There is always an opportunity to learn something new, amirite? Honestly, trial and error teaches me the most significant lessons. This was a pretty big mistake but thankfully the seedlings will recover.

Just before planting seeds three weeks ago, I watched a video where the gardener just dumped soil over the top of the seed trays, pressed it down with the palm of his hands, and brushed off the excess from the top. Well, that looks easier than than pushing soil into each individual cell, I thought.

So that’s what I did. Here are the three lovely flats. (Also please admire these fab new seed trays I got from Greenhouse Megastore.)

To say I had crappy germination is an understatement. But some of my seeds were from last summer so I figured that was the reason.

Then I could not keep the soil moist to save my life. I watered some of the trays twice a day- craziness!

The little sproutlings weren’t looking too good. Most of the cosmos did grow, but they were leggy and terribly spindly. They couldn’t even hold up their leaves. Something was terribly wrong.

Look at the poor things.

I was beside myself, I thought maybe there was a chemical or something on my new seed trays?

I went to the internet for help. And straight away I found Erin from Floret Farm: “DO tamp down the soil into your containers or cell packs. Then pack it down a teeny bit more. By pressing down on the soil, you not only eliminate air pockets that little rootlets don’t like, but you also make it so much easier to remove your baby plants once they are ready to transplant. “

I dug around a bit more and found out all those things- low germination, soil drying out, and weak, elongated stems were because I didn’t tamp the soil in the cells properly.

With fingers crossed and fervent prayer, I spent three evenings re-potting seedlings, tamping down, and generally paying for my ‘short cut.’

How often does that happen to all of us? You’d think by my age I’d know better.

Look at how much I could squish the soil in the cells, down half to two-thirds. No wonder the seedlings were so unhappy.

I had only 5 larkspur seedlings out of 48 cells. As an experiment, I simply tamped down the soil for the larkspur seeds. I wondered if any would germinate just by getting cozy in the cells.

It worked! Yay!!! It’s not optimal germination but I’ll take it.

After squishing and adding more soil, here’s the cosmos. Some aren’t perfectly straight, but they are wayyyy better.

Another of the repotted flats, at the time and one week later: So much happier!

I’ll be sowing more seeds tomorrow- Properly!

Cheers to happy endings, gardening friends. 🌷