Germinating seeds

[gengis]

Hi I cannot get seeds to germinate in my greenhouse. The compost seems to dry out quickly. I am seeing if putting seed trays in a gravel tray will work.
I am also thinking of using a grow bag tray with capillary matting with a wick in bucket of water and sit the trad ys on mat. Any advice would be welcome thanks

[Squingy]

Hi Gengis. A lot could be going on here. Most importantly what kind of seeds are they, how often are you able to water and is it a glass greenhouse or a plastic one? Cheers.

[gengis]

Thanks - the GH is a Polycarb. I have 6 Toms growing ok so I don't think heat is an issue.

There are quite a few seeds - Sweetcorn, beans, chillies, lettuce. i have been watering using a hand spray bottle but the compost, which is new, dries out very fast.

At the moment I have them in seed trays / root trainers with a plastic lid on. I can get to the GH about 2 - 3x per week. Last week I placed a seed tray in water in a gravel tray to see if the compost will keep moist.

I also intend to have grow bag trays with capillary matting and then put the seed trays onto the matting. will have a wick into a bucket of water.

thanks

[peanut]

Could you sow seeds at home? Much easier to keep an eye on them that way. Greenhouse temps will be all over the place at the moment, very hot in the day and too cold for germination at night.

[Eyren]

Do you water the compost before sowing? I've been watching some of Charles Dowding's videos lately, and he absolutely soaks his module tray before sowing and then doesn't water too frequently, as otherwise the seeds will rot.

Also, is it just surface dryness? I usually poke a finger into the compost and if it feels damp within a centimetre or two, I hold off watering until it's a bit drier.

Apologies if you've already tried this, but this is the newbie section so I wanted to be sure to cover the basics.

[nickdub]

Assuming it's purely the drying out that's the problem (there could be other issues too as had been said), then what I do is put trays or cells like that in a plastic bag after sowing the seed - an ex-supermarket poly bag is OK for an ordinary seed tray - or if you have mahoosive ones you could put several in a bin bag while the seeds germinate.

[gengis]

Thanks all for the advice will try with the plastic bags regards