6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
I purchased tomato seeds from Diane's Flower Seeds and Romaine lettuce seeds from Hazzard's Greenhouse, winter sowed them in recycled milk jugs using Fafard professional growers mix and set the jugs outside in the snow back in March. Germination was about 95%.
If you aren't enjoying success with traditional, generally-recommended growing methods, perhaps a different approach will work. Gurney's has more than 50% negative customer feedback on the garden watch*dog; Henry Fields has 60% negative ratings so they may not be as reliable as you think.
Winter sowing is a USDA sanctioned growing method. There is a winter sowing forum here on GardenWeb where you can learn more about the method. It's very simple & inexpensive but highly successful. Here are a few photos of my winter sown sprouts from this year:
Heuchera/coral bells
Phlox
Persicaria
Snapdragon
I hope you find what works for you. Good luck!
I've recently grown (indoors 20C, windowsill) melon,squash,cucumbers what I did was use a peat/perlite/vermiulite mix in those 4x3 plasti trays, with a lid.
They should sprout in a week, and be ready for transplant soon after.
Hope that helps.
Intensely jealous of local salmon and razor clams.
Could you be thinking of purple tansy, Phacelia tanacetifolia? Plentiful flowers, nice bee plant, lacy foliage. Takes a little while to sprout, but grows abundantly.
Umm other side of the country in VA. But good thing for me to check... I think your right I'm trying to grow Tansy not Tanzy. I've always been horrible at spelling.
Ahhh yes TanSey.. Ill try again ... I think I have seeds left. I'll also go talk with my local extension office. They were insanely helpful last time I went. Maybe they can tell me how badly it might spread throughout my gardens. Doubt it will be as bad as the catnip tho. I swear the cat is a better gardener than myself. Looking at the seeds (light and wind carry-able)and finding out it grows a rhizome I can see how this might turn quite invasive. SO before it flowers and before it gets out of a pot I will make sure to talk to the extension folks.
In the mean time... Anyone know a better planting option for warding off insects mainly ants from the house? I have heard its great at keeping the ants away. But if its going to take over.. might be more advisable to shot gun with rue, lavender and Artmisia. I know I can get rue going... limited success with lavender, never pulled off Artemsia. I do have a flat with soil no seed, maybe ill fill it with whatever I can come up with and acquire on a pest control plant Google. Starting this late in the season may be the thing that will be the success in some of these I have previously been unable to sprout.
Anyway thanks for your words of warning and bringing it back into my head to go talk to the extension folks.
Here is a link that might be useful: Tansey from one of my seed orderin' places.
When I have used peat pellets I have always gotten mold, usually green, but some white. I have never noticed that it affected the seedlings. You can scrape it off, or stir it in to make sure it doesn't turn into a solid coat that smothers the soil, but if you are planting them out soon I wouldn't worry about it.
Linda Jo - the problem is quite possibly the seed you collected. Alcea is notorious for producing low quality seed, even in commercial operations. Take a few seeds and remove the outer hull. You should find a plump kidney shaped seed inside. That is the actual seed - if it isn't developed, it isn't going to germinate. Viable seed germinates pretty quickly - within a week.
Once they sprout you need to get them off the heat and under lights. Of your selection, peppers will take the longest to germinate, next the toms. Cucurbits sprout quickly and grow fast which is why most growers wait until their soil is warm and direct sow them.
This is the problem with mixing varieties under the dome. I would carefully pot up your cucurbits to individual pots or cups. That way you could keep the heat and the dome on for the others. If you still have seed for your cucurbits you'll have back up to direct sow if you can't pot up or things don't go well.
an update and a thank you. got the other lights set up and got the sprouted guys out of the dome. things look to be moving along nicely. I'll plant these when they are ready and direct seed some of the same variety. I am curious to see if I get early harvest or the direct seeds catch up anyway....
Hello,
Last year I started strawberries from seed by winter sowing outdoors. I tried several other things such as grasses and Rosa rugosa. The strawberries and the rugosa were my successes. I bought the pack at WalMart, I believe it was Plantation Seeds (which is local, and sells only to wholesalers). I like to collect edible landscape plants and like different types of the same thing, so I went looking. I traded for some White Alpine Strawberry seeds this year. They are not easy to find, and are sometimes called yellow. In any case, through searching, I have found a source for 3 types of seed strawberries. The prices are reasonable too. The link is below.
Robin
Here is a link that might be useful: Pine Tree Garden Seeds, Maine
i found some in my car the other day!!! yup it was great and my friend found some in her folds lol!! :D