6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
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.
I'm starting them in an unheated workshop in New Mexico - Sunset Zone 10. (I don't know why GW hasn't made the zone change I did in my profile)
It doesn't freeze in there, but it's definitely not tomato or pepper starting temps.
We want an early start on the peppers, will put them in a temporary greenhouse for growing them out.
I'm planning on low tunnels and plastic for the seedling leafy greens.
Hi
1st Thanx for the proper ID
You guys are 100% right Snapdragon
Some one sent me some pics 'cause they know I like "Odd" things but they said they were Columbine seed pods
2nd Bummer
'Cause I ordered a bunch of Columbine seeds
LOL
Thanx again for pointing me in the right direction
I'm just wondering, if you've only ever seen a picture of these seed pods if you are aware of the true scale of them? They are not very big. Maybe 1/2 to 1 inch long. Will that be big enough for use in your craft work?
Here is a link that might be useful: 
I just lost every single coleus sprout I had to mice in my basement. I went down to check my beautiful, expensive, diverse collection of sprouts, and they were all decapitated. And sitting happily under the warm lights was the furry culprit, staring back at me. I think the mouse was frozen with fear, since it sat perfectly still. When I came back with mouse traps, it was gone. I did trap three over night, and I plan to keep the traps up for the winter. Now I just need to decide whether to buy more coleus seeds or not. I've certainly got enough time. I just don't want to lose another batch to the rodents. Maybe I could rig up a screen covering to keep the mice out. Any suggestions?
Martha
Actually, it's not what I consider SPAM. At least it's not an ad for a commercial product or service.
The video is an invite to subscribe to this guy's YouTube channel. I watched a few of the videos and, honestly, didn't get much from them, but I only watched one other video all the way through and bits of a third one. After that, I got bored.
In the garden they need full sun for six hours a day plus fertile soil...lots of aged manure and compost.
Try one of the mini headed cabbages from Johnnys Seeds. I always have luck with them. Keep an eye out for slugs and green cabbage moth caterpillars.
There's no reason why the cornstarch thing shouldn't work. I sometimes mix tiny seeds with sand. I figure a couple of finger tip dribbles back and forth will make things pretty even on an average. Seems to work.
I saw it in a movie, one of Richard Gere's worst, and they were planting tobacco.
You can dig it up and pot it (carefully, taking as much root mass as possible), bring it indoors, and set it in sunlight in a room temperature or slightly cooler locale.
Blooming inside, even with supplemental plant lights, will be poor, but you might get a few.
Snaps are short-lived perennials, not annuals, so replanting in your mid-spring garden should reward you with a second showing from the plant--and again the following fall.
I often have snapdragons survive the winter. Leave it in the ground and cover it with a heavy layer of leaves. It should survive. You can also wintersow some snapdragon seeds. I find that they germinate very well using the Wintersowing technique. Good luck.
Martha
I did a Yahoo Image search and your Milky Way Morning Glories are as you describe, white with a purple star. It would follow that such a flower would be white since the galaxy itself is white.
I planted morning Glories one year -- about 12 years ago. I have not been able to get rid of them! They are a pest (they strangle any other plant) but are pretty also so I tolerate them just enough on my terrace for them to reseed themselves. Mine are a dark royal purple. I never had any variation of color.
I had great luck the first year with the far more gentle Sweet Pea but after that I could not get the damn things to live so I have reluctantly accepted the MG in their place. At least the Morning Glories want to live!
So I hope you like your Morning Glories because you will be stuck with them for-fricking-ever. No need to save seeds. My Morning Glory seeds are black. If they are off-white than maybe those are not viable. Just one way to find out though!
Here is a link that might be useful: Mily Way Morning Glory
I had always thought that ginkgo required a prolonged, solid freeze in the winter, such as zone 7 or colder, so the trouble may be related to that? There are very large ones growing not too far from me, here in coastal Connecticut, zone 6. If you collected your seeds from a tree in your local area, then I withdraw my theory!
Good luck!
--Rick
I agree that there is a lot of information that we do not have.
If you collected the seed from a tree in your area, why not collect some more when it next fruits and try again?
I would recommend that next time, you plant them in your garden, in the soil. There are several advantages to doing this:
Less likely to over-water or under-water;
Less likely to be sitting in a too hot micro-climate (black pots can get so hot, especially when the sides of the pot are exposed to the sun, as they often are);
Your garden soil is probably a LOT better than a bought potting mix (a lot of potting mixes are 'orrible).
Are you in a climate that gets cold winters? Your Ginkgos will need that.
'Organic' when applied to anything means very little. I learned recently that chook poo from battery hens that is sold in Austalia (under the name of Dynamic Lifter) is labelled as organic. Apparently it is OK to call it 'organic' but they can't call it 'certified organic'.
You just can't trust anything on a label anymore. Or maybe we never could.
From what little bit I can see they are way to small to pot up. What are they?
They are Chimonanthus Praecox, or Wintersweet. It took me some efforts to seed them.