lettuce, spinach and beets refuse to grow

Hello all,
Quick statement/question. This year I planted my first veggie garden on my new property. Horay for the first time homebuyer! I had a hunch the soil was acidic, so i took samples, sent it off to be tested, and then I limed the whole area just before spring, before I tilled. The garden is up and doing well, with the exception of the lettuce, spinach and beets. Which will not grow. These rows are in a full day of sun location. No lettuce at all (3 varieties mind you), no spinach at all, and about two beet plants which grew about 3 cm tall before lying down and taking a dirt nap. The test results I got later said my pH was 5.5 - ouch. Could this be the problem? Everything else in my garden is doing stellar (corn, beans, radish, peas, broccoli, brussels sprouts, garlic, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers). Thoughts? Comments? Good stories? Wise remarks? Anyone?

Your ph is kind of low for most things. The liming you did will take a little longer to show up much.

It looks like mainly you are having trouble with small seed germination. These seeds need to be kept moist all day every day until they come up. Myself, I prefer not putting any dirt at all on them but rather covering tiny seeds with moist peat moss an inch deep and watering that some....really works.

As Indy stated small slow germinating seeds, are difficult to get up. In a heavier soil, after a heavy rain the soil will crust. The warmer the weather the worse it is. I sometimes use the cloth ground cover to hold in moisture, Others cover them with sand, (does not wash around with heavy rains as much as lighter materials) or cover the row with a plank (tricky because you have to time it just right.) Lettuce you might want to start inside and transplant.

Beets like a neutral soil. I usually supplement mine with wood ashes. It is also possible that you have soil organisms that attack young plants. Spinach and lettuce are not more choosy than the brassicas you are growing, so I doubt that pH is your major problem.

I've been reading forums that have to do with placing a board over your seeds? Sounds weird but they say it works.
I have been having a great time with container gardening this year. Maybe that would work for you. A good size shallow pot and sprinkle it with lettuce seeds, place it in a sunny spot near the house where you can water it a lot?
T

I've tried beets a couple times with no results also. Mine come up and make little tiny puney plants that never make a root bulb. I've tried watering them more, etc. but it must be something about my soil they don't like.
They seem to stay like they would if you didn't thin them out, little and weak.
But I did thin them...........so, I just don't know what's wrong.

Hmmmmm. The small seed germination problem does sound correct. The sandy soil here does get crusty when it dries due to the silt. Maybe a thin sprinkling of leaf mulch may keep the surface wet enough. I'll have to play around and let you all know. Thanks for the comments!