My seeds haven't started yet...

[NoGreenthumb]

So I live up in northern new england and started my seeds outside three weeks ago and nothing has sprouted yet. I don't have them in the ground they are in seed starter cells. But I have not faithfully brought them in at night every night. There has been one night in the last three weeks there the overnight temp dropped below 32 F.

Should I ditch the batch and start fresh?

Should I keep hope that when the soil warms up the seeds will do their thing?

They were started in a potting soil with some manure added to it and covered with plastic.

Overnight temps average in thee 40's

Daytime in upper 50's.

We did also have a period of 7 days of clouds and rain with hardly any sun.

 

[Chuck]

So I live up in northern new england and started my seeds outside three weeks ago and nothing has sprouted yet. I don't have them in the ground they are in seed starter cells. But I have not faithfully brought them in at night every night. There has been one night in the last three weeks there the overnight temp dropped below 32 F.

Should I ditch the batch and start fresh?

Should I keep hope that when the soil warms up the seeds will do their thing?

They were started in a potting soil with some manure added to it and covered with plastic.

Overnight temps average in thee 40's

Daytime in upper 50's.

We did also have a period of 7 days of clouds and rain with hardly any sun.

You may as well start over. Seeds need warm soil to germinate, at minimum at least 50F and even then you would have to be very lucky for them to germinate. Start them indoors in a warm place. Seeds don't need sunlight to germinate. The optimum soil temp is in the mid 70's for most plants

 

[Beverly]

What kinds of seeds did you plant? If they are annuals and or vegetables they should have germinated by now so i agree with @Chuck. Perennial, wildflower, native seeds are not so predictable and germination times are not at all regular. Many of these kinds of seeds germinate when they are in the mood. I once planted a passiflora seed that took a year in the soil to germinate. NoGreenthumb, you and i are in very different growing zones, but the nature of perennial, wildflower, native seeds is pretty much the same regardless of zone.

 

[Beth_B]

If annuals or warm-weather veggies, honestly I'd be looking at getting starter plants at this point. I imagine your growing season is like mine and cold-sensitive plants really need to be started inside, depending on the plant, 4-8 weeks from seed ahead of your frost-free outside planting date.

I inevitably have baby tomatoes coming up left overwinter from dropped tomatoes l missed. Usually it's well into June by the time they germinate and start growing but that doesn't give them enough time, really, to start bearing much fruit before frost hits again.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

thank goodness someone asked "what type of seeds". I have started seeds way before mothers day, here in the USA. outside in a huge pot and left them. To come back after a 2 week vacation and knew a frost would hit. But still had tons of babies. Some seeds will be fine with one frost and low temps. It depends on the plant/seed..

 

[OursIsTheFury]

As a kid I was paranoid too, because we had this project to plant a seed and let it grow. For a while nothing was growing, so I really kept watch everyday. It grew eventually, and got so big it didn't even need the pot anymore where I planted it, as it took too much space, and I had to replant it to fertile soil in the backyard. What I'm saying is, if you treated it right, watered it daily, gave it access to sunlight, and kept it away from pests, it would eventually grow, don't worry