ones that are already kinda big and go from there… tell them thats what their plants turned out like lol.
no im jk thats horrible…. but last time i checked you dont make a garden in a dixie cup…. you should prolly go ahead and start over with them and set up a little spot in the back yard.
We’ve been gardening for years, and honestly, beginners do much better with seedling (small plants).
Here’s an article that will help:http://site.cleanairgardening.com/info/vegetable-gardening-for-beginners-6-easy-steps.html
All the best.
When in doubt… Search online! You can even go and get a gardening book with your library to read with your kids too. Good luck!
Add holes to the bottom of the dixie cups for drainage. Without drainage and with a lot of heat on a small area of soil you could actually be baking the seeds and causing the roots to mold.
I would use small clay pots with ventilation and drainage holes in them. Watering daily is good, but seedlings can’t be soaked constantly. A good way to tell if it needs watering is if the first inch of top soil is dry (about the tip of your finger into the soil).
Also, make sure that if you have nights cooler than 40 degrees you bring them in for the night. Sometimes seedlings can die off if they get too cold.
When the seedlings get to be sprouts that are about 6 inches tall, you can transplant them into the ground. Most gardeners wait until after the first week of April since for most regions there is no longer a threat of frost coming through anymore.
My husband’s grandmother taught me this little trick:
Save old metal coffee cans. Cut the bottoms out, place the bottoms back in and seed your plants in there. When you are ready to put the sprouts in the ground, remove the bottoms of the coffee cans again and place the whole can in the ground. The metal coffee can will act as a protector from bugs that eat roots off your produce and she said it never stunted the growth of any of her plants. Good advice from a woman who has been gardening for over 50 years 
