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New to this!

lesleybaxter24lesleybaxter24 Posts: 5
in Fruit & veg
Hi all, would really appreciate your opinion.  I am new to gardening. I sowed sweet peppers and cucumber seedlings.  The photos show 4 different types of growing things! None that look like sweet peppers or cucumber baby plants that I have seen in the garden centre. What am I growing? Weeds? Plants? Veg? Fruit?...
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  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    edited April 2019
    The last one looks like shepherd's purse or maybe sow-thistle, but there are lots of rosette-type weeds with similar leaves. I agree with Pansyface on the first two. The third one I don't know but it isn't a pepper or a cucumber.
    What kind of compost did you use, and had the open bag been left outside at all, where weed seeds could have got into it? And where are you growing them? I'm thinking weed seeds could have got in to the compost and maybe it hasn't been warm enough for the peppers and cukes to germinate. 
    The other possibility is duff seeds from an unscrupulous seller.  Given that you have something different in each pot, this is looking likely, unfortunately.  Do you have any seeds left, or can you remember what they looked like?  Cucumber seeds are quite big, flat and pointy-oval-shaped, pepper seeds are smaller (like the seeds in peppers that you buy).
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    Definitely no peppers there, they’re all weeds, did the seeds come from China by any chance? 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 12,585
    Hello @lesleybaxter24,  the general consensus seems to be they are not what you were told, and l'm afraid l have to agree. Did you get them from a well known auction site by any chance? 
  • lesleybaxter24lesleybaxter24 Posts: 5
    Well - I hope I wouldn't be speaking out of turn if I say it was Frank Innes seedling compost, and the seeds were Suttons. I know they are good brands. I did them in the conservatory and I pricked out at just about 3 weeks from the seedling compost. I suspect I have dug out the weeds and not let the seeds have time to germinate and grow! Embarrassing! Might go and get some plants from the garden centre and pretend I grew them - and then some chickens... Thank you all for your advice. I am grateful for your time. You will be pleased to know that the beetroot, peas and onions look like they should!
  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 12,585
    If you still have the packets, it may be worth contacting Suttons. Give them the code and expiry date from the packet, and copies of the photos and see what they say.
  • lesleybaxter24lesleybaxter24 Posts: 5
    Thank you - i might do that - I do still have the packets :-)
  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 12,585
    Can't do any harm  :)
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    The last photo is nipplewort (Lapsana communis) I think.  Agree that all of these common weed seeds likely came in the compost.  John Innes numbers are just mixing formulae and composts made with that name attached are produced by lots of different suppliers.  I've tried many types over the years but now tend to use Westland products which all seem to be free of any weed seeds (and with no big lumps, plastic, glass or other rubbish) and use their "multi-purpose with added JI" for both seeds and pots.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    pansyface said:
    I always laugh at Levington’s bags which say “Enriched with recycled materials”.

    Yeah, right.😊
    polite way of saying " full of other people's crap"?
    Devon.
  • lesleybaxter24lesleybaxter24 Posts: 5
    So making me smile with your comments! Thank you! Just going out to water my weeds now..!  ;)

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