My First Year Starting From Seed! -Initial Results-

[Quickstrike]

I planted the following varieties 5 days ago:

• Stupice -- ~50% germination thus far - 18 seeds planted
• Sophie's Choice -- ~100% germinated - 18 seeds planted
• Sun Sugar -- ~25% germination thus far - 18 seeds planted
• Ludmilla's Red Plum -- ~25% germination thus far - 18 seeds planted
• Big Beef -- ~50% germination thus far - 18 seeds planted
• Opalka -- ~100% germinated - 9 seeds planted
• Carmen Pepper -- ~25% germination thus far - 18 seeds planted
• Gypsy Pepper -- ~25% germination thus far - 18 seeds planted

The odd thing is, the Opalka tomato seedlings all came up first! I thought for sure that one of the 'early varieties' would pop out the quickest -- although Sophie's Choice was a close second.

I am a little worried about the Sun Sugar germination. I see about 4 of the 18 that I planted. The Carmen and Gypsy peppers are around that mark -- just doesn't sound right to have a cherry tomato germinate as slowly as a pepper.

The Miracle Grow Seed Starting Mix that I bought wasn't as good as I expected. Lots of big chunks of wood and what looked like mushrooms. I really should have taken it all out of the bag and broken up the clumps / sifted through it.

This leads me to believe that the Sun Sugar seeds might be planted too deep [~1/4" compared to 1/8" - 1/16"]. At what point should I start removing some of the mix from the top?

I think that I might add some foam underneath the sections of the tray that have fully germinated. The Opalka and Sophie's Choice seedlings are getting very long and leggy because of the heating pad.