6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
I live in a rural area so this may not be available for everyone, but did you know that many dairy farms "make" quick-compost from their cow manure? The stuff gets collected up and it's processed through these high-pressure steam, mixing, sludging, bacteria inducing, super sonic, blasting, turbo-charged flux capasitor machines. Ready-to-use compost comes out the other end and it's fabulous stuff. Already seasoned and airy and full of nutrition (but not so much nitrogen that it burns). The dairy here charges about $65 for a truck-bed load. I mix this stuff with peatmoss and vermiculite and "Bam" ... I have more mix than I have containers to fill. Depending on what I'm using it for depends on the ratio. I use a scooper -- 4 scoops Peat, 4 scoops Verm, 2 scoops compost for seeding. Make it 3 scoops compost for potting up, and 4 scoops compost for houseplants, outdoor containers, or raised beds. Vermiculite (course ground for gardeners) is pricey. About $60 for a 40 lb bag...but the bag goes surprisingly far and lasts several years.
Yeah, regular top soil (fill) can be problematic as it didn't provide my seedlings with enough nutrients. I ended up getting good results from 1/3 germinating mixture, 1/3 top soil (fill), and 1/3 humus/compost mix with a small amount of duck manure. All in all it wasn't too expensive (10$ for a large bag of germinating mix, 3$ for humus/manur, 2$ for 80 lbs of top soil). The mixture is a medium soil where the roots can spread easily. It also doesn't dry out too fast and provides the nutrients for the seedlings.
Just wanted to update you all since you were so helpful with your advice. OK - so I did a few things since two weeks ago. First, I began giving the plants 24 hours of light instead of 14-16. Because the lights only have the ability to move up and down, I was not able to rotate the lights to different locations. I did, however, begin rotating the flats in order to give any plants that were getting leggy (or in general just having trouble growing), so that they were closer to the lights.
Second, I bought some mylar film and stapled it to some wood frames that I built in order to keep as much light in as possible. As you can see in the photo, the Mylar is nearly as reflective as a mirror, so I think it has been helping quite a bit.
I also purchased a 90 watt LED hydroponic grow lamp. It wasn't cheap but after it first blinded me, I think it was well worth it. I began moving some of the higher growing corn over to it because the corn was getting taller than the fluorescent lights and leaning severely toward it. I'm hoping they will correct themselves with the new light directly above them.
I have attached pictures of several levels of my flats and also a picture of the grow lamp that I bought.
Veriria
This takes all the fun out of it. I don't make money from greenhouse, Vegetable Garden and tree orchard. It is a hubby although expensive one. Today I surprised my Girl with arrangement of roses and grand duke Jasmin. It smelled like heaven. All I produced. She appreciated it with a big hot kiss. I was proud of myself. That is what the hubby for.
I actually shake off some of the soil on my peppers and tomatoes when I pot up. It allows me more room to bury the stem. What's strange to me about your post is that your plants suffer because of it. What exactly are you transplanting? I'm thinking like Al--it could be you're potting up plants that don't like their roots disturbed.
Here is a link that might be useful: Loribees Garden Blog
This is my first time ever potting up-I usually just transplant my winter sown HOS directly into the ground. So far I've done morning glories and sunflowers, both of which I watered first, about 20 minutes before I transplanted, and both of which I purposely knocked off most, if not all of the soil around the roots. I wanted the roots to get into contact with the "new" fresh soil as soon as possible.
Both types were started as WS flats, and each was transplanted both as small HOS to a pot, and as individuals into flats to generate 3 flats per flower type. I'm simply experimenting to see which way I like better, which works out, and trying to figure out which is the better way to go when giving away to friends and family, seedling exchange, etc.
So far, so good on all the transplants-it's been over a week, and haven't lost one yet. I am handling them by the leaves, not the stems.
I love the "baggy" method, we've done it more or less that way for years, when I was a kid...we used to sprout bean seeds and such on a paper/styrofaom plate with a little water and then a moisten paper towel over type, they would sprout.
I have used coffee filters for about 8 years now, I like them better and they are cheaper than paper towels too. Much stronger than paper towels. Oh, make sure you keep notes on what you do, how you start them, how long it took them to germinate, germination rate, and so forth. That way you will know how long it takes for your climate/temp. you had at that time.
Like now, I have seeds going in an unair conditioned room, ave, day temps 96 night about 70. I have Mexican Bird of Paradise, they germinated in 1 day. 100% too. Carnations took 2 days to start, they average in the soil 14-21 days.
So, this is really the best way, unless you start them outdoors, winter sowing and summer/fall sowings.
Anyway, if you would like to chat about anything, email me, let me know in the subject you are the one from the TEST Post...
:) Fran
I have lots of unopened packets of seeds sitting around in a drwaer. Most are dated 2005 , some go back to 2002.Are they likely to geminate or should i just put them on the compost heap? I have wallflowers, geranium seeds, parsley ,cress , radishes, verbena,dill coriander, chrsanthemum, tagets, naaturtiums , oh and some tomato.
