The good people at the yahoo azalea groups forum informed me this was probably 'mouse ear chickweed'...I would have to agree. I would still love to see picture of peeps azalea seedlings tho.

Ok this is a huge bump, but when I search for 'azalea seedlings' this is the only place on the internet that has picture.

Ok, I am growing both azalea and rhododendron from seed. The azalea are kaempferi seedlings collected in the wild. The rhododendron are hybrids.

The Rhododendron germinate quite fine, with a good rate. But the azalea I have problems. Now the few plants I have start to look more and more like something else. I already found it strange some of them grew so fast.

This is without little doubt a rhododendron seedling:
http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss73/Harunobu/IMG_2308edit.jpg

But what is this:
http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss73/Harunobu/IMG_2295edit2.jpg

I have 3 other ones that look similar. They do have hairs on their true leaves.

I sowed up to 90 kaempferi in the tray. I have 4 of these plants and 5 seedlings with still only true leaves. I sowed on 14 September.

Under the same circumstances the rhododendron seeds get or 60% germination rate. I can see them clearly emerge from the seeds. Problem is that I don't care too much for the rhododendron seeds. I want to hybridize with evergreen azaleas.

I am doing another batch right now. I don't know if the seed is just bad, it is too wet or too dry. As they are on the surface and in a tray with small segments, they dry out fast. I am using very diluted fungicide chlorothalonil. At least it doesn't seem to inhibit germination rate.

It is hard to get azalea seeds. It is even harder to get azalea seeds that's not from western cultivar.

I see the OP also had problems getting azalea seedlings to grow. Anyone can confirm this isn't azalea?

Confirmed, that is not an azalea.

If your seed pots are drying out too fast, have you tried sowing on moistened milled sphagnum moss, it has natural anti-fungal properties to help guard against damp off. Look for a clear plastic box with clear tight lid, try the home organization sections for bathroom/makeup, desk or dresser drawer organization. Settle the seeds by misting after surface sowing, place closed box in indirect light at 70F or a little warmer - germination should begin in 1-4 weeks. After germination begins and you've moved to brighter light, cooler temps, you can begin propping the lid to varying degrees to increase circulation.

Here is a link that might be useful: RSF - Plants, Seeds, Pollen

I used sphagnum moss, with peat and perlite in the past.

But because the seeds are so small I am now crushing the perlite, milling the sphagnum in a food processor and sieving the peat. I then boiled it.
I covered all trays with both polythene bags and the plastic covers they came with.

My new rhododendron seedlings look like this:
http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss73/Harunobu/IMG_2311.jpg
That segment of the tray has 4 seedlings out of the 5 seeds, if I indeed put 5 in that segment. So that germination rate is quite good.

But azaleas, apparently nothing. Now I can see that one more of the seedlings also looks very similar to those that are weeds. Disappointing. Especially since the seed will be hard to replace.

In Germany, commercial nurseries are growing their seedlings on sphagnum peat moss, not milled but just dried out and then moistened for planting. They have flats of sphagnum peat in all of their green houses. Then they transplant to a media made from shredded bark.

The reason I milled everything up was that maybe the reason the seed failed was because it sank too deep into the mixture because of misting.

I can't see the seeds anymore after 9 weeks and I don't think it damped out. I misted every once in a while but because there was quite some perlite in the first mix and not that much sphagnum it dried out really quick and the plastic coverings didn't really lock well. I used a large polythene garbage bag for the second tray of rhododendron seeds.