6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
Lights are pricey. I'm partial to Hydrofarm 4ft 8 bulb T5 HO fitures with 6400k bulbs but they are about $200 on ebay (new). They only cover about 4-5 flats but do run a lot cooler then most other type lights so better if kids are around them. If you have good natural lights you can get away with fewer bulb units (a lot less) or look for used units but ask how old the bulbs are. The more light the better the plants. good luck ...
Our club has a greenhouse with natural light where we will plant tomatoes in sixpack cells the 7th of March. The cells are on heat mats at 70 degrees. Three weeks later on March 28 they will be transplanted into 5 inch pots, still in the greenhouse, but off the heat mats. Three and a half weeks later they will be sold. We sell 1500 to 1800 per year, with around 50 varieties. I hope our experience may be some help to you. Each cell is sown with two seeds, the excess is snipped off at soil level. We seldom have any vacant cells. As a non profit we get old seeds donated, which work very well. Al
Hi Barb,
You can get Coral Nymph Salvia seeds from "Swallowtail Gardens Seeds", a very reliable company I've ordered from with complete satisfaction. See link below.
Art
Here is a link that might be useful: Coral Nymph Salvia
Hello Barb, I have plenty of Coral Nymph, as well as other Salvia, for SASBE on my exchange page. I grew a large patch of Yvonnes Salvia, Coral nymph, and Lady in Red from seed last year and they did unusually well. Very pretty! I collected tons of seed. You are welcome to peruse the list and see if there's anything else you want.
Any potting mix will dry out quickly when under warm lamps and in a constant breeze. Never let it dry out completely. A home made mix doesn't have a wetting agent in it so it will be more difficult to get it wet again once it dries out completely. Bottom water and give it time to absorb. Adding a water retention product would help.
Laurie,
Damping Off is a soil borne disease and, to the best of my knowledge, only occurs at the soil level. My guess would be that the blossoms on your squash plant are simply falling off because they aren't getting pollinated.
Squash have male and female blossoms on the same plant. The blossoms are open only during the morning hours of one day. It's during this time that pollen is transferred by bees (which of course you don't have). If no pollination takes place, the blossom will fall off within a few days.
Hope this is helpful,
Art
I don't think I need the heat mat at all. I turned it off for the day and measured the temp tonight and it was down to only 94 degrees. I put a fan on low near it and got it to 85. Now I've turned the fan to high. We'll see.
I wish I wouldn't have wasted money on a heat mat!!
I have four of the APS24 on their second season. Don't use the self water feature from the start. Wait until the seedlings have a little size on them before you fill up the bottoms. I got them as the addon from when I bought their three tier seedling cart. I started wave petunias and marigolds in them last year. This year they have petunias and verbena in them. Using the self watering while seed starting drowns the seeds and tiny plants.
Another route you may try, Air Layering. Although this is a little more of an intense method to propagate, it should produce really good results on this plant. I actually currently have some casterbean seeds I've collected from some plants were I work and am going to see if I can get them to germinate myself.
Hope things work out for you, best of luck.
I work in a greenhouse setting and start many many seeds with a similar method. I use a moistened medium, normally a metromix soil, one withouth perlite but a higher percentage of vermiculite and/or bark as it takes a little longer to dry out. I generally use 1020 flats w/o holes and 50 cell plug flats to insert. I also have another flat that is similar to a basket, woven plastic though I don't recall what they are called, this I place the plug tray inside of and both into the flat. After watering thouroughly I can remove the plugs from the excess water if need be and simply set on the table beside them, we have tables made out of expanded metal so it allows for good ventilation. I find that pouring off excess water after letting the soil soak you lose an awful lot of the the soluable nutrients form the soil and rather than having to replace them through fertilizers, just re-use this water. Even use it to water other plants.
The amount of water to use is very dependent on the size of the pots/cells. 50 plug flats, I tend to put in about 1" of water for maybe 15 minutes, really dry 1 gallon pots I usually set in a couple inches of water and let them set for a number of hours so even the top levels of soils become saturated.
Hey Kat,
I've had a lot of success with other plants which also prefer a cold stratification period by simply placing them into a gallon sized freezer bag along with a standard metro-mix soil or peat that has been ever so slightly dampened along with the seeds. Just let it sit in the fridge for 4-6 weeks. I recommend using sterile items such as a clean bag, new peat/soil and DI water if possible as 4-6 weeks is plenty of time for bacteria or other microbes to spread if there is any contamination.
Have you checked over on the Trees forum here. There seem to be several discussions about chestnuts (note spelling for search) over there so perhaps one of them has them.
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: Trees forum
Mix them with a teaspoon or two of sterile moist sand, or sterile moist vermiculite (not soggy, moist like a wrung out sponge) and put into a tiny zip lock bag. Date and refrigerate.
When you are ready to sow, sow the contents of the bag, sand included rather than trying to extract the seeds.
Commercially lettuce gets the highest price when it is first on the local market. Lettuce farmers along the California coast use chicken manure for the first planting to get the soil temperature up. Big piles of manure are stacked next to the fields over the winter covered with a layer of gypsum to keep the flies and odor down before spreading on the soil and scratching in. Al
"You're kidding me, right?"
yep, thats about how it goes. lol. i have said that about 1000 times...hahaha
the next phrase youll use, usually right after saying that, is "well, off to the composter you go!"
lettuce doesnt mind cold much. it should be ok outside. mine went through 2 small freezes and i dont know how many frosts.