6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
You don't need to grow them inside for 6-8 weeks. You can plant them out as soon as your weather allows and you feel they are big enough (i.e. 3 or 4 sets of leaves, 4-6 inches tall, won't wither up without constant watering or if a strong wind comes along). That said, assuming you keep your lights close enough, they won't get out of hand before you plant out; they won't grow faster than their roots will let them. I have some that I started in February; they're a little leggy, as I ran out of space under my lights and they've only had sunlight for the past week or so, but they are still probably only 6 inches tall.
Sleepy is right. Most plants don't flower inside. They also don't usually flower until they are mature enough.
What kind of fertilizer do you use and how often do you use it. A fertilizer that is high in nitrogen--the first number on your fertilizer box-- will make lots of nice lush green leaves and few if any flowers. Use a balanced fertilizer like 15-30-15 or one that has all the numbers the same and only use it about every 2 weeks. Nasturtiums in particular don't need much fertilizer.
Don't feel you are alone. When I was a newbie, the first year I grew nasturtiums I had a lovely dark green bush of leaves and not one flower. Now I get lots of flowers. It's all about learning.
I'm not an expert and I've never started them from seed, but when I buy them from the garden centre, I often snip mine off fairly soon after planting and also quite often during the growing season. They get nice and bushy and sturdy. I grow them every year.
I don't even remember how tall they're supposed to get, but mine are always about 8 or 9 inches tall, bloom like crazy and they're beautiful =:)
Well, the instructions stink. :) To put it politely. Those self-watering thingies are ok if you use them like you would normally bottom-water with any other container; that is to say, pour water in the resevoir when the cells are dry, allow them to soak up what they need, and dump the rest. Seeds won't germinate, and seedlings won't grow, in a constantly wet, soupy bog. Which is what peat/soil will be if you allow it to sit and soak up water all day long. Sorry for your struggles, hopefully you still have enough time to get some new starting mix and seeds and try again; this time, wet the medium, squeeze out extra water, fill the cells, add seeds and cover. Don't water again until the seeds sprout and the soil is dry. Hope that helps!
Thanks for those tips. I'll try that. I just planted some passionfruit seeds about 2 days ago so hopefully I didn't ruin those. I don't really care about the other stuff I was growing as I have my vegetable garden mostly planted. I was just experimenting with seed sprouting since I'll be growing a lot of stuff this year with my new greenhouse.
In looking at the photo - my reaction is that the light source is inadequate. How old are your bulbs? Shouldn't use them for more than 2 years as a grow light. Set the timer for a 16 hours/day on cycle. The lumen output drops off dramatically.
I start mine in the seed packs, then into 12 oz red drink cups, when about 3 inches tall, planting deeply. then after about 4 weeks they go out to the coldframe. a few weeks later - into the 1/2gallon milk containers, so that by mid May have nice big root systems to plant in the garden
i keep the lights about 2 inches above the top leaves.
also, the peat or manure pots you have - i've never been able to keep the moisture regulated - their either too dry or wet. I did some peat pot, some plastic pot w/seed start mix, and some w/spaghnm moss in small self water plastic containers - only the peat pots had problems.
keriann--
I haven't grown the trailing petunias much, but I know others who do. Some don't cut them back, but one lady cuts back the longest trailer every week. She says it makes for a much bushier basket and she avoids the bare center look. It must because her hanging baskets are beautiful.
The bonus if you cut them back is that you can root the cuttings and make new plants. The choice is yours.
Thanks Oilpainter and Dave
I will trim one back and see what the results are. I like your idea oilpainter, I will have to give that a try.
Also, good idea about saving the cuttings to root!
Happy Easter!
Thanks again
Keriann~
Woo Hoo 85* yesterday and today in WI in April! Crazy!
Hi httyuwma
That is just about our summer temperatures and the tomatoes do just fine outside.
If the roots are growing outside the pots the roots are being air pruned. You could put them in other pots or plant them outside. The choice is yours, but I definitely wouldn't leave them as is.
