6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed

Ugh...and rain today and tomorrow, with cool temps, before warming up to the mid-70s next week. Oh, well, I can always reseed.

actually as long as it isn't a deluge, a day or two of rain will be just the thing. It will give the ground a nice deep yet 'soft' watering which is a perfect start.

I planted my carrots and beets a few days ago, knowing we had a couple days of rain ahead.

But yes overly hard or extended rain is not good.

The one on the left was under one(1) light and the one on the right was under two(2)lights?

The one on the left, along with 4 others that look just like it, were under 2 - 4' long cool fluorescent tubes. The one on the right, along with 4 others that look just like it were under 2 - 4' long fluorescent tubes, but one was a cool light tube and the other was a warm light (aquarium/plant type light bulb.) So I believe the reason the one on the left is so scrawny is because it was only under the cool lights. I now have it under the same lights as the one on the right and hoping it catches up quickly. :)

Hi Kim ( heirloomjunkie )

Good things come to those who wait ;-)

I took some pics of my garden this morning (90 actually) but I won't boor you with them all,but here is a few ,notice the Chard (Swiss and Rainbow) and of course (just to rub it in) an up date on my Spinach ;-)

Oh, Jon! These pictures made my night! Are you able to grow such stuff now because you're in a maritime climate? I'm so envious!

The reason I came to the thread, though, is that I've never ever had a successful crop of spinach. Obviously I am doing things terribly wrong! I'm in Missouri and have planted from March to May over the years.

A few sprouts at most. My soil is organically cared for, fed well, mulched. Something I'm doing is DEATH to spinach! Any ideas?

Thanks for the lovely walk through my future summer greens. :D

I'm not sure but it looks like that one may be wahlenbergia cuspidata Blue Cloud -

You may have the seeds a little warmer than ideal at 75ish, and going by whats helpful with the others, if its been more than a month, I'd put the sown seeds (moist) into the refrigerator for 2-4 weeks (wrap the tray/pot in saran). Bring them back out and if you have someplace about 10F cooler than the 75F they are in now to leave them for a while, do that.

Here, I'd put the pots outdoors now but I understand you aren't having the same cool weather (50 and raining at noon). If its difficult for you to control the temperature and not have them too warm, if you have more seed why don't you sow again in late Fall, leave the pots outdoors. Surface sow these, don't cover the seed.

Thanks for the helpful info, morz. When the seeds self-sowed, it was in summer and temps were in mid 70s, so I tried to give the seeds those same temps. I'll try to stratify them, as well as a few other methods you suggested. I have lots of seeds, so it couldn't hurt to try a few different methods at the same time to see what else works.

If no seedlings germinate, it could very well be they're no longer viable. They're about 6 years old and from what I understand, the longer seeds are kept, the less viable they become.

Rene - you can plant Brassicas deeper when they go out into the garden. It will support them and they are able to root from the stem. Here's a discussion from a while back.

Here is a link that might be useful: Planting Brassicas

flora uk,

thanks! that's what i needed to know. couldn't seem to find it on my own. much appreciate everyone's replies.

ne

The pepper plants around here usually come from big brands even nurseries around the area aren't real nurseries. So there's nothing special about the pepper plants, just run out of the mill bell peppers. If I wanted those I'd just go to the supermarket. I'll maybe use a seed or two to try and save the rest for nxt year

I know there are a lot of guidelines and rules out there but rules are meant to be broken.

Last year I started pepper plants indoors but when it came to planting in Mid May I noticed I had a few extra containers in the shed. So in I popped some pepper seed. I was able to grow black peppers as well as Jalapeno peppers before the season was out. Yes the ones I started indoors produced much better. The ones directly planted took a long time to grow and only started to produce much later in the season but never the less they had peppers.

If you have the extra space then give it a try. If you're limited for space then I wouldn't suggest this route becasue you'll produce more with transplants.

Ok great :)

Had 2 other questions pop into my mind. Just to get to the smaller details.

1. Say we have 15 seeds in a cell. 2 of 15 pop on the first day. Are we leaving the bag sealed, for say a week? To see who else comes up. Or do we open at the start and the rest will follow?

