When in doubt, rip them out?

I'm not about to tell you I'm a patient person - but I did give my wee seeds 18 days to sprout. I think that was more than generous! The sprouts that came did well - they

seemed to literally get bigger every day. They were green. They were happy, dammit!

But the others failed to show.

I was in doubt (and crunched for time) so I ripped them out. There were some dead soldiers. I ate some of the basil. I cruelly left the lettuce to wilt on the counter.

I transplanted the biggest basil sprouts and gave them to my man and the lone tomato went to the landlords. They are doing big things to the front lawn (post on that to come - exciting!)

For the transplanting I cut some holes in the bottom of a few round plastic containers and filled them 3/4 full with fresh Promix and left out the organic fertilizer. I have a feeling this may have burned out the wee seeds.

Then I simply scooped around each shoot with a spoon all the way down to the bottom of the tray. I didn't want to cut any roots that had already started. So some of that fertilizer will be in the new plants. After three days in the windowsill the basil is still growing. The tomato was left outside for three days as well and was looking good last time I saw it.

Day 18 or Day 1 - The rebirth of my indoor garden.

I say rebirth extremely loosely as I haven't seen my garden since Monday.

To start this do-over I stirred up the moist soil that was already in the trays. I found no evidence of the seeds remaining in the soil or sprouting underneath the surface except for the tomatoes. The little, red pre-coated seeds were still sitting under the soil - un-sprouted little bastards!

When I found the little red seeds still hiding under the soil they seemed whole but as I picked them out they mushed and fell apart in my fingers. The coating that was supposed to help them grow seemed to have just stunted them. I do feel that they were too deep - but strange that they turned to mush.

After stirring and clearing up the existing soil I filled the trays with fresh soil. I'd read online that the trays should be full to the top for better air flow.

This might be more for outdoor plants and for hardening off plants for transitioning to the outdoors but it made sense - so I did it. I also pres-soaked the seeds I was going to replant with the exception of the tomatoes.

I soaked some paper towel and spread the seeds on top of the wet pieces. Lots of research mentioned at least 1 - 3 hours but I ended up leaving it overnight because I got distracted with other things and my re-planting plans got delayed. When I went to plant the basil seeds were fuzzed out with a white mucus (I hate that word - but that's what it was!) and the lettuce seeds even had some teeny, tiny shoots coming out of the ends. The garlic chives had almost no change.

I used tweezers and replanted the seeds just barely under the soil and moistened the top of the soil just a bit. The moist soil underneath would eventually soak up to the new soil and I'm hoping the new soil will create a little bit of a barrier between the seeds and the fertilizer.

I replaced the water. Placed the trays and promptly left for a weekend of camping.