Hello everyone,

Welcome to this ongoing message thread. Once again, the previous part of this continuing series, It can be fun to breed your own zinnias - Part 29, has become rather long and slow to load or read, with over 100 messages, so we are continuing the series here for yet another fresh start.

The same guidelines apply here. Anything remotely related to zinnias is fine. As always, if you have any related pictures, you are invited to post them.

Winter is here, and I have been growing some of my breeder zinnias indoors, under fluorescent lights on chrome wire shelving in our utility room in the basement and on a shelf in my study, which has south-facing windows and sunlight.

That picture was taken a few days ago, when we had a light dusting of snow on the ground that didn't even cover the grass on the lawn. That snow didn't stay around for long. Those are second-generation seedlings, meaning that they were planted from seeds produced by the first generation of zinnias that I have been growing this Winter. Many of those seeds were hand-pollinated, for some interesting crosses.

Some of those seedlings got their start in Ziploc bags. Alex pointed out the advantages of doing pre-germination for indoors growing, so I tried it as an experiment and it worked fine. Pre-germination is a great idea if you have some old seed that has a low germination percentage, because it lets you avoid committing a lot of pots to dead seeds.

There is no snow in our forecast for the next few days, so I am using this barely-snow picture to illustrate the advantages of growing zinnias indoors during the Winter season. I am feeling optimistic, because I am on track to be saving seeds from a second generation of indoors zinnias in a couple of months. So I may have some third generation seedlings ready for setting into my outdoors garden this Spring. That will accelerate my zinnia breeding progress this year. More later.

ZM

Hi dbarron,

" I'm interested in some of those angustifolia types, possibly the cv 'Profusion'. "

The Profusions are not a cultivar of Z. angustifolia, they are a cultivar of the manmade species Z. marylandica. The Marylandicas were created from a cross between Z. elegans (violacea) and Z. angustifolia. Since you have expressed a preference for growing the species zinnias, you are probably interested in obtaining seeds of Angustifolia. Zinnia angustifolia seeds are available commercially as Star White, Star Yellow, and Star Orange and as Crystal White, Crystal Yellow, and Crystal Orange. They are probably all inter-crossable. They grow about 8 inches tall, don't take up a lot of space, and do well in ornamental beds.

"Would you go so far as to recommend a good and cheap vendor?"

I would purchase Angustifolias from Hazzard's Seeds, because they offer a comprehensive selection of cultivars, and sell at bulk rates, which on a per seed basis, are the most economical option. Just enter "Zinnia angustifolia" in Hazzard's search box at the top left-hand corner of that page.

If you change your mind and decide to breed zinnias, you might enjoy that. But your participation is always welcome, whether you are breeding zinnias or just making comments or queries. Incidentally, you could make crosses between the different Angustifolia colors and save seeds from your favorite specimens. In other words, breed your own strains of Angustifolias. Bees do it. No reason why you shouldn't "be the bee". You could probably do a better job.

ZM
(not associated with any product or vendor mentioned or linked)

I look forward to adding these to my new front bed (as color counterpoints to the surrounding wildflowers).

No signs of germination yet, but it's only been a few days :)
I think watering once a day isn't enough, so I'm going to start watering them three times a day

ZM - look at all those little lovelies by the window - how exciting! My own little charges are looking less charming these days. I have a new blossom opened on Alpha, but the leaves on both plants are seeming less happy, sort of droopy. I'll continue to let them go on till time to start the rest of my seeds... if they make it till then.

- Alex

Hi Alex,

"...but let me tell you, the Zenman's garden looks like weeds are afraid to grow there. His garden is so clean, if I lived a little closer, I'd sneak over in the dead of night and throw a few weed seeds in just so he'd actually have to work that hoe. "

Let's see now, in this picture I count one zinnia seedling. I'm not sure how many weeds it is surrounded by.

OK, Alex, just where do you plan to throw those weed seeds?

ZM (grinning)

Ninecrow - yes, you can plant it deeper. I do it all the time! And I do mean all the time. Whenever I transplant, whether inside or out, I routinely plant deeper, sometimes even stripping off lower leaves (in the case of broccoli and tomatoes, for instance) so I can make the planting even deeper. And it's good for the seedling in more ways than one: (1) there's less risk of the seedling falling over, and (2) the seedling will sprout more roots along the buried stem, making it stronger that way, too.

ZM - I'd been working up my nerve to tell you, but was afraid you'd be mad - I did sneak over in the dead of night and plant those weed seeds in your garden! But I promise I won't do it again; the airfare was ridiculous! :)
BTW - you might want to weed those before they get too big.

- Alex

Hi NC,

"And That Seedling Has Got Leggy "

As Alex said, you can plant it deeper. But zinnia seedlings get leggy if they aren't getting enough light. You might want to think of some way or ways to get more light on your zinnia seedling.

Hi Alex,

"...you might want to weed those before they get too big."

Those weed pictures were taken last Spring. Unfortunately, some of them did get too big before I removed them and put them on a compost pile. I will try to do better this Spring in keeping the weeds under control. I am expanding the size of my garden by 40 feet, so I will potentially have more weeds to deal with. I do have a good hoe (I think), but I may purchase a better sharpener to sharpen it with. I currently use just a file from a kitchen drawer. I may need a better file.

As a kid on the farm we did a lot of weed hoeing of market garden crops (watermelons, sweet potatoes, etc.) and we would take little breaks every 20 minutes or so to sharpen our hoes with a file that we kept in our hip pockets. We tested the edge on the hairs on our arm and we could routinely shave arm hairs with our sharpened hoe. As a result we tended to have somewhat hairless arms.

