Hi Anney, I started my eggplant seeds at the same time as my tomato seeds (Jan 19) under identical conditions for both the tomato and eggplant seeds. The first eggplant seeds germinated on Jan 23 and the last came up on Feb 4. Some of the seeds were several years old and other were new this year. The age of the seeds made some difference - all of the new this year seeds came up by the 25th, but so did one type that was from older seeds. FWIW Grandad, Yikes! I can't imagine an 8' tall eggplant. I just checked the description on TGS and they didn't note that the Rosita was a large plant. I'm wondering if there are other varieties you've grown that get, say, over 4-1/2' to 5'. This year I'm growing lilac, neon, black beauty, Florida high bush, vittoria PS, long purple, and Fengyuan purple. Do any of these grow esp. large in your experience? Anne

That was plenty enough detail to let us know you're either a beginner or you're getting weird advice from somewhere. That's fine and makes good background. Some of what you did was stuff that didn't need to be done. Once you have exposed soil, you don't need to loosen it; all you need to do is apply the seed and step on it to push it into the surface of the soil. Raking will bury some of the seed and that is not ideal. Grass seed should only be buried half the size of the seed, so simply walking on it is perfect. For large areas a roller is used. Misting was good, but perhaps in the sunny areas it needs a little deeper misting. You could try hitting that area with a little more water to try and sprout the seed you already applied. Fescue grows as a plant which does not spread quickly. The reason for criss-crossing the planting is so you don't get the corn row effect of little fescue plants all aligned in a row. That can leave room for weeds to penetrate between the rows of fescue plants. Weeds love the sunlight provided between the plants. If you fill the gaps with more fescue plants, then the weeds don't come. So for that reason alone, you might want to add more seed and continue watering. You did not need straw although it seems to be a local custom in some parts of the country. Using it really seems to complicate the new seed process. The danger you were warned about comes from using hay instead of straw. Hay has seeds. Straw does not have seeds.

" a simple and complete A to Z guide" Don't we all. Plus I would have liked one for raising children. :) As the saying goes, there's more than one way to skin a cat, and there are many, many ways to garden, as our groaning book shelves attest. As far as seed starting, I'm sure we all do variations on a theme. Your starting set up is nice. It's the super charged, tubo version...did you see my replies in the current Blue Marsh Iris thread ? They just germinated three years in. I'm an older classic I guess. :) Most are somewhere in the middle. With the bright light and hot temp, that style is the most hands on/ high maintenance, and very exciting. But you can downshift, how to do that is not an exact science . I would probably do it a bit differently. I would turn the heat down to maybe 60 or 65 degrees, and prop the lid up just enough that it had a better chance of staying damp, but not air tight and asking for some type of fungus to set in. I've used clothes pins to hold those domes up before, but there are many ways to do that. I would also find a small , non-heating lamp in the house ( something from a study desk or craft room ? ) and put that over the non-germinated seeds. That way what does come up has enough light to get started in life. This is just a few days, so they have plenty of time to have their light requirements updated when you return. (plants need a little more air circulation and seeds only need it a bit moister) I have a link for you. Go down a bit and click on -Seed Germination versus soil Temperature -. That might help you start to see why, within reason, many ways to do the same thing work just fine. As far as thinning... since none of these starts are rare, collectable plants, I personally would use a pair of small, pointed embroidery scissors/ finger nail scissors and cut off all the starts except the best one in each pot. There's no danger of disturbing the first tiny roots that way and fewer plants to be leaving alone in their first critical days while your gone. Others will tell you their style of dealing with extra seedlings. Here is a link that might be useful: http://tomclothier.hort.net/ This post was edited by plaidbird on Sat, Mar 30, 13 at 23:48

2 weeks in 3oz. bathroom solo cups under fluorescent lights right down on top of the cups, then into the coke bottles outside for 4 weeks, then into their final resting place. SB50 - I just guide the vines through the top of my 6' cages and then let them hang down where ever they want to go until they are finished. I have to admit I like Raybo's (Container Gardening forum) 54" Wally World Glamos cages set one on top of the other with 1/8" wire rope clips. This can be done with either the Glamos 42" or 54" cages, or with the Gardman 54" plastic-coated cages. I went bargain hunting today and got twenty two of the Gardman 54" cages at Target for 50% off, $6 each :-) BTW, I think the peppers germinated in Burpee peat cubes or MG Organic Choice in 3oz. solo cups did much better than the ones germinated in the paper towels. Tom