Problem growing chives indoors

[Ness]

Hello! I've just started growing herbs for cooking in pots indoors. Most of them have done really well, but my chives are a great big disappointment. I grew them from seed, planting about 8 weeks ago. I put them on a sunny windowsill, covered them with a sandwich bag and kept them moist, told them bedtime stories and gave them an odd slosh of plant food. However, all I have been rewarded with are a couple of feeble little needle-like shoots, about 3 inches tall. I haven't taken them out of the very small pots I planted them in because they havent grown anything near big enough. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

[Millymollymandy]

You need patience, and lots of it! You won't get a bunch of chives for a long time yet. They all start as one feeble little thing and after several years (or more) will turn into a clump, such as you see in people's gardens.

Also don't feed seedlings until they have turned into proper plants. The potting compost will provide sufficient nutrients until the chive(s) needs repotting into a bigger pot, which will have fresh compost then anyway, thus new nutrients.

Good luck!

[Andy Hamilton]

seconded you will have to wait a bit longer. I planted some in a fruit box in my back garden this year from seed. Some of them are thriving in clumps, many got eaten by slugs. - I planted mine back in early spring so probally about 16 weeks ago.

[Ness]

Phooey! And there I was, wanting instant-gratification chives. Thanks for the tip anyway, at least I know it's not all down to my bad plant parenting skills!

[ina]

Should you ever come up our way, pop in and I'll dig up a few plants for you. My neighbours have large clumps of it (but never eat any!), and it seeds itself out every year all over my drive. They do perfectly well in the gravel and sand - which shows you that they really don't need any fertiliser to grow - and I think I've already supplied half of Aberdeenshire with potted chives, so might as well start with Edinburgh now!

[Ness]

thanks for that! i may well take you up on that. mine are looking decidedly feeble at the mo.

[STHLMgreen]

I also wanted to try growing chives... I planted the seeds the 16th and 24th of March. They're still not very big but are just getting to the edible stage.

Who knew?

[Shirley]

I've got a lovely clump of it - thanks Ina...

I also grew some from seed and they are very tiny - and I didn't get a great germination rate either...