2. Concerning the fertilizer. What type of delivery system do you recommend? Spray bottle - or drip in to not get it on the seedlings. Not sure if the seedlings can handle foliage type feedings.

And thanks a lot for the input. I sowed 20 Porodia Haselbergii about a hour ago on the GM. I got about 1000 seeds from mine this year, so using them for experiments to weed out some potential future problems.

Thanks again

Doug

Ugh I wish you could edit previous posts.

"But you have to be comfortable with doing lots of transplanting to individual cells within a short time as they can't all remain in the 1 cell for any length of time. How soon will vary from variety to variety."

The criteria for when to transplant, will be about the point that they come near to touching each other and/or overcrowding correct?

Doug

Yes, recipes to do my own growing media for seeds. Thanks

Sorry but I guess I am not being clear. The media used to start seeds, to germinate them and grow them to transplant size, is very different from the media used to grow plants. One does not use growing media to start seeds.

So are you talking about starting seeds and seedlings which is the focus of this forum or are you talking about growing plants? There are no approved recipes for starting seeds. It is an important difference.

Dave

Thank you for your post, morz8. I appreciate your explanation of the stratification process. Most of the websites I visited were extremely vague, and did not explain that the seeds had to be moist for the conditioning to be of any use.

Regardless, perhaps I need to be more patient, or perhaps I should try to find a live plant for this year and go from there.

For those seeds that do need the moist cold period, you can either sow your pots or flats, cover or wrap in saran or slip into a plastic bag, put them into your refrigerator (dated of course). If space is an issue, you can put the seeds with as little as a teaspoon or two of moist sterile sand or moist sterile vermiculite into a tiny zip lock (again, dated) and put that into your refrigerator. When the recommended time is up with the small zip lock bag, you can then sow the entire contents of the bag, vermiculite and all and not have to extract the seeds - helpful with the smaller types seed.

There are a handful of plants where seed is best sown before being stored any number of months, I've acquired fresh seed from purchasing a plant a few times now. Monkshood, ladies mantel are two that come to mind :)

Where are you located? If your weather is warm enough you could start the seeds in their permanent spot outside.

Thanks. I figured I was being extremely cautious wi watering . I watered more judiciously and all my seedlings have grown well. I do belong to the almost tropical climactic zone.

Now, I'm faced with what I read as thinning out and transplanting. How do I thin out properly and how do decide which ones to thin out? I feel very sad at the thought since all my seeds have sprouted healthy. Also, when do I transplant? What does first true leaves mean?

I'm so happy with my output I wanna try chamomile and lavender.

Thank you, Dave! I feel so dumb. I thought I had looked at the FAQ and didn't really find much info. Reason why? I clicked the WRONG link and was actually looking at something not related to the FAQ.

I read through all the links. Very helpful, and thorough. One question: Can I use straight sphagnum peat as my growing medium? I also have some perlite if it would be better to mix the two. I will be using recycled flats, and prefer to keep the seedlings growing in this medium until I transplant outdoors in the garden. What do you think? I'm so excited to give this a try! I just have to rig up a shop light in the basement and I'll be set.

Thanks for the help!

Sandy

One question: Can I use straight sphagnum peat as my growing medium? I also have some perlite if it would be better to mix the two.

Straight peat isn't recommended as it is too acidic, difficult to get wet and then retains too much moisture once it is - seeds rot. If you want to go that route - and I don't recommend it - then mix it with the perlite 2 parts peat to 1 part perlite and buy some ag lime to fix the pH problem. Add 1 T of the powdered lime to each 6 quarts of the peat/perlite mix.

It is much easier and you'll have much greater success if you just buy a bag of soil-less seed starting mix.

Dave

And try watering from below rather than spraying. I suspect you have only been wetting the surface. They shouldn't dry out in a single day if properly, ie thoroughly, moist.

And be patient - strawberry germination can be slow and erratic

Oh, I was worried that the embryo of the seeds would die of thirst! I read an article saying the soil couldn't be dry for more than two hours. thank you!