Impatience and Hope

I am getting more and more anxious about my vegetable seeds. It's been nearly two weeks with daily watering and the pots are still depressingly bereft of cucurbits, although lots of other plants seem to have no problem sprouting in the pots...grasses, little weeds, whatever. I think the seeds were probably present in the cowdung they mixed in with the soil.

The soil too is an area of major concern. It drains very poorly, and is very sticky, heavy, clay soil. The drainage thing might not actually be a drawback considering how hot and sunny it's going to get in just a short time...daily temperatures well over 100F and full sun for ten or twelve hours a day. I have high hopes that the cowdung will work well as a fertilizer also, but I'm really getting concerned about this germination time, although a lot of things I have read indicate that two weeks is not unusual for cucurbit germination, probably because the seeds are quite hard.

There is a ray of hope though:

I'm not sure, but this may be a cucumber sprout! I don't want to get too excited in case it turns out not to be. 

I'm going to give it two or three more days, then try to force some of the seeds I still have to sprout by soaking them overnight. Meanwhile I'm keeping busy by pulling out some of the obvious weeds in my pots and thinning out the flower sprouts. Fingers are crossed that more sprouts come soon.

In other news the neighbors' motiya vine is blooming and when the wind comes from just the right direction the fragrance wafts across my balcony. Ahhhh...