Good news, my second attempt at growing chervil from seed seems to be working much better than the first.
The problem I had was damping off and yellowing after it sprouted it's first true leaves. The big mistakes I made were:
1) Keeping the seedlings in full sun too long after germination
2) Putting the seedlings into a SIP made out of a water bottle with the germination mix, it got too wet- the mix stunk like sulfur and was probably growing some yucky microbes that caused the damping off.
3) Overfeeding
It seems like the only thing I did right the first time was keep the soil REALLY wet during the initial germination period. For some reason the chervil wouldn't germinate until they were almost waterlogged.
What I did different:
1) Left the seeds to germinate in full sun, but quickly moved them to full shade once they began to sprout.
2) Germinated seeds (dense seed count) in a peat pot filled with square foot mix instead of germination mix (I use Lady Bug Brand).
3) Kept the peat pot in a plastic saucer and make sure there's a little standing water in the bottom so the pot never dries out: the peat pot can act like a wick, so I kept it wetter than I thought it needed to be but it worked.
4) Covered the peat pot with plastic wrap and a rubber band until the seedlings got too tall, then I covered then with plastic bottle cut in half until the true leaves began to come out.
5) Once the true set of leaves emerged I removed the plastic bottle, left the chervil in the shade, and kept watering from the bottom, making sure there was always a little standing water in the bottom. This seems to work to keep the soil moist enough without causing the chervil to dampen off.
6) I did not fertilize them at all or add any soil amendments
Here's a pic of the second round of seedlings. I'm going to let them grow a little taller before transplanting them into one of my herb flowerboxes.
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