Help needed in kids garden

[rickmacheske]

I can't seem to figure out what is going wrong in the kids vegetable garden. We started a garden for them this year but it seems like very few of the seeds actually came up! I started by tilling an old field that has had nothing but grass and weeds in it for years. I added a lot of well composed manure so the soil seems fairly rich. Unfortunately very few of the seeds have come up and the ones that did don't seem to be growing as well as they did when I used to have a garden when I was growing up. I was thinking that it was being over-watered. The tomato and pepper plants that went in as plants seem to be doing ok...not great. Any ideas?

 

[MossRoad]

Did you perhaps use a product like PREEN or anything that would prevent seeds from germinating?

 

[rickmacheske]

There were no products applied. The only possibilities I have come up with are overwatering (the kids have left the sprinklers on too long sometimes), something in the soil (no idea here), planting too deep (but I watched them plant), or something not in the soil.... I'm baffled. I'll try to get a picture or two.

 

[dooleysm]

What are you trying to grow? Things like radishes, lettuce, onions, and carrots should be pretty much fool proof. If they aren't coming up then maybe you have some bad seed?

 

[rickmacheske]

The garden is 20' x 80'. The kids planted pretty much everything. I'll try to remember.....
yellow and green beans - only two plants came up and they don't look great
zucchini - no plants came up
yellow squash - only 1 plant came up
peppers - put plants in and they look ok at best
parsley and dill - some plants are coming up but not many
carrots - some came up but not many
cucumbers - no plants came up
cantalopes - no plants came up
tomatos - put plants in and most look decent at best
watermellons - no plants came up
pumpkins - no plants came up
corn - looked to come up fine but then have not been doing much, the weeds are growing much faster
lettuce - came up and growing fine
spinach - only a couple plants came up

I'm attaching their plan...

 

[PBinWA]

If I want stuff to grow then the kids have to be kept away from it.

They plant seeds too deep. They forage the fruit and vegetables before their ripe. They over/under water.

That's why I set very low expectations for the "kids" garden. They are monitored much more closely when in daddy's garden.

 

[MossRoad]

Go to your garden store and get a Jiffy Pellet kit. It consists of a tray and some jiffy pellets, which are compressed peat pellets. You set them in the tray, add warm water, they expand. A couple hours later, you plant seeds in them, put a plastic cover over them and keep them warm until the seeds sprout. Usually only a couple days. Then you crack open the plastic cover for air ventillation and watch them grow for a week or two. Then transplant the entire jiffy pellet into the garden. These things work great for things like tomatoes, peppers, melon plants, brocolli, etc... they do not work well for root crops.

Here's a link to what they look like. All good garden stores carry them and they are about fool proof for starting things. The kids like to get them going. You can find complete sets at Walmart.

Jiffy Professional GreenHouse Kit 72

Jiffy Wind Greenhouse 5241 by Ferry Morse Seed Jiffy Info and Reviews | DoItYourself.com