6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
I have some petunias that I spring sowed outside and they are under a thin clear plastic. Mine have just sprouted and dont have true leaves yet. Our temps here dropped to 29 tuesday night. All I did was put an additional tarp over them and they are fine now. If your porch doesnt go below 35 I think they would be ok. If in doubt cover them with sheets.
The root will come out first. Then the stem. The plant will be confused, because it will not be allowed to send the root and stem the direction they should grow, because the bag will not allow the root to go down, and the stem to go up.
I wait until I have a root and a stem with leaves (cotyledons) that are starting to turn green, then I plug them into a tray of starter mix. I find if I put them into starter mix too early, when only the root is evident, usually cotyledons do not shed the seed shell (helmet heads).
Then you have to keep it wet (I use saliva) and hope it comes free before it dies, or do micro-surgery to save it. Fingernail clippers is the best tool I have found to try to remove the "helmet". If you can get it wet enough, a knife blade may be successful in prying the shell off.
My seedlings go under lights, because I start them early enough that it still freezes every night. When I run out of space indoors under lights, they go to a heated greenhouse.
If your nights are reliably warm enough, I see no reason you could not grow them completely outside. 50F may be too cold, but 59F may be warm enough. But, if it gets too cold, your effort was wasted. I have no idea how reliable your temperature forecasts are.
Sun? Shade? If they sprout in the sun, leave them in the sun. If they sprout indoors, see "hardening off".
Thanks for your experience and suggestions. I finally planted almost all my sprouts in the vegetable bed and we will see how it goes. Most of them just had the root with no leaves, I hope I don't have the seed shell problem you mentioned, but will watch for it, in case I need to bring out the nail clippers. Thanks again!
Z
I have Pepper and Egg plant. I did seed them in March and they too long time to sprout. Noe they are growing very slow. I can not take them to the outside Garden that little. If I wait for them the season will be over. I saw at the Nursery Store Pepper and Egg Plant 10 times as big as mine. How did thay do that? I bought two dozens and thay still in my Green House. They look giants beside my little ones.
My sweet peppers are small too. Perhaps they started them before you in a hot greenhouse...peppers like heat. Mine are in my basement, in Wisconsin. I want to start getting them outside on warmer days, now that they are FINALLY here (although today its only 40!)
Jessica
Greenhouse growers start early and control light, temperature, moisture and fertilizing. Most of us can't do that at home, but our plants will catch up eventually when planted outside. They don't have to be huge in order for them to be planted outside, but the soil temps need to be right, and they will take off.
Yes planting Tomatoes deep produces plenty of roots and this is good. My problem is the cantaloupe thay grow leggy and tall. If you deep transplant them thay die. I had to put stick support to hold them other wise they will bent down and break. How thay get the Cantaloupe at nursery store short and thick. I wish I know that.
Well I grow the chilies in full sun, they need the heat and they sun to produce HOT peppers. IF you dont have an AeroGrow anymore, you can put the pot with chile seeds in it, with the Saran Wrap on it, if the sun is on it till like 11am or so. The heat is what makes the seed sprout. I dont know where you are located,. But in south Fla,if I put seeds in direct sun,on a windowsill,in the Saran wrap method, as long as the sun is off it by 11am or so, they sprout. But the lights in the AeroGrow make the soil very hot as well. Once you take the Saran Wrap off,after you get seedlings, then the direct sun will get the chilies to grow. They need heat and sun to grow. My 'Ghost Chilies' need the hot soil and direct sun nearly all day,once they are up and growing. Or they stop growing, and will just stand still doing nothing, until they get more heat and sun.
So if it is HOT peppers you want...you want hot soil,(cool water), sun and heat...if you only have the sun to work with, just try my method, and try it till about 11am if you are in the south, longer if you are way up north. If you lived here in Ft.Lauderdale, I would sell you one of my AeroGrow gardens, I have 3 of the big ones. I have been wanting to go down to 2. But Shipping anywhere cost a fortune and its next to impossible to pack,so nothing breaks. Give it a try,if you have enough seeds to try it. It works.
aveo,
Actually I will try your method. I will try the litle pot with saran wrap. Now I just have to look for a place that gets sun until 11am, but I think I know where. I definitely imagine how it can work as chiles need very warm soil to germinate. Thanks again!
Z
I start germinating my tomato and pepper seeds in sandwich baggies in wet paper towels on a tray on top of my aquarium lights.(Too cold in my basement to germinate seeds, I have had very poor results with a heat mat, and have no space upstairs to start seeds in a warm area safe from my cats in a starting tray.)
When they germinate (root and stem with leaves), I transfer them to 72 cell trays ( flimsy Burpee trays work best for me). I put up to four seeds in each cell, one in each corner.
When they grow out a few permanent leaves, I use an iced tea spoon to scoop out the 1/4 of the mix in the cell containing the subject plant, without regard to whether I am cutting through any roots, and move it into a 9 oz. plastic cup of potting mix.
I grow them to a good size for planting out without further manipulation, other than moving them to my greenhouse when I have too many for my indoor lights, then moving them to my outside screened shelter for hardening off.
In five years of growing them this way, I have never killed a plant by damaging roots with my iced tea spoon! Every year, I seem to have one or more "runts" that only seem to have one or two roots, but, so far, they have all gone on to be good looking plants by planting-out time.
The chance I would spend time untangling the roots of a few tomato or pepper seedlings? ZERO!
yiorges,
Thanks for the response. I lost a couple do to earwigs/slugs but the rest are still alive. The beans don't look that much better but are growing. The okra now are coming with yellow cotyledons...but I'm hoping they will green up now that they are seeing the light of day..??
Z
Hi Flora_uk, thanks for your reply. Sorry I haven't been checking because the temperature have been cold anyway....
I have some marigolds, celosia, and salvia. According to the seed packet, I can start them outside now (since we have past our last frost date). Does that mean I can harden my seedlings off now? Or could it mean that I don't have to worry about hardening off and can move them outside directly since there won't be any frost anymore?
The weather forecast says for the next 10 days, the minimum is 41.
For my maters, if nights get below 55 or it's going to storm, it will be too much for them & I bring them in. For the peppers, nights below 60-65 are when I bring them in. My first set of mater & pepper plants have now been outside for 3 days & are doing great! Gotta bring them in today though. We're getting that storm front that hit the midwest with all the tornadoes & such today through tomorrow night, so temps are supposed to drop to the high 40's.
jinginuk: Good to know, that helps a lot. No germination for me yet, but it has been just over 2.5 months or so for the ones indoors. I have been remiss on keeping the humidity and moisture levels high for the seeds, so I do not expect them to germinate after all - but you never know.
How is the growth rate of the seedlings for you after germination?
Worthwhile to wait and see - best of luck.
The stem of the seedlings measures between 3 to 4cm with healthy leaves (4-6)on top. Once the seedling hit the cling film I put the pot into a plastic bag tied at the top but still on the window sill as it was wnter. My impression (just 2nd time I've tried growing a tree from seed) was that they seemed to grow to 4 leaf stage quite fast and then slowed down. I have recently moved them out to an unheated greenhouse as there was a short spell of warm weather. But it has gone cooler so I think they might slow down even more as that's their permanent home now.