6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
will asume you mean cineraria = Senecioif so then need to winter sow the seed or store at 40F for 12 weeks. do not cover seed soil temp 60-62F takes 10-21 days to germinate.
OR
Cineraria - pericallisno pretreatment do not cover seed soil temp 70-75F & takes 10-14 days to germinate
Thanks for clearing that up Dave. I should be fine I'm assuming. I have no trees and an open yard. This year is a big trial and error phase for me. I have about 25 peppers (bhut, sweet, habanero) all coming up. As well as sprouts and onions.
Everything seems to be doing very well under 16 hours of light a day. The last thing I want to do is lose them because I didn't harden them off correctly. Thanks again for the info...
I will try moving them outside durring the day to see if they develop better..
You will have to harden them off well before you can do that or it will kill them.
Plus even outside there aren't enough hours of sunlight this time of year to prevent leggy seedlings.
Dave
It's hard not to go "gung-ho" when you first start gardening, but if you do too much too soon, you can be overwhelmed. Let's take it step by step and see if we can help you succeed.
Is soil amended(as questioned above)?
How much sun does your garden area get(how many hours a day) and what gardening hardiness zone are you in?
What are you fertilizing with(if at all)?
How is the 'traffic' in your garden area(kids, pets, wildlife)? I only ask this because my DS wonders why he has trouble with his garden area, but allows the GKs to walk and play on the raised beds which compacts the soil.
Hi, Destinee! What is your dirt like? How is it to dig in? Hard to dig?
Are there rocks? How big were the holes you made to put the plants in? You need to give the plants a really good start when you put them out, by adding in stuff from nature, but the right stuff. If you haven't added anything, your plants could have just starved to death.
What's the watering situation? Is it a wet area, a dry area, or do you know? Any details will help!
How much sun is there where you plant? Veggies need a lot of sun.
Let us know on this stuff and then we can tell you more things to do to give your plants a better start in life. You can do this! :D
Maybe you could pick the top three things you need to grow happily, and we can show you how to do those, then we'll add the other ones in as we go. You can't learn it all at once. It simply can't be done. But a lot CAN be!
A Teacher
(Not of gardening...grade school!) :D
No Lights :\ Just a window directly behind the dryer.
I took some of the sprouted seedlings out of the trayes and put them directly by the windowsill (pics below)
Do you think these tomato seedlings are leggy? What else should I do to these at this point?
Yes, unfortunately they are leggy. They always will be with only window light as there simply is no way it can provide either the intensity or the hours of light they need. The only way to prevent leggy seedings is with supplemental lighting. There is a FAQ here and lots of discussions about it.
If you can't provide it then you will need to transplant the seedlings frequestly, deeper each time to bury all the stem, until they are ready to go into the garden.
As to bottom heat, if they are on a source that only runs intermittently then remove them when the fryer is running. If they are on a heat mat then they need to come off it as soon as the first few germinate.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: FAQ - Growing from Seed
Agree with flora, needs more light. You could move outside during the day and bring it at night. Needs real first leaves before doing anything with them. If you are going to move them to the garden, just leave them in the jiffy pots and transplant directly into the garden.
spynn001 - be aware that many Japanese cherries do not produce fruit because the flowers are double. This means the reproductive parts are missing, replaced by more petals. Also most named flowering cherries are reproduced by grafting, not seed. So if you find a tree with cherries and get them to grow you are still not guaranteed a clone of the parent tree. But the experiment would be interesting if you are patient enough.
The last photo does look like over-watering to me. The yellow edged ones I wouldn't worry about until the first true leaves emerge. The cotyledons(seed leaves)provide the first nutrients to the plant(which is why you don't fertilize new seedlings)and will yellow, wither, dry up, etc., as they are used up by the plant. And, they can be damaged trying to emerge from the seed coat, as in your other post. If the true leaves show signs of yellowing or rotting, then you should be concerned.
It is called "damp-off" a fungus disease caused by soil that is too wet and inadequate air circulation. I linked the FAQ about it below. It should answer all your questions but if not let me know.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: Damp-Off FAQ
Thank you Digdirt.
I knew I heard of something in particular doing this before but couldn't recall what the culprit was! It's strange to me that it's happened well after the plants have moved outdoors, but we did have some mild weather over the weekend which may have had something to do with it. I also found two more that had been affected. They are getting a good dose of sunshine to insure the soil is dry on top!
Depends on how long before you can plant them out. Within the next week days they will be fine. Longer than that they will quickly become rootbound in a 6 pack and need to be transplanted to a larger container - like say a coffee cup or such. They can be transplanted at any time after they germinate.
Dave
Failure of the cotyledons to shed the seed coat is usually caused by one of 2 issues - overly shallow planting (real common with mechanical or other methods of bulk seeding seeding) or using old seed. Insufficient soil moisture levels while germinating can also play a lesser role. With first, portions of the cotyledons will be exposed. In the second the entire head of the plant may remain contained with only the stem showing.
That said there is no reason for the issue to kill the plant and in most cases they are easy to remove IF any of the cotyledons are exposed. Some recommend the use of misting and tweezers or sniping them off with scissors. But the most effective method is to just dab a bit of your saliva on the seed coat. The enzymes in saliva dissolve the seed coat.
Dave
Kabocha is a vining squash and while the central part of the plant will be approx. 3' in diameter, the vines will get 5 to 6' long (or longer depending on the soil fertility and growing conditions) so it needs plenty of room.
Squash is normally planted in a small hill of soil with a shallow trench around the base to hold water and lots of space around it with 2-3 plants per hill. Make the hill 6-8" tall, flatten and smooth the top, plant 4 spaced seeds in the top and then save the best 2 plants after they sprout. Water and feed the plants well and monitor closely for squash bugs.
How many squash (sausages???) you will get all depends on how fertile your soil is and how well the blooms are pollinated. Many of us hand pollinate regularly to insure good production. There is a FAQ here about how to do that.
Check out all the pics linked below of the plants and be sure to check out the discussions on the Pumpkins & Squash forum here too.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: Kabocha squash pics
like long white filaments or hair on top of the soil, and they move
look like the trails left behind by slugs, but they move, like worms
Those are 2 very different descriptions. There are any number of airborne fungus spores and one of the most common looks like long white hairs laying on the top of the soil and they appear to move as they shift with the slightest air current.
Then, if the plants are outside and you are using garden dirt, there are nematodes. Long wire/hair-like parasites.
Otherwise, without at least a picture of what you are seeing there is no way to know. But fungus is by far much more likely than anything else.
Dave
I think it's fungus gnat larva too. I bought some potting soil from Costco a couple of years ago and that was the first time I ever had problems with fungus gnats.