Do I have a problem?

This is a flower mix of Zinnia elegans 'envy', Verbena bonariensis, and Salvia farinacea 'Victoria Blue'. I started the seed inside on April 3. Each of these seems to germinate at different times and I don't know enough to tell the seedlings apart. Some of these germinated within days, some took a couple of weeks. I noticed this week that some of the leaves on the seedlings that germinated quickly are shriveling up and the seedling is dying. I didn't think the seedlings that germinated later were big enough to transplant to the garden yet. Was I wrong? I can take more pictures if needed.

also, as for not knowing the difference in seedlings, do they usually look the same? I have some bee balm and sunflower seedlings that look pretty much identical.

A lot of seedlings look exactly the same. You'll need to thin those out soon.
Is the soil too dry? Are you giving it too much sun?

I've been keeping them pretty moist but not drippy. I was putting them outside for a few hours everyday in direct sun. I didn't do that during our 100 degree days last week though.

They're pretty small still, could be direct sun was a bit much for them. When I have small seedlings, I'll generally put them outside in a shady area and not work on exposing them to sun until they get a little bigger.

ecrane is correct the sun was too much for those little guys.

ok, good to know. So no more sun for the moment. Thanks.

It looks like your zinnias have germinated first-that all the tall ones are the zinnias and the two small ones in the center of the picture are maybe the salvias. If you get a close up of those seedlings, I can tell better.
they are big enough to transplant into small containers right now, and then, when they are larger, you can transplant into the ground and they won't shock at all (the roots).

For future reference don't put a bunch of different seeds together to germinate. As you said some were fast some slow. It's easier to handle them and ID them if you keep the different seeds in different containers. Also I almost always use a plastic bag with a wet paper towel to get everything to germinate then transplant to small pots. One reason I do that is some plants will grow their roots together quickly and it can be hard to separate them. Grapes come to mind they run roots all over very fast.

Back to case at hand. It looks to me like at least one of the seedlings is a little sun burnt. Direct sun may be a little to early.

It was a seed mix, that's why they were planted together. I would have purchased each separately, but they never seem to have the same seeds individually. The seeds looked alot alike too.

I separated several and planted in small pots. I need more soil before I can do the rest. All seem to be doing better, even the ones not transplanted.

Was it a wildflower mix?...if it was you could have just direct sowed them.

Usually those mixes are better off direct sowed for that very reason--that way it doesn't matter if they come up at different times.

no, it was a green and purple mix and I wanted flowers sooner, so I started them inside. That'll teach me ^_^ That was another reason for posting. I wondered if I could just put the whole thing in a flower bed I prepared.

Just for information, if I had direct sown them, wouldn't they have had sunburn problems also?

No, direct sowed seeds wouldn't get burnt. Now I understand where things went off the tracks, lol.

Oh well don't know till you try.
Sun burnt, yep done that.
Over watered, yep done that.
Under watered, yep had that covered a couple of times.
Horrifying gnat out break, hit that one too.
etc.

Should have seen the grapes. 4 inches high and 2 foot of roots on each one. Started those in a large window box since that's what I had laying around.

why wouldn't direct sown seeds sunburn?

because from the start of the germination, the leaves are exposed to full sun and there is no sudden transition to the sun from indirect sun on tender leaves.

I thought it would be something like that. Thanks for all your help!

It's like living in the South compared to the North. Spring comes and the Southerns get hit with ever increasing sunlight so usually no problems with getting burnt. Now the person from NY comes south durning April for a little vacation. Their skin hasn't seen direct sun light in months so out to the beach they go and quickly burn to a crisp. LOL.

LOL, makes sense. Nice analogy