No garden germination

[Josh Kunze]

Hello all, This is my first post here and I was hoping some of you could offer some insight. I recently moved into a brand new home on a three acre lot. (previously farm field) I tilled an area for a garden and it had dark rich top soil so I thought I may have the best garden I've ever had since it is farm field. However, I planted it over three weeks ago when the weather was nice and the major rains had passed but I have yet to have anything sprout. I planted corn, watermelon, cantaloupe, 5 different pepper plants, cauliflower, and broccoli. After I planted it has been unseasonably cool with lows here recently in the 30's and 40. Matter of fact all this week is lows in the 40's. Did I plant too early? The farmers around us planted about the same time and their crops are up already (corn and beans) Contemplating just tilling the whole thing under and starting over. Any thoughts? It does seem to be growing weeds well though. Central Indiana

 

[Chuck]

Your soil temperature is very important because if it is too cold the seeds will not germinate and end up rotting. Soil should be between 60F-80F. Also planting too deep will cause problems as well

 

[RamblingChicken]

It sounds like you planted too early. Is there any need to till under, rather than just replant in the same soil? You might need to thin a little more if some of the preexisting seeds come up, but tilling again seems like unnecessary work.

Before you do a ton of work replanting lots of seeds, you could pick a "test spot" and plant a couple of each type of seed, once or twice a week, until they start to come up. When the corn comes up, you go plant all the corn, and so on.

If you have a short season and don't want to waste even that many days, I remember reading advice that at each spot, you visualize a little "clock" two or three inches wide. Week one you plant a seed at twelve o'clock, week two at three o'clock, week three at six o'clock. Eventually somebody comes up, and you know that the weather is probably ready. But that assumes that you have extra seeds and specific planting spots.

I meant to add: Corn and beans are more cold-tolerant than squash, melon, cucumber, peppers, and so on. I'd wait for your corn to consent to sprout before replanting the others.

 

[remnant]

Its obvious that you planted too early when the temperatures are too low. This is evidenced by the fact that no weeds are growing. Artificial germination in insulated trays might have helped. On the other hand you should cheat other parameters like soil acidity and how to break the individual dormancy states of different seeds.