6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
That cinnamon thing is indeed interesting. I'm going to have to give it a go as they say across the water. Oh, and does it matter which cinnamon works best: the Far East variety, or Ceylon cinnamon?
Incidentally, I'm trying coleus for the first time from seed, and I ordered a nice assortment from Outside Pride over at Amazon. Today, I was comparing things, while looking for some "Under the Sea" coleus, and checked things at Amazon again. While I was there I noticed that Outside Pride was really taking a beating from some of the disgruntled customers, who had bad luck with getting their seeds to sprout.
Does anyone know anything about the company's reputation of late? I had done a Google search of "Outside Pride", and on the fourth link down, there was an official investigation by the Better Business Bureau. It seems there are a lot of unhappy campers with Outsidepride over at Amazon and also at Dave's Garden.
Coleus is about the easiest there is to start from cuttings. You don't need to start them in water unless you want to. I just cut a 3-4" piece, remove the bottom leaves and stick them in potting mix. I do a lot of cuttings and put a clear plastic dome over the tray until they take hold. Covering the cuttings with something is essential. If you don't have a dome, try using plastic wrap or a plastic bag. Don't seal them too tight or they'll mold. I drilled holes in my domes so they get a little air. You can take the cover off when you can't pull the cutting up with a gentle tug. Have fun with your project. I so enjoy watching everything grow until I can get outside. I'm like a mother hen with all my cuttings and seedlings. Barbara
Budget or not I always use solo cups to transplant my pepper and tomato seedlings into. My husband says the plants come out of the cups easier than they do out of pots when he transplants into the garden. They are sturdy enough to be sterilized and used again the next year. One thing though is that they are tippier than pots so if you have a tray that's divided for pots it would be better than an open tray.
I use the pointed end of a wood burning tool that I picked up at Walmart when I got my first cups and put 4 holes in the bottom. Using it does a lot of cups very fast. I also use it to put holes on the bottom of plastic mushroom boxes that I use for starting all my seeds. It is easier to keep shallow container uniformly moist when starting seeds. If you use a wood burning tool though do it in a well ventilated area. The smell of burning plastic is not great.
The wick would be good for keeping plants moist if you are away but I think it would keep the plants too wet if you used it all the time. Peppers like most plants like to dry out between watering. There are small air pockets in the soil and roots need that air to grow. When you water those pockets fill up with water. That's why it is best not to keep your plants wet all the time. Think of plants outside, It rains or you water and then there is a period of dry between. That is also why it is good to bottom water. Bottom watering best imitates natural growing conditions.
I used my husband's electric drill. Worked great. Did several at a time but just did one hole in the bottom. I put a clear plastic dome over the top until they are all germinated. Have to watch for mold to start in which case I take the dome off for a couple days. If you don't have the domes, you probably could use plastic wrap or a plastic bag. I did that until I got the domes. I water from the top with a sprayer when needed. Good Luck, Barbara
that's awesome! i think there are but a few of the large variety. sevilla olives being one of them. i'm not very picky with olives, i like to eat them sure but what my sister is after is just the general look of the plant/tree. they're also pretty :)
Thanks! The document is helpful.
I find the gravel interesting. Maybe it helps the seedling when it is very wet? In your climate it gets colder and as it is more towards the pole - it is colder for longer hours. Here it dips only to -5C during the night and that is at most, usually maybe -2C or so and during the day you can work outside in a jumper.
The gravel helps to prevent a crust from forming on top the pots if it dries, and a heavy rain (or watering) from dislodging the seeds. It can help prevent moss and liverworts from forming on the top of the sowing medium with those things that have a longer germination time, and help seeds to make good soil contact without excluding all light if they need that.
I generally use chick grit from the feed store to top my pots. Larger seeds are covered with some of the sowing medium or potting soil, then topped with the grit. Tiny fine seeds are sown on top a light layer of grit and rinsed down with a quick spray of water.
If I'm out of grit and can't go to the farm supply, I've used parakeet gravel from the pet section of the supermarket. Fine aquarium gravel is often available by the pound if a pet/fish supply shop is convenient to you.
You might want to read through the sowing techniques on the Clothiers Site, lots of good information there. You could benefit from bookmarking the site for the seed germination databases too....invaluable.
Here is a link that might be useful: Clotheirs
The seedlings have taken a turn for the worse (healthy true leaves dying, and one seedling dead), but I've also learned some things:
Rapid Rooter are hydroponic plug growing media with a dense, spongy texture. I bought these without knowing a darn thing about hydroponics. While the plugs contain nice-sounding ingredients ("beneficial microbes" "composted materials"), they lack the fertilizer I've taken for granted in my seedling mixes.
So, I've transplanted all into seedling mix (the plugs have to be transplanted intact) and fertilized very lightly with fish emulsion.
Thanks, Gary and Loewenzahn.
I think it is very difficult to keep this seedling alive when it is this advanced in germinating. Ideally you should sow the seed in a pot as soon as you see the emergence of the radicle or root.
