6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed

I have Canadian tire flyer delivered to my in box and I'm in the store weekly. I have never seen them anywhere near that price. The regular price of their kit is $39.99 and it includes jiffy pellets which I would never use. Canadian Tire does have good deals often on other things which I'm quick to take advantage of

yeah I toss the pellets but get the rest for, I think $19.99 on sale.

Yikes....give me my plastic inserts and flats any time!

lol... I do a LOT of seeds, and space wise, the soil blocks are most efficient, (for me) but I can imagine they seem overwhelming if you have another method you prefer!

I will say that they are also SUPER easy to plant out...

tlbean, my MGs always come up in 2-3 days as well. I also start them indoors, I've found they slow down a little bit once they get 3-4 true leaves, I figure they're working on their root system perhaps?

Congrats on all of your MG seedlings! If you grow anything else don't be discouraged when they don't sprout instantly like MGs! I always get spoiled with them and get impatient when other seeds take several weeks to germinate!

Lol, MG's and Sunflowers I have had grow 2" in 12 hours while I was at work for me to find scorching on my bulbs...I direct sow both now.

SCG

here are the seedlings, and here is a picture from the seeds i have sown. the soil was sterile yes.

Wow, sorry but no way are those desert rose seedlings. And they don't even look like desert rose seeds. They aren't even remotely close as desert rose seeds are long and tubular and a gray color. Either they were mislabeled (most likely) or there was some sort of seed in the mix. Only way to find out what they are is to let them grow.

Dave

Some commercial starting mixes contain a wetting agent. Others do not. Which type you use might change your approach to moistening.

Interesting, I use ProMix BX and it comes as dry as a popcorn's toot. I actually use a tote and pre-wet an amount that I think I will need at the time. If any is left over I just leave the tote open and it air dries like it would in a pot. I don't do things days in advance as I am not that good at planning when I will have time to sow and since I use heat mats for germination I don't worry about the temperature of the mix as it will be warm within hours. The mix being slightly damp makes it easier to work with and it doesn't move as much when I mist fine seeds to have them make contact with the mix.

Nice reading about different ways as I am always into changing things up for the better.

SCG

Wow! That's so out of my experience...a sun room for the iguanas! How fun! You can sure try them in the sun room and see how they like it. You can cut off the dead leaves to promote new growth. I'm not much of an expert, but I liked reading this thread.

Well, everyone, thanks for the help! :D
I moved my nast to a more sheltered place a few days ago to see if it helps. Some of the leaves are still dying, but i'll just cut them off and see how the plants are after a few days more. :)
Will be posting here again to ask for more guidance if it still dying.

thank you for the comments, i was actually asking specifically about hibiscus and coffee which i recently gathered from a fruit farm, both of these seem to be ripened but are fresh.

For the specific examples you gave to your more general questions, I would recommend a quick Google search after properly IDing the species. The reason I say that is that a lot of information can be obtained without us having to re-write it all here. The coffee part of your inquiry can be answered by simply Googling 'coffee see germination'. I tried that just to be sure, and lots of great info popped up on the first page of results.

The hibiscus might be a little different. There are many different species of hibiscus ranging from tropical plants to quite hardy trees. After you figure out what you have, try Googling the species name plus the word germination, or look it up on one of the reference sites I linked above. The reference sites may give you a quicker answer IF the plant in question is included. Google may be more likely to give you an answer if the plant is not one commonly grown from seed (so not in the quick references).

rubyshoes_gw Thanks for reminding me! During the germination and until the sprouts are of some size NEVER let the surface dry. Those tiny sprouts will disappear really fast when they dry out.

SCG

Thanks for your advice! Yes, SCG, all my seeds are on heat mats (with digital temp control) in a germination chamber. I have a temp variable of +/- 5F....... I use ProMix Bx in my seed starting flats with proper moisture, fresh seeds sown on top of media, with a good light source......

When I read here of folks germinating 241 of 250 of these same seeds on top of their fridge (without any supplemental heat, etc.) in paper cups, it makes me wonder what I could be doing wrong....... Am I trying too hard?......LOL

OBTW .......FWIW........ I've started over with fresh seed (even though it's a couple of weeks late).......... The only thing different this time is the temp..... I've lowered the digital thermostat from 75F to 70F (+/-5F)....... & I doubt this will make a difference....

In any case I decided to move things around in my setup last night to compensate for loss of heat and loss of lighting in my previous setup. All my flats are up against a common wall now instead of being in the middle of the room. I am planning on adding three Zippi non-oscillating fans (all will be set to LOW and connected to a timer set on RANDOM - simulating a random outdoor breeze) to provide cross ventilation. In the photos below you can see the proposed location of all three fans (but only one fan is pictured). In addition I will be adding reflective white panels against the walls (only one pictured for now) so that any light that would normally be absorbed by the wall will be reflected back onto the plants. Does anyone see a flaw in my setup that I haven't considered?

@digdirt I don't think he had an issue with the fan just it was more cumbersome because it was in the way.

@njitgrad each to their own but for ME those fans are just not big enough. While much cooler than other lights T5's do put out a lot of heat. At the moment I am running 6 T5HO bulbs in a 10' X 13' insulated grow room in my unheated shop. I have a large fan, about twice the size of the one on your chair, on low blowing between my seedlings and lights.Those lights produce enough heat to keep the room at 19-22C (69-74F) which is above my intended temp of 16-17C (61-63F). Even with our outside temps dropping below freezing (28) at night and being slightly over during the day (36F). I have to open windows to lower the temp and my fan is thermostatically controlled to come on when the temp rises under the lights above 18C. Later in the year when the temps rise and I am running all my lights I have to run an air conditioner to keep temps down. It is quite possible I am being overly anal, but why not!!

I will also add that I move plants that like it a bit warmer out of the direct fan breeze and temps go up fast.

Not saying your set up won't work as it will and will do so well, it is just what you want. Moving lots of air lets me keep my lights closer, around 1" away, which I find better. YMMV.

Reflective material around the sides isn't as important with overhead fluorescents as it is with, say HPS. With HPS you have to keep the lights farther away to avoid scorching the plants so you benefit from reflective sides. With the overhead fluorescent lights only being inches away very little light is being lost out the sides to reflect back. I put mylar on the sides of one light and had zero increase in lumens according to a light meter. Again YMMV.

SCG

Basil grows easily from cuttings and is great on homemade pizza. :-) Parsley takes 2-3 weeks to germinate. I grow thyme also. It stays green in the winter here and is a great addition to chicken soup.

I sow basil and parsley direct into the garden. Parsley often self sows but not the basil. I never managed to save these tiny seeds either.

For most perennial herbs I would rather by a plant. How much do you spend meanwhile on herbs? Buy a plant and you can harvest in the same year, take some cuttings too.

But with the few hundred seeds i have, i can get a few hundred plants,fast, and cover my fence in Golden Chalice vines,....I can only take so many cuttings from my one plant. So...with seeds, I can plant them along the fence and get coverage fast,blooms in a year or two.

Would anyone be willing to supply me with approx 20 seeds for this vine, I would be willing to pay. I am from south africa.

It doesn't matter how deep the water is since you are going to tip out the excess.

Hello,

I was planning to make adjustments once the plants germinate. I had used potting soil for the germination stage before realizing there were much more suitable options. Since I did use potting soil (77 to 87 percent aged pine bark, sand, and perlite), would you recommend me sticking with that soil for the growing stage or would different soil be optimal? Pigweed is used in a lot of studies on herbicides because it can grow fairly quick as a test subject, and I received seed from a research agronomist. The aim of the project is to demonstrate ways in which weeds can be effectively controlled without the usage of chemicals.