You don't need to remove all the newspaper. It will biodegrade if it is wet enough. Thoroughly wet the paper and you will see most of it will come off and the roots will pull through it. I used to grow tomatoes in peat pots and the roots sometimes came through it. A thorough wetting and the roots slid through the holes they had made and we could peel the pot off.
If your house faces west and this bed ends at your driveway does this mean your bed runs north and south? If it does which end is your trellis on the north or the south. If it's on the north end and you are growing regular sunflowers--they can grow 5 feet tall-- then the sunflowers will take all the sun and shade the trellis.If the trellis is on the south end the trellis will shade the sunflowers.
If on the other hand you grew dwarf sunflowers on the south side and Clematis the trellis, to the north of the sunflowers it would be perfect. Dwarf sunflowers grow no bigger than 3 feet and that would be the perfect height to shade the Clematis roots.
There are many different varieties of sunflowers. What you should look for, since this is more of a display area, is not the kind that get a single main head, but rather the kind that are intended for flower production and cutting. If you keep the spent flowers cut off, they will continue to bloom for most of the season. The single headed plants are pretty ratty looking by mid August.
For a vine, try planting one of the runner beans, scarlet, or pink. Edible pods and then edible seeds if you let them mature. The flowers are attractive to humming birds also. Plus, they are an annual so if you don't like them or they don't do well, you are not stuck with them next year. Good luck!
Steve
Oilpainter: Thanks for the advice. I'm hoping to plant this weekend and thought I'd put some 8-8-8 around the plants when I put them in the ground. Our weather in NE Mississippi has been wetter than usual and colder than usual, but it looks like nights will be staying above 50F. Let's hope for the best. Thanks again.
Especially in the case of slow growers, it is very important that you indicate on the label WHEN you seeded, WHEN the seed germinated. Many gardeners, myself included, look at their new seedlings so often, a week seems like a month, and we are sure NOTHING is happening. Al
I will look at starting later next year, although I also won't have to wait on the garden to be built before I plant, which will help. I was orginally going to plant them a week and a half sooner than I will be able to.
Maybe I can just leave them in the starting cells longer next time since they are 2x2x2 cells.. (thats gotta be 4-5 oz right? I'll check tonight). The only reason I pulled them out early was not everything had germinated. On my second germinating go-round everything was tomatoes and they all germinated together which was great, no early transplanting needed. I'll be able to leave those in there for longer before I have to transplant them up which is good.
Sigh - It's hard to be at work when I just want to be home playing with my plants :(
-T
I know what you mean. I felt that way 35 years ago, and truthfully, it's still just as fulfilling and even--yes, sometimes--exciting!
Seeds bring out great thoughts about life and how the world goes round...
I think that's one reason gardeners are often more mellow than some. With exceptions, of COURSE!
Paula
If your compost/old potting soil thing has been working for you, and you're continuing to sow the same kinds of seeds you've successfully sown in the past, it's probably fine. "Potting soil" can be so many things--I don't know what you're using. I've bought good stuff in the past, and I've also bought stuff that seems to be 50% sawdust or some such thing, and that doesn't do young plants any favors at all. Compost does have the risk of weed seeds, I suppose. If you know what's supposed to be coming up in your flat, that might not be a huge concern.
I do generally use fresh seed-starting mix that I either make myself (usually peat and perlite--and vermiculite if I have it) or buy (preference for Pro-Mix), but not always. And for tomatoes and tough things like that, I think a bit of compost can be beneficial. Sometimes I re-use my old stuff, and I don't sterilize. I won't re-use it if it was wet for a long time, has a green crust or smells funky. My rules of thumb are that I only re-use mix for things that I know are easy to grow and are sturdy as seedlings. Most vegetables fall into that category. Things that come up looking fragile or are as slender as hair I make sure to use a finer mix that's fresh.
And I'm in the peat-pellet haters' camp. I tend to underwater at times, and those things dry up on me seemingly in an instant. But they are fun to expand--sort of like Jiffy Pop.
What about leeks? Will they develop more than one long grassy type leaf?
"What about leeks? Will they develop more than one long grassy type leaf?"
That one long leaf is the plant. They will grow more, and some of the lower ones will turn yellow and wilt, but they all grow from the same base, not in a rosette or anything.
Sue