Advice on how to germinate seeds from the packet would be very helpful too? Many thanks, Andrew
Much of the time, the culprits you are looking for are night feeders. Have you tried going out after dark with a flashlight and taking a look?
I usually have good luck identifying a pest at night, beginning right after dusk and sometimes needing to make a second trip later - if the pest is dining late that evening :)
I love New Hampshire! Your state motto gets me every time: Live free, or DIE!!!
I haven't heard of lettuce turning black before, I'm stumped. I usually try and get my seedling trays outside for a few hours the very first chance that I have sun and temps above 50 though, so I wouldn't be the one to ask.
I live about 4 hours south of chicago, and this last weekend they had 3 inches of snow. I think if I lived much more north than zone 5 I'd start to twitch if I had to deal with snow on April 18th.
Our last snow was April 1st. Heavy wet snow. Of course later that afternoon it all washed away and the next day was around 60 I seem to remember. That's NH! One year we had snow in May.
I wasn't planning on heating it but by the time the end of the season comes, who knows? I was only going to use it to harden off the seedlings and maybe grow some lettuce in the fall. I don't know how well it will hold up to the snow around here so I was going to take it down and put it in the shed for the winter.
I had some of the Bibb lettuce with leaves that turned black, maybe from too much watering. I didn't notice these leaves before I put them outside so I don't remember if they were like that before or not. Some of them were coming in dark and then they faded back to green. Plus some of what I have growing is red looseleaf.
The trays that you see in the frame are only 1/2 of what I have growing just for lettuce. I have 3 more trays in the basement still under lights. Plus the peppers and tomatoes. I figured some would die so I planted extra and now I'm running out of room. The other day was so warm in there I think I could have put some of the peppers in there to give them extra light and brought them back in when the sun went down.
When you transplant your seedlings they will stop growing for at least two weeks, it is called a "check in growth" caused by disturbing the roots. It will not help to move them again, let them grow out of it by themselves. During this time fertilizer will hurt not help. As the roots are not removing any water from the mix, it is very easy to over water, and exclude any air from the root zone. Al
1) Temperature over 160F will kill seed and a temp between 160-180 is used to "setrilize soil" It should be noted that some seed need to have a cool period (below 40F) before it can germinate. check the package.
for this reason I keep my extra seed in the Vegitable keeper
2)Very true look on the package it often lists a germination rate
3)This true but also know the germination rate of seed from the same compaany will vary from year to year.
I keep my seeds in air tight containers in normal room temperatures. Dr. Deno did many tests indicating for two or three years seed will keep this way fine. If you want as long as possible then keeping the airtight containers at refrigerator temperatures will also help. Fluctuating temperatures AND humidity in storage, will cause most seeds not to germinate when planted. Al
I am not an expert in these things but I tell you what I am doing. The heating Mat is removed or turned-off as soon as I see any sprout. I have home made green house (not a fancy one) In the Basement I several tables and old desks with flourcent lamps hanging from the ceiling. I have over 100 4 Inches plastic pots with good drainage put on plastic plates. I leave, may be one foot between the lamp and the Plants. As soon as the pot sprout I move it from the heating Mat. I read if you leave it on the heating mat it will grow long leggy and thin. As for growing lights I leave 24/7. From my observation Tomato, Cuccuumber, Squash are growing like crazy, Pepper Egg plant are growing but very slow.
Thanks for the reply. The only time a few of my plants went spindly was when I went on vacation for four days, and they tried to reach for the sun outside of the window because the person watching my house turned them off. Otherwise, they are doing well. But I'm going to turn the heating mat off since it seems that from what I've read elsewhere (and here on the forum) suggests doing so.
Aphids is also called plant lice. They very destructive but easy to control. As a matter of fact they serve as food for other bugs like ladybird and ladybug. Every insecticide lists then as one of the insects controlled. Sevin is very effective to control it. Don't throw away the affected plants they can recover if you get ready of the Lice.
So this weekend I took a pretty aggressive approach to spray everything with Neem. I also cut off any dead leaves etc. Tonight I still saw a few aphids and so sprayed them. The instructions say to spray 7-10 days but I'm spraying whenever I see some of them. Is that a good idea? I'm pretty worried because I have so many plants going that I really don't want them to die. Also, is it helpful to get outside as soon as possible? Which I'm sure will not be a for a couple of weeks since it's suppose to snow tonight!
Thanks for any help or suggestions.
I'm excited to have found this discussion. My name is Will and I'm with Growandmake.com where we are finishing the design of new starter gardening kits. Our site is all about helping people to 'grow' and 'make' more of what we consume. We are creating these as a replacement to more expensive kits we've sold for the last couple years. We've found that kits aren't purchased by experienced gardeners, but by beginners or as gifts. I'd love to ask the readers of this forum to look at our kits and give us feedback. They are still an introductory state and we welcome feedback and new ideas. You can look at them here Growandmake.com garden starter kits
Here is a link that might be useful: Growandmake.com
House and pet-sitting services will water your plants/garden. I'd check those.