Nowadays I sharpen my hoe with a file and test the edge on my arm hairs. But no hairs are harmed. That tells me that I need to "up my game" on sharpening my hoe. Maybe we had better hoes back then. But, before the end of the coming Summer, I hope to have a lot of missing arm hairs again. How that will happen, I don't know yet. But it won't be by waxing my arms.

More later. I am busy refurbishing another dead fluorescent shop-light fixture. Those things are turning me into a freakin' electrician.

ZM

News from my garden:
Pooooossible germination? Idk, the seedlings are too little for me to decide if they are indeed zinnias or weeds, but a few have sprouted in the spots I put the seeds in so I'll see that they turn into

Squishy - hope you are looking at baby zinnias. Take a close look at that zinnia seed in the midst of ZM's weed crop; that should give you an idea.

ZM - Wow! If I'd known you were armed with a razor hoe, I wouldn't have taken the chance planting those weed seeds. I have a confession: I've never been a good hoer. That doesn't sound right...Let me rephrase that - I just don't have the knack of hoeing, and have always pulled weeds by hand. Maybe my hoe was never sharp enough, but it always seemed like it didn't succeed in killing the weed when I did it. Perhaps I should finally learn the skill. And not be so lazy about sharpening my garden tools.

You talking 40 ft x 3 ft wide amount of space? Or did you mean 40 sq ft ? I'm guessing you mean 40 more ft of bed - ye dogs, that's gonna be a whole elephant load of zinnias. I'm going to be planting a whole bunch more this year myself - won't this be fun?

Good luck with the shop lights.

- Alex

Hi Alex,

" I have a confession: I've never been a good hoer. That doesn't sound right...Let me rephrase that - "

You really broke me up with that one. As they say, you have made my day. Laughing interrupted by more laughing. Respectful, of course.

"I just don't have the knack of hoeing, and have always pulled weeds by hand. "

I pull a lot of weeds by hand, too. Especially if they are close to one of my plants. If they are really close, I snip them off with a hand pruner, to avoid disturbing the root system of my plant. But when I pull a lot of weeds in a day, I tend to get something similar to carpal tunnel syndrome in my right hand, and I switch over to my left hand until that subsides. When it comes to an extended session of hoeing weeds, I tend to switch from right-handed hoeing to left-handed hoeing, just to use a different set of muscles. That was a trick I learned as a kid when we were basically hoeing weeds all day.

I was in Home Depot today, purchasing a box of T8 fluorescent bulbs, and on a semi impulse, I purchased a couple of sharpening stones. They are usually used for sharpening knives, but I plan to experiment with them for sharpening my hoes.

I do have more than one hoe, several in fact. Some of them are components of the Wolf Garten interchangeable garden tools system. It consists of interchangeable tool heads and interchangeable handles. So getting a hand hoe (which is very handy for some kinds of weeding and/or cultivating) is simply a matter of snapping the hoe head off of a long handle and snapping it onto a short handle.

"I'm guessing you mean 40 more ft of bed - ye dogs, that's gonna be a whole elephant load of zinnias."

My north garden is my main garden, and it is about 70 feet wide, but subtracting out path space, its usable width is maybe 60 feet wide. I am adding another 40 feet to the north, but as you may recall, my paths are 6 feet wide, so that will amount to 8 beds that are about 4 feet by 30 feet long. So that is about 960 square feet of new planting space among some spacious paths.

It is a significant addition, and I will have my hands full caring for all of it. I average about one zinnia per square foot, so that is nearly a thousand more in-ground zinnias this year. You could call that "a whole elephant load of zinnias".

At least 90% of them will be culls, but that still amounts to maybe 100 more breeder quality zinnias, which can be very significant. I am optimistic about this zinnia year. I will be growing out some new genetic combinations.

ZM

Alright already - I'll buy a new file and see if I can't start shaving my legs with my hoe. (Better stop by the pharmacy and pick up some bandaids...)

I can relate to the switching hands while working. I'm a strong left-hander, even left-footer back when I used to do any sort of sports in school, but out of necessity, I taught myself how to switch hands when shoveling. I've probably mentioned in the past that I redig most of my vegetable beds every spring after tilling. Well, after John does the tilling. He's no gardener, but he takes over the job of wielding that monster Troybilt for me. I could do it, but then I'd be pretty much wasted for the task ahead - which is to dig out my paths, throwing that loose dirt on the top of the new raised beds. Over the years, the general layout of where the beds would be has settled into a pattern, there being at one corner, an area of perennials that doesn't get tilled. As of last year, there was a major change when we opened up the large area that had been under tarps. Much of the old veggie area then got sowed to a big block of buckwheat.
That will be the plan again this year for the older areas. But for the new area, the left half of it will get raked into beds pretty much as it was, but the half to the right of Samhain's pool is going to become zinnia and sunflower path.

Of course, my garden maps generally undergo change once I start implementing them, but it's fun drawing them; almost as much fun as making lists. :)

- Alex

Hi Squishy,

"Geeze, ZM, how big IS your garden?"

With the 40-foot extension I am adding, it is roughly 70 x 180 feet. A lot of that is path space. Rural people tend to measure their gardens in dimensions of acres. My extended garden is only 12,600 square feet, and since an acre is 43,560 square feet, my garden is significantly less than a third of an acre. Not large at all by rural Kansas standards.

"...the seedlings are too little for me to decide if they are indeed zinnias or weeds, but a few have sprouted in the spots I put the seeds in so I'll see what they turn into..."

Like Alex said, you might be able to refer to my picture of a zinnia seedling surrounded by weeds to identify your seedlings. If you can post a picture of your seedlings, we might be able to help with the identification. It's kind of neat that you are having Summer while we are having Winter.

ZM