6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
Soooo... about a week ago I planted mesclun mix seeds in my outside garden and voila! there are a ton of seedlings, the question is, do I thin them all out? Or do I do nothing and let the lettuce grow? I dont' know what kind is what as seedlings there are small differences and all but basically I don't want my lettuce to suffer, I want it to flourish and have some from every different kind.
will they just be fine? Let me know!
It sounds like the soak should take care of it, germination shouldn't prove too difficult -
Here is a link that might be useful: desert bird of Paradise
Even with my heating mat my peppers took forever to germinate. Do you have a light source as well? I always put a flourescent shop light above them right above the surface. It provides a little extra heat to help them come out. But i agree, if you are in alaska you will want to start them SUPER early and you may want to do something to heat up the soil where you will plant them. I've read about both plastic mulch and doing a manure/compost heated bed. But I haven't tried either of these methods.
I have not been over watering...planted them up in 3 inch peat pots. I bottom water them until the peat pot is wet and then don't water them again until the soil and pot is bone dry and some of the seedlings start to wilt just a little.
I know you don't think you are over watering but you are or the leaves wouldn't be yellowing. And the peat pots are contributing to the problem which is why many of us won't use them - ever.
The peat pots wick water up too quickly and then wick it away from the soil and the plant roots thus forcing you to water more frequently. When you water until the pot is wet it is too much water for the roots and the leaves yellow. Then the pot dries quickly and begins to pull the water out of the soil drying it out and making you think you need to water again.
If you cannot get rid of the peat pots and move the plants into plastic cups which is the recommended solution, then you will have to water them from the top using a small watering can so that only the soil itself is watered until it is only slightly moist. Make sure the pot gets little of it. The check the deeper soil moisture level, not the pot condition, before watering again.
Going from real wet to bone dry should be avoided at all costs. You want a consistent LOW level of moisture in the soil.
Hope this helps.
Dave
PS: lots of discussions about the many problems with peat pots here you might want to read for future reference. And do be sure to strip it all off the plants before transplanting them.
Thanks very much for the advice, they've been in an un-heated green house for the past few days and they're looking fine even though there's been some cold night's. Will start hardening them off tomorrow. Just got to decide what to do with them all now!
Hi again Caroline. I looked up your member page to find your location, and mentioned the UK in my answer to bring out UK gardeners like Flora uk to also answer your post. If you would edit your name to show your location you would get more responses from gardeners in a similar location to yours. Al
I have a seed packet for this plant that says to sow seed thinly because crowding will lead to weak leggy seedlings. You situation is exactly what I had last year!
You might want to thin a bunch of them right now and let the stronger ones grow a little stem diameter before planting out, if there are any that haven't gotten too leggy.
I thined out about 50 of them and planted each seedling in its own little container.I still keep the rest in the main pot' to transplant later.
Most of the seedlings went into a shock and drooped.A few didn't make it.For the rest I supported then with bamboo sticks and watered daily. They are in full sun (about 6 hours) and so far seem to be doing very well.
I wait for the stems to get thicker before transplanting them to the garden soil.
All depends on what vegetables you are talking about. Leafy greens and cCole crops like cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli etc. will do much better inside. They will just bolt otherwise.
Tomatoes would do alright outside in shade.
Dave
Here I am a grower of ornamentals and start lots of seeds, mostly perennials and biennials outdoors in the summer. I have a plastic covered area 10x20 feet open on both ends, mostly shaded by tall trees. The summer temperatures are just about right and the fluctuating day/night temperatures actually seem to help the germination. The seeds are kept plastic covered to maintain moisture until germination, when the plastic is then removed. Al
Mandolls - check 'stratify'. It's the practice of putting moist seeds into a cold environment to break dormancy, and a requirement for many things although not usually for the seeds mentioned above.
I don't know if it would kick start sujiwans older seeds though - always a chance and it doesn't hurt anything but a little refrigerator space occupied to try.
Thanks Art, I think I did cover up the violas a tiny bit. The cold treatment worked, they've all peaked their little green heads out of the pot now! Just took a little longer than I expected.
My coleus, lobelia, thyme, and violas have finally germinated, hooray! The plastic baggie tent worked well. Only thing that hasn't sprouted is the Alyssum. I suppose those are a lost cause, now.
I sowed a mess of alyssum outside, in a pot. I know they're supposed to be a certain distance apart, but honestly, they're tiny seeds...I planted them in some soil (nothing special, I guess--potting soil?) and set them outside. All I've done is try to keep them moist. And I put netting over it to keep the cat out. Several came up. Alas, some of those that did got utterly bowled over in last night's storm. But there are some smaller ones that are OK because they weren't tall enough to get knocked down.
I also tried the same thing with some columbine this year. Nothing happened with them at all. So much for supposedly easy plants (at least, I think they're supposed to be pretty simple).
Lynneblack, that is possible. I just transplanted a bunch of my pellet plants today, too. Another factor could be that they've run out of nutrients and don't have any more energy to devote to growth.
Anyways, regardless, it sounds like your transplanted seedlings are much happier. It shows that it's never good to leave seedlings in those pellets for too long.
This is my second season growing from seeds and I used these again. However, I don't germinate in them, I germinate the seeds using the Baggie Method. Once the seeds have germinated, I put them in the peat pots.
I soak the pots to expand them, then I loosen them by squeezing them a bit. I then poke the top of the peat pot with a toothpick to loosen it further. I dig a hole, with the toothpick, just deep enough for the existing root to fit and put the seed in it, root down. I put it deep enough to just see a tiny bit of the seed poking out. I then drop a few drops of water on top to get the peat into contact with the seed.
In a few days, the seed pops up out of the peat, sheds the hull and the cotyledons fan out. I give them about 1-2 week indoor (depending on the plant) and then take them out to start acclimating them, but not in direct sunlight (that will dry them out).
When I first used the Baggie Method, I put the seeds in too deep and it took forever for them to pop out of the peat...some didn't. They also grew faster.
Once the true leaves appear and grow a bit, I transplant them to a pot/ground. I think they are convenient, because I don't have to go outside (if sown in the ground) or move a large number of pots around indoors. I bought one of the larger ones, so it's usually big enough for whatever I'm growing.
GOOD LUCK!