6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
A cuke sprout... and poppies... I am so thrilled. I moved the plants out of my window and set up a VERY makeshift grow light. I hung an old 40W tube light over them and put a small heater by the seeds. I surrounded the group of planted egg cartons with plastic boxes (toolboxes mostly) to trap some of the heat. I have been checking the thermometer about every hour and it is keeping at a nice 80 degrees. I hate... HATE spending money on stuff that doesn't work... but if this works I plan to make the real deal for next year. Will post a photo later.
This post was edited by TyWalsworth on Wed, Feb 20, 13 at 16:56
I have all three of those out in my Z5b garden (northern IN) already. They sprout when they are good and ready, but can take the cold just fine. Even once it is up, all three take a freeze in my garden without trouble. I've had uncovered leaf lettuce go through five hard freezes last spring. The only trick is you cant harvest while it is frozen or it will be mush, but if you let it warm back up under the sun of the midday and harvest after it has defrosted on the plant, it bounces right back (or my varieties do at least).
Found one discussion over on the Tropicals forum here that confirms what I suspected - normally grown from rooted cuttings.
But since I have no personal experience with them I Googled "how to germinate pitaya seeds" and found lots of resources - including videos. Linked below. Usually it is much easier to find info with the botanical name than any of the generic names.
Hope this helps.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: how to germinate pitaya seeds
FOLLOW UP: Hey all thank you so much for all the input! I planted 24 pans of seeds on Sunday afternoon and placed them inside one of my greenhouses but decided I would watch them closely and not put on lids making sure soil was good and moist also no lights on just yet. Door is zipped closed and min/max thermometer is reading 69 degrees. Tues morn I planted 5 more pans. Much to my shock and delight Weds morn I awoke to GERMINATION!!! Cosmos and Zinnias have sprouted as a matter of fact 7 pans had little seeds poking up:) I turned on the lights and they are set for 16 hrs. After 1 hr of lights being on I checked the thermometer and was shocked to see it had risen to 74 degrees.Yikes!! Open the door!! Now that the door is open it is maintaining 73 degrees (awesome) By last night there were 14 pans germinating!! This morning there are 21 pans now in germination. I am so excited to see these little gems. Now onto the next challenge of not over watering and adjusting the light as needed. Looks like I will be transplanting in a couple weeks if things keep going as well as they are. Again thank you all for your valuable input!! One very happy gardener here:)
thank you very much for the reply. i usually start watering the plant around this time after it has remained in storage ie room temp without any water. i dont bother to remove the dried flowers when dries up for a while to re sow the pot. the plant does go outside when the wheather is warm enough to get full sun up until september or october. i usally get the fiery bush variety but i did see 2 small combs twice.
is there any trick to producing the combs? i do pinch off dried segment to get it to regrow the usual appearance. i'll often get around 10 full grown plants and 5-6 reblooms after the initlal blooming. i dont really bother stealing the seedling for seperate pots BC i have enough different plant species alive at any point of the year.
i live in montreal where the temp isnt perfect year round but the plant stays inside when its too cold.
I live south of you and have celosia seeds germinate all over my garden every year, all different kinds. I pull up the ones that are in the way or too weak and not nice looking. I have some red feather ones that reach over 6 feet tall (which I got originally from street planterbox seeds I took in Cooperstown, NY ten years ago!)
Some of the plants need to be staked to keep them from falling over. If you have to grow them in pots, maybe you can rig up some kind of cage or trellis to tie them to. The brain shaped celosia just naturally bend over sometimes. I don't grow them.
I have a grow light set-up but I don't use "grow lights." They're expensive. I use full spectrum fluorescent light tubes. I am fully satisfied with them when they are 1" away from the seedlings.
The light set-up I have is from Park Seed Company. It has two levels and 4 trays on each level, with a shop light on each level.This wasn't enough light so I added two more shop light fixtures, one on each level.
Best feature is adjustable chains on the lights which I can lower and raise. I am very satisfied with this set-up and have been using it for over 20 years.
I use a loose soiless mix and plant my lobelia seeds fairly thickly. I thansplant when they have true 2nd true leaves. I keep a margarine container on hand filled with warm water. I plant 3 to 5 plants to a 2 inch square -6 pack. I soak the container I've grown them in so the soil is wet. A plant separates from wet soil easier than dry soil. If the plants separate easily they go in with what soil they have on the roots. If they don't separate easily instead of tearing the roots I swish the roots of a clump of them in the margarine container of water washing off some of the soil and saturating the roots and they usually separate quite well then I poke a hole in the new soil for the roots and cover them in. I lose very few plants this way.
I can second the winter sowing idea. I often have volunteers come up in my south flower bed especially if they are in a protected area near the house.
They are fairly easy to grow if you don't overwater but they do take a while to come up and don't grow very fast at first
Hi,
I have started snapdragons indoors and painfully transplanted them outdoors and baby them all along the way. But late spring I went to look for something at Lowes and accidentally found they were practically giving good looking snapdragons away for sale cheap.
I could of kicked myself because I only have so much space indoors for seedlings.
I also got my snapdragon seeds from a dollar store that had three different colors available & was happy with the results. I hope they will reseed because if not I'll need a ride to Lowes :)
If we build compost, which is done with a âÂÂlayer upon layerâ system; it can help accelerate the decomposition process. Hardware stores, garden centers and nurseries; supply the ingredients used for a compost bin. If you throw in a handful of ready-made compost with the microbes inside; then it will give your compost a boost.
Wow, I did a little research on the web and yes those bulbs are expensive! I ran across a pretty good page about how to grow Martagon and Oriental lilies from seed (see link below). Check it out and maybe it will be helpful.
Art
Here is a link that might be useful: Martagon From Seed
You could use a recycled food container such as margarine,cream cheese,cottage cheese,dips,etc.I germinate my main tomato crop in a Coolwhip container.It is large enough to space seeds with a damp toothpick & can sustain them until I get around to transplanting into 8oz cups.
rose
I use commercial grower's plug trays and six packs since I grow hundreds for sales but the home gardener can use most any thing plastic including all those things rose listed as well as Dixie cups that come in all sorts of sizes, the trays from the salad bar, cut down milk jugs and pop bottles, etc.
Look at the pics in the FAQ here on containers to use.
Dave
Depends on if you will be transplanting them soon to larger containers like say 4" pot. If so then you can leave all as is. If you plan to leave them in those sponge pod things then the sage and basil would probably do best as 1 or 2 each. The mint is fine as is.
Agree with if sacrificing some use snips, not pulling.
Dave
I've had good luck with leaving numerous basil plants in the same container. If you want more plants you could also prick some out instead of snipping them off and move them to new containers. A little transplant shock but most will survive if done right.
I can think of using tomatoes and peppers seeds that need to be planted in pots; about 6 weeks before planting them outside. I had planted these in pots and then directly in garden as well. They grow better & faster in the garden as compared to pots.
I think I've always started too early. I don't do vegetables. I count on my brother for those. I do some annuals and mostly perennials. This year I promised myself I would NOT start until March 21. I'm doing a little experiment this year. I ordered plug trays this year rather than using the larger Jiffy starter trays. We use plugs at the University I attend, and I have found the root system to be much more vigerous in the plugs. It will mean transplanting to larger pots rather than putting them right in the ground, but oh well. Also, anything that is a late starter can go into the greenhouse for a few more weeks before going into the beds.