About a week ago we began germinating: kale, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and okra. This year is our first time germinating seeds indoors before it is warm enough to grow them outdoors. Although our seedlings had a great start, they are not fairing too well now. We grew okra from seed last year outdoors so we knew what it should look like at this stage. Unfortunately the stems on many of the seedlings, as you can see in the video here, are not strong and are falling over. We had to figure out what went wrong.
Last year, in addition to growing okra from seed, we also grew pole beans. The first batch failed due to overwatering. Knowing this we were careful with the watering. We went to Purdue University's horticulture website and Texas A & M AgriLife website to find out what could have gone wrong. We think it was the temperature. The seeds germinated and continued to grow too fast because of the heat from the heat mat.
We discarded the weak seedlings and planting a new batch. Hopefully, the second time is the charm.
To read more about starting seeds indoors click on the links below.