6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
I am a "seed person" too! Here's a few examples of great pleasures for me:
- Enjoying the numerous assorted seedlings that sprout in mature gardens
- stumbling on little seedling "surprises"
- Seeing the first green seed leaves show up!
- Appreciating the genetic diversity amongst your seedlings, some are taller, some shorter, some plants bloom earlier than others
- Finding an interesting or unique seedling and anticipating what it could mature into!
- Collecting seed on a mild and sunny September or October out in the wild, and enjoying the company of the birds or an occasional late season butterfly
- collecting extra and sharing seeds with others
- scattering a little native seed, such as common milkweed Asclepias syriaca along wild field edges, hoping to cultivate more Monarch habitat!
And there are many more, too numerous to list!
This is a great site - THANKS for the link - here's a clickable link to the site!
Here is a link that might be useful: Tutorial on germinating different seeds
In other words regardless of source, are all Better Boy F1 seeds created equal?
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With that particular variety since it is well stabilized, likely so since the seeds from all the common hybrids are usually purchased by the reputable commercial suppliers from just a few grower sources and then re-sold to the public. Of course that would not be the case if you buy from individual sellers (IE: those on ebay, amazon, etc.) so you need to stick with reputable vendors.
But that is NOT true for all varieties. There are literally 100's of hybrid varieties where the quality all depends on the source of the seed.
You can find any number of discussions about reputable dealers and non-reputable seed dealers discussed on the Growing Tomatoes forum here. My personal preferences are tomatogrowers.com and tomatofest.com
Dave
Hmm, I never heard of F1s being limited to certain growers.
Patented cuttings are limited to licensed growers.
They pay a royalty per cutting, which will be rooted and grown to a plant.
The royalty in a F1 seed is paid in the price of each seed.
The objective is to sell a lot of seeds, and that includes to the public.
Here is a link that might be useful: random seed page
A Z4 winter will give them more cold than they need but you could try winter sowing them. Approx 2-3 months at 35-40F before bringing back to about 70F should help in germination. But the fruit from any vines resulting could be variable and not have all the characteristics of the grapes the seeds were taken from.
Your expectations of how long germination is going to take needs an adjustment - aconitum from dried commercial seed takes patience. And when some germination does take place, it can be erratic, meaning not all seedlings will appear at the same time - they may be days, or weeks apart.
Self sown by the plants, the seeds would be exposed to warm (relatively speaking) Fall rains, then a cold moist winter, to germinate close to Spring when temps begin to warm again.
As monkshood from commerical seed can be difficult, sometimes best to try copying mother nature.
You can do that by giving the seeds a warm moist period of 2-4 weeks, moving to 40F for 6 weeks, then bringing back to warm.
Morz8, thanks for the help, but I do know they have differing periods of germination. I had atleast 3 sets sitting in 30-40
F temperature for 3-4 weeks, and still waiting for germination. I do know they have different temp ranges.. so I guess keep on waiting..
Poppies also seriously resent any root disturbance; in my experience you can transplant but only when very tiny (cotyledon stage or so) and then you must be careful not to disturb roots.
My poppies have always done best via direct sowing in late winter/early spring.
In my experience, DO NOT EVER plant those "bio degradable"
peat pots or jiffy pots. Very nice starter pots, but they stunt the poor plants. Had some tomatoes like this. One was 2-3 feet bigger than its partner. I dug up the small one, and it was instantly apparent that the peat pot had stunted it.
My recommendation, (IF YOU CAN)cut the fabric off the peat moss, and leave the moss intact. find a place in the yard or a suitable pot, and repot. Dont disturb the seedlings roots.
Thank you nil13! My bank is about 8-10 feet tall, and the run of the hill is 15-20 feet. 100% slopes would be completely vertical - can't imagine that! Thanks for your suggestion, I'm wondering if the mulch is easy to maintain. Do I need to add mulch every year, and keep weeding? Since it is a large area, it will cost a lot of money and work to mulch and weed. That is why I was thinking about an "aggressive" ground cover to control weeds.
Also, do you have any idea how much the mulch and plugs will cost including labor? I'm totally new to gardening and have no idea...
A 100% slope is actually 1:1 or a 45deg slope, but I have donned my rappelling gear and planted on vertical faces.
Yes, the mulch will have to be replenished from time to time. I wish I could tell you how often but there are some variables. I also can't tell you costs because I don't know about either your plant or labor market. You can also get mulch for cheap or free from tree trimmers and some municipalities offer free composted mulch from green bins. You will also have to weed regardless, but the mulch makes it easier.
Aggressive groundcover can itself become a weed, especially if it self sows. Plus, weeds are by their nature aggressive and can compete with a lot of aggressive groundcovers, at least for a little while. When I say shrubs, they can be groundcovers as well. They are just low growing shrubs. You can also mulch heavily (8-12") and sow perennial shrub seed. That is a proven restoration technique, although weeds will still come up.
Since you are new to gardening, I will recommend this site, The Informed Gardener, especialy the bits about mulch.
Any plant which produces pods is designed by nature to spread its seed by the pod bursting open. It will not do this until the seed is properly ripe. So you need to watch the pods until they are dry and on the point of opening naturally to get the ripest seed. For your Koelreuteria (I assume, rather than Laburnum) the seed has already been dispersed by the tree, so that would be the best to gather. Unless, of course it has dropped some substandard seed prematurely or the seed has been lying around a while in poor conditions. In which case maybe wait for the nice fat looking pods still on the tree to mature and then get them as soon as they fall.
Thanks Flora, I kinda had that feeling after I sat, peeling open too many pods that I "took" off the tree. All the seeds were green and then I thought, that would be awful to offer someone seeds that were not viable. I just googled the tree again and saw a photo of the "ripe" seeds, being black.
Darren