Persian Cress and Mrs. Burns’ Lemon Basil

On May 29th, I planted one row each of Persian Cress and Mrs. Burns’ Lemon Basil seeds. Each of these are in half of a 25’ bed. The other half of the persian cress is the dahlias. The other half of the basil is celosia. The basil seeds were not as small as celosia, but close. Persian Cress seeds are also ridiculously tiny, but at least they are a copper color, so if you drop one unexpectedly, you do have a chance at finding it in the dirt compared to the black basil and celosia seeds. I will do three total plantings of basil and cress separated by about 2 weeks. All the seeds were planted every 6 inches. I forgot to add Flower-tone before planting so I tossed a bit on top before watering. I’m not sure if it will make a different or not. I also forgot the Flower-tone when planting the celosia and zinnia seeds and had to do the same thing. If I remember, for the last succession, I can put Flower-tone in the hole with the seeds and try to use that as a test.

Basil - 13 days after direct sowing seeds.

Persian Cress - 13 days after direct sowing seeds.

It seems my germination rate for the Persian Cress is not great, so for the first succession planting I reduced the spacing between seeds from 6” to 3”. My thought is that I can at least double the plants, so if germination is still not good, I can maximize what I do get. I planted that succession on June 4th, and it is still a bit too early to tell if the germination rate is any better.