Indoor germination troubles

What the heck? This is a new one on me. Fluorescent green, none of the cells around this pack, neither the same nor different seed, has this.
Any ideas?

Looks like germination has not been a problem.
The green material covering the soil is the early stage of moss growth, also not a problem, other than that the soil has been staying a bit wettish - the plants look healthy, so no worries.

Oops, I didn't word that very well. Thanks for the reassurance. I put it under a light that puts out some heat, thinking it might be an over-wet thing. What struck me as odd is that those seedlings and soil have only been in thatcontainer for three days!

Just curious 13Turtles, are those seedlings Catananche?

No, scabiosa. Supposedly.

Some seeds germinate very quickly, which is always gratifying!

I agree with Alberta, they do look good.

You should be thinking about getting these outside. I imagine it's past your last frost date? The first step is hardening them off, that is, getting them accustomed, primarily, to sunlight.

Yep, past our frost date. And thanks Little Duckling. But they really don't look like scabiosa seedlings; I'm going to look up Catananche, because I'm sure about which packet of seed I used. They look more like the Gaillardia, hmmm...

Oops, I opened up a bag of dirt...

Lol...

Well Robin, I'm going to agree with you; they look a lot more like Catananche than like Scabiosa. Fortunately I won't be disappointed if they are. I appreciate the possible clue - I would have stayed puzzled forever!

I guesss it was a bag of compost I opened up...not dirt, lol. The only reason I asked was because I just grew some White Catananche for my MIL, she likes white flowers in one of her beds that's dry shade. Talk about narrowing the selection, it was certainly a challenge.

Maybe algae instead of moss, if it appeared so quickly?

When I see algae or mold, or moss, growing in a seedling cell, I think "too wet" and also "too rich", like the soil has too much fertilizer or organic material. If microbes are growing fast enough to form a visible mat, they have more stuff to eat than a young seedling needs.

I agree the soil surface seems too wet. However, you have no damping off, and the roots don't seem to have drowned yet, so maybe that's not a problem.

I would try to wick some water out of those cells, just to let more air in. Set them on something absorbent like a towel or cotton Tee shirt, and drape that down so excess water drips away. Maybe put a paper towel between the cells and the cloth to reduce mud in the cloth.

Yeah, thanks Rick, I did the wicking. I'm surprised about the too much water, or food, because I wait til the whole rootball is dry, and I don't give them any food at all, or buy seedling mix with fertilizer. Maybe I compactedthe soil too much so there was no air movement down there?

Yup, compost Robin!

You got all that moss or algae even though you waited until the whole root ball was dry, before watering? Strange! And it grew out in just three days? Very strange!

I guess if it was very fine mix, and your air was humid or still, the surface might stay damp as long as any of it was damp ...

Or maybe I just have no idea why it grew the green carpet so fast. I'm always quick to assume "poor drainage" because that bedeviled me for years.

When you sat the tray on a wick, how much water came out? More than you expected?

I really should weigh my packs when they're dry, so I can KNOW how much water remains!

I know both you guys are in a different growing zone but...my basement is pretty humid in the spring and fall. I have Caladium bulbs planted and watered at least a month ago that have not needed water since.

I've had better luck with germinating in vermiculite.

That's a good point Robin.

I realized that I am using a different food for the well-along seedlings than I did last year, and it is supposed to have all the extra (organic) goodies plants benefit from, and I suspect this had something to do with the phenomenon. And I could have gotten the watering cans mixed up on the ones too little to be feeding.

I don't know what I used last year, but I will be switching again next year. Thanks food for the help.