UPDATE: One of my original week old summer squash seeds has risen to the surface finally. Jeez is that thing HUGE!

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^Those aren't all of them, but I can't find my cellphone charger and I have low battery. I believe I see the startings of true leaves also on about half my seedlings.

This is my first time gardening and growing from seed. I've got this burpee seed starting kit with the pellets. I sowed lettuce, spinach, summer squash, and parsley. Sorry, I don't know what varieties, threw out the top of the seed packets(burpee) before I thought to check.

I sowed on sunday and on wednesday I had two or three lettuce plots germinate and rise up, and then on thursday one spinach came up and the next day a few more and the next day one or two more. I had a heat mat under the seeds for until the lettuce germinated because I didn't want the seedlings to grow to fast. Thinned out the seedlings by cutting them off, but more came up eventually.

Unfortunately neither the parsley or summer squash has germinated yet, as I'm posting this on sunday(1 week in).

I used a dozen more summer squash seeds and nicked them(don't know if I went deep enough, only through that outer ring really). Next I left them in a cup of water for two days, during which I changed the water once a day. Then I planted them a half inch deep and watered more.

Also, I've been watering the unsown plots a few drops a day, and the germinated plants maybe 2 drops a day. The soil still looks moist, although the plants aren't a very vibrant green, more of a paler green. (I have some Schultz 101010 fertilizer if that might be needed)

The first 3 or 4 days during the day I kept the seed kit in direct sunlight in the window, they usually got about 4 hours that way, then I started sticking them under a kitchen light that is a 13 watt t8 19 or 21 inch florescent. The bulb puts out 875 lumens and it's spread over a 1.5 foot square area with maybe 3/5 of that landing on the seedlings. The seedlings have been under the light for about 16 hours a day. Fortunately tommorow I'm going to get a lights of america 17 watt florescent system which will probably be better(mom doesn't want to spend a ton on this).

At first my seedlings were a little leggy, but now the stems have thickened up a bit more and have those little hairs after I started running my hand through them a few times a day.

Here's that planter boxes I built for the summer squash if those darn things ever decide to sprout.

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I have a couple questions:

1. Are my seedlings healthy? If not, what do you suggest doing?

2. Any ideas on why the summer squash or parsley haven't germinated(maybe I'm not being patient enough, it's only been a week)?

This post was edited by sintro on Sun, Apr 7, 13 at 23:53