Different plants will send up the first true leaves and then further leaves at different rates. Some seem to take only days after they sprout to have true leaves, others, take weeks. One thing that will help though is light, a good shop light only an inch or two away from the seedlings will help increase the growth rate. I let my seedlings grow with multiple seedlings in the same pellet for a few days to a few weeks. Allows you to see which one is stronger, to know which one to clip off, or, I have had great luck with many plants in fishing out the extras and then planting them separately. If you want to do this though, you want to do it before you have a significant rooted mass on your hands! Success rates will depend on the type of plant. Any with tap roots that can't be disturbed are going to be very tricky to transplant, Others, like my daisies and Black eyed suzy's don't seem to mind loosing 1/2 their roots in being yanked out and relocated to their own pellet. One thing to watch out for, in response to usapride's posting, is are the seedlings growing tall because they are just plain growing, or are they trying to reach for light? Many seedlings without the proper light will just try to get taller and taller and taller hoping that if they keep going up, they will find the light! They don't grow strong, and eventually will flop over.

Well, the instructions stink. :) To put it politely. Those self-watering thingies are ok if you use them like you would normally bottom-water with any other container; that is to say, pour water in the resevoir when the cells are dry, allow them to soak up what they need, and dump the rest. Seeds won't germinate, and seedlings won't grow, in a constantly wet, soupy bog. Which is what peat/soil will be if you allow it to sit and soak up water all day long. Sorry for your struggles, hopefully you still have enough time to get some new starting mix and seeds and try again; this time, wet the medium, squeeze out extra water, fill the cells, add seeds and cover. Don't water again until the seeds sprout and the soil is dry. Hope that helps!

Wolverine: I started my onions later than January (but I know farmers who start in January, with great results). I do not expect them to be much more than "blades of grass" by now. I just started a day or two ago to plant them out. I was not sure whether it was too early but it seems that this is the right time. The picture is taken through a screen with a cell phone. That was maybe early April. They do not look much bigger now. They look the same as what I have bought at nurseries. For starter mix, I use Gaia Green Living Soil with earthworm castings. I soak seeds in liquid seaweed and/or water them in with liquid seaweed in the water... most seeds sprout within a few days (the ones that take a few weeks still take a few weeks but the germination rates are typically very high). I lose almost nothing and the babies are all very strong.

I am reading through the old stuff to get more knowledge. I found this question and I had the same questions when I first started too. So maybe I can help. Here's what I do. When tray 1 is full of VC - then you add tray 2 and likewise for tray 3 etc. When tray one was virtually full of VC I stopped feeding for a week (I am a once a week feeder so they went 2 weeks without food. I added tray 2 - with bedding only (week 1 of waiting). Then I fed only into tray 2 as there is food left in tray 1 - and they will live there for some time. So they don't all move up right away - but most will in about a month or two. Some will move down into the moisture collection tray - so look there when you add trays - you can dump them into the new tray with the VC they have made in that tray (there shouldn't be too much) and this starts the action going in the new tray. When I added tray 3 - I moved tray 1 to the top so I could use the VC easier - and keep the lid off occasionally - so the worms move down. So I have an "old tray" on the bottom - mostly VC some food (still being processed) and virtually no bedding. The middle tray is the feeding/working tray where I add new food and bedding once a week-ish. The top tray is my VC tray - and I pull VC from there for my garden. This saves me from dumping - and doing too much sorting. I put the VC in a pie-tin and pick trough that (and store it in the VC bin so it is picked through and ready to use) - I find I have a few cocoons - rarely any worms and a few shreds of envelope windows that didn't get composted (I toss those out and return the cocoons to the bin). This works for me (so far) as I have a small system and it is for home use only. Your results may vary.