I had Acer palmatum and A. buergerianum germinating in a ziplock bag in the fridge in the past. Planted them in a pot with a well draining seed sowing mix. Placed the pot on a window cill in a cool room with no direct sun light. The seedlings all slowly died.
Steve - no, no, no, and no, DON'T bring your seed out into 80 degrees from being in the fridge, DO NOT put kitty litter on anything, DO NOT FERTILIZE young seedlings, especially if stretched out! The reason they are weak is because they aren't being given enough light, or the soil is being kept too moist or the temperatures that you are growing them on is too warm - or a combination of these things - your seedlings are not stretching from lack of fertilizer. And no, somehow it is a misconception to put innoculant in with seeds to aid germination!!!!!!! That is best used for peas or beans that are planted out in the field. It is used for the root systems of legumes to enhance colonizing bacteria that produce nitrogen (which they are able to do on their own, to me it isn't something that is required.) Again, DO NOT DO ANYTHING UNUSUAL TO YOUR SEEDS! Don't try to force the germination and growing to fit your schedule - nature always wins in the end.
As Martha said above since you appear to be so new to this, it would be best - I am sure of this - to simply sow ALL of your seeds outdoors in a ground bed and let mother nature take care of getting your seeds to grow and mature. I have read a few of your older posts, and you are so caught up with the technicalities of growing plants that it is interfering with you using sound techniques that actually work - again good luck!
This post was edited by jebfarm on Tue, Dec 30, 14 at 10:48
1. I will DEFINITELY sow the seeds outdoors now that you guys let me know all of this. BUT... is it too late? After refrigerator stratifying my cold-stratification requiring seeds (while I'm completing my seed frame.. just need soil to be available from homedepot/lowes), I then learned that some of the seeds are rated for 30 days of stratification, and others for 60 days. My concern is that since I started them on December 23, the ones requiring 30 days and many of the ones requiring 60 days will sprout well before April. I only intended to start the germination process in the refrigerator, with the greater intention of soon sowing them outdoors on a warmer winter day upcoming -- maybe in a week or two. So, since they will be in serious winter conditions, I doubt that the ones rated for 30 or 60 will sprout early. I guess its 30 days in a refrigerator, which is not really freezing, but all winter long if sown outdoors. I just wish that I only started the 90-day requiring ones in doors, and left the 30s/60s for when I finished the seed beds (in a week or so, when soil becomes available... need 24 two-cubit foot bags of composted soil.)
2. Early on in the stratification process, I removed the seeds from the refrigerator (maybe 34 F) and left the bags out in room temperature (maybe 80 F)... then put them back in the refrigerator. Did I destroy the embryos? I would think I would if it was the freezer to room temperature. In the past... last year, I moved seeds from a refrigerator (maybe 36 F) to room temperature (maybe 78 F) and many species did fine.
These seeds are going outside as soon as I get enough soil to cover the area they will be caste upon... and stepped over, not buried in most situations.
Thank you very much in advance..
Steve, Zone 7a
My guess is that you would have a significant rate of sprout death if you don't maintain their current orientation and keep the roots buried while allowing the new leaves maximum sun exposure. You can take clumps of seedlings and plant them together (see the Wintersowing forum and search "hunk of seedlings") with good results, but that maintains their current orientation and depth, etc.
Martha
> clumps of seedlings and plant them together
But the crowding.
> Wintersowing forum and search "hunk of seedlings"
Crowding addressed in there, by: "only the very strongest do survive".
Ok then, in hope of reducing total attrition, I will plant smaller clumps, spaced.
Thanks for good suggestion, Martha. It is what I will do.
just realized this is an old link, but was just gathering my ROS seeds today and stumbled across the forum. We have a 50 year old ROS "tree" in front of our house. We've pruned it to have a fairly thick trunk and it's like a gorgeous bouquet in the early fall. Last year is the first I ever gathered seeds, we've always spent much time plucking starts out of the yard. I've found, the key to harvesting ROS seeds is to pick the seed pods when they've just dried out and snap off easily. if you wait too long they will have opened too much and spilled all the seed into the ground. we have two "trees" out front and get random starts all over the yard from the yearly re-seeding, so Mother Nature handles the seeds really well and apparently they overwinter without any help from us and germinate quite readily. they are hearty here.
I don't use the paper towel method for germination, nor an exacto knife either - I use my fingernails to get the coating off, then wash the seeds with soap, rinse.
The cleaned finished seed is brown - at least with magnolia wilsonii - I'm assuming the others are similar.
My conjecture is that GalaVines' "actually seed"
(genesis of the confusion)
is your and everybody's "finished seed";
and that, in GalaVines' recommendation, the brown,
which is the coat,
is not scraped off the seed.
Remaining is the uncertainty about apparent lack of stratification.
Typically, Magnolia grandiflora seedlings will start blooming at 10 to 20 years of age. This age is quite variable with this species. At least one seed strain frequently begins producing blooms at a much earlier age, but is not representative of the species in that way.