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| I live in a mild, wet, Portland climate. So I was excited to see my first sprouts on January 21st, long before most people in the east coast and midwest saw theirs.
My Solstice-Sown Black Eye Susans had sprouted nicely, and a couple of others as well. I looked in my Solstice Echinacea container, and saw one single yellowish sprout. I thought that it just needed more time, esp after reading that they can take a while. So here it is, a full 2 weeks later, and I still only have one single, solitary, lonely, yellowish sprout! Others are sprouting like crazy, a sea of green in my ghetto greenhouses. But...?? Am I being impatient? Should I just wait for the others to catch up to this sickly-looking sprout? Am I doing it wrong? Halp! Steff :/ |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Nothing is likely wrong and yes you are being impatient ;) The one echinacea seedling you do have germinating doesn't sound altogether happy so may have been a bit earlier than was good for it. Yellowish could mean a little wet or cold. Echinacea will usually germinate in approx 10-21 days from sowing at about 70F. They will take longer at cooler temps, or may just wait out cooler temps until warmer. There's about 6 more weeks of winter yet, you've got plenty of time - easily a couple of months before you may begin to want to worry. |
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| Lol! Ok. Thank you so much for putting my mind at ease. I second-guessed my lack of patience because of that one little sprout. I thought that if one came up, the others would follow at its heels. Heh. Guess it was just premature, and the others are smart enough to wait till it gets warmer! Alrighty, I will just sit back and quit worrying about the coneflower. Like Trudi says, they will come up at their own right time! Thanks again! Steff |
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| Im voting impatient. :) then again.....
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- Posted by daisydawnny 5 (My Page) on Sun, Feb 6, 11 at 9:35
| Hang in there...I have had more than one late bloomer in my day. some I was ready to give up on and toss....I have learned to give my unsprouted containers the benefit of the doubt....it is rare that a wintersown jug does not reward me. |
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| Steff, Echinacea usually sprouts well if the seeds are viable. Just be patient and don't worry. Are they commercial seeds? If they don't sprout, it's most likely that the seeds weren't very viable. Also, perhaps your one yellowish sprout is a weed seed? Sprouts here??? HAHAHA - it looks like Dorisl here - there is about 2 1/2 feet of snow on the ground. The winter sowing containers are under that 5 foot lump of snow in the back of my house!! That pile is extra high because some of the snow was shoveled off the roof. |
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| Oh man! Im sorry to rub it in, everyone. I know most of you are just buried in snow, with no end in sight. If its any consolation, we have had rain. And rain. And rain. Snow for a minute. Then more rain. *yawn* Sooo boring. Yep the seeds are commercial. Botanical Interests, purchased in December. Im pretty sure they are viable. I'm just paranoid, since this is my first attempt and all. I must just learn to trust it! Heh..wouldn't that be something if that one little sprout was a weed. Imagine how foolish I would feel if I coddled that thing all through spring, planted it out, and it ended up spreading everywhere! Not that ANYONE here has done that before. *whistles* Steff ;) |
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| Hi Steff, this winter has been terrible. I may be joining you in the land of the PNW sometime in the next couple years! I would rather have rain than snow! Botanical Interests has good seeds (albeit a bit expensive for the quantity) so I'm pretty sure your seeds will be fine. I've mistaken a weed sprout for the real sprouts on more than one occasion....*whistling here too*. But with Echinacea, at least it's pretty easy to tell by the true leaves, they're like cute fat little Echinacea leaves. |
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| Yeah, Botanical Interests is pretty spendy. Must be all that fancy packaging, lol! My only excuse is that I was new to gardening, had no seeds, and the only place that sold them in December was Portland Nursery. I was too excited about what I had just learned about Winter Sowing to care how much I spent on a pack of seeds. Now I know better, haha! I am definately going to watch that seedling and see what it looks like when it gets its true leaves. Right now its still in the "seed leaf" stage. Once it shows itself, I'm planning on looking it up on the internet to make sure its identifiable as Echinacea! I will post my conclusion. To be continued... Steff |
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- Posted by gardenweed_z6a 6 (My Page) on Mon, Feb 7, 11 at 11:24
| Steff you're not alone with the seed binge buying. I discovered winter sowing late last fall and would have paid outrageous prices just to get seeds to try growing via WS. Every weekend I drove to a local pet/garden center and bought 10-15 packs of seeds at full price which if I'd waited until June or July were marked down to BOGO. The pet/garden center carries Botanical Interests, Burpee, Livingston, Ferry-Morse & American seeds. They also sell bulk packages. I suppose there are worse & more expensive hobbies. |
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