6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
I used the Burpee 72 pod ultimate kit (self watering tray). The Burpee disks you put warm water on worked very well for me - 70 out of 72 tomatoes, eggplant, peppers sprouted and are doing well. The self watering container worked fine. I don't have a heating mat - two lamps with standard 100 watt bulbs provided the heat for germination. Then $20 for a two bulb 4 foot fluorescent shop lite, with one standard bulb, one "daylight" bulb. The tomatoes are already transplanted to larger containers. Peppers & eggplant coming along fine. I used stack of books to prop the light a few inches over the sprouts.
In general, it's better to underwater (meaning to provide less water than is necessary) than to overwater (meaning to drown your seedlings in massive amounts of water). Because it's easier to correct the dry plant problem (provided it's not too late), than it is to correct the soaked soil problems (damping off, mold growth, etc).
The cells should start to seem a little on the dry side, before watering, and therefore before fertilizing with a diluted solution. The amount depends on the size of the plants, and their need. In general, make too much dilution, and water sparingly at first, and if your plants soak it up quickly, and the top hasn't been moistened yet, add some more. Eventually you will figure out how much you are adding.
Agree with all eaglesgarden said above.
An easy way to do it if all you have is 1 tray is just mix up a jug of the liquid fertilizer you are using and water - a 1/2 gallon milk jug works fine - and follow the directions on the label to make it 1/2 strength or weaker (I often use 1/4 strength). Then pour about 3/4-1 inch in the bottom tray, wait a few minutes until the top of the soil in the cells appears damp and then tip the tray and pour what is left in it back into the jug. Cap and save it till next time.
Dave
Oh boy, I get to show off my limited knowledge.
The green comes from Chlorophyll. Not green until the light puts it to work. 62 years ago, when I was sleeping in class, I remember the teacher saying some thing about there being both green and red or brown Chlorophyll I bet Goggle would have a lot to say.
When starting onions from seed I always plant the seed in a container and transplant the seedling into the garden. It is impossible to plant the seed without getting them much too close together. From a purchased two inch container of seedlings you can easily get 50 transplants. Al
As long as the seed is under the ground it can't freeze unless it's a hard frost that freezes the ground to where they are.
Poppies don't freeze easily anyway. I have had poppies reseed themselves and come up the next spring.
All you are doing with your milk bottles is warming the ground and maybe making it too hot if the excess heat has no where to escape to. You would be surprised just how hot it gets under plastic. Be sure to remove the bottles when they sprout or you will have fried poppies
It may be a little early, but they probably will not germinate right away. I usually wait to direct sow warmer season crops until around the last frost date (May 10th in my area). I am not sure weather or not the frost will have an affect on your specific seed.
Thanks for the info, Sarah! I haven't had many responses. Yours definitely helps, but i'll still probably read up on them today to get my facts straight. =) I'll prob make myself a little cheat sheet of sorts for them since i've never grown any of them before.
- Steve
Here is a link that might be useful: Steve's Garden
I would have started all of those 6-8 weeks ago.
You may want to try wintersowing or direct sowing.
Successful supplies:
Sterile potting soil and/or seed starting mix.
Well vented growing area
Lights
containers
trays to catch water when bottom watering
plant ID labels/tags
fertilizer
and enough room to keep your plants happy without crowding them.
Keriann~
Many, many, many hints and advice in all of your plants here in this forum. Search each one to find more specific answers.
No photos, but I can tell you about them. A leggy Tomato and pepper will have a weak thin stem with lots of space between the leaves and branches. It just looks weak. A perfect Tomato or pepper plant will have a thick stem It will be compact and bushy and the branches will be closer together.
I haven't tried Delphiniums myself, but according to "The New Seed-Starters Handbook," it says to keep the planted seeds dark.
Here's an interesting trial someone did, growing some in darkness and some with light - it looks like either would work.
Yeah, I have that and have also read that. I was just surprised that some of the seed packets recommended light and others dark. I wondered if there was any reason I should adopt one method over the other. I guess not. And, thanks, that trial was interesting.
Just pull the mulch back in places and direct seed, cover with soil and wait for germination. Once the young seedlings are established you can put the mulch back into place. In your climate keep in mind that mulch will keep the soil too cool for germination until well into the summer.
Dave
One thing to watch for: the air indoors is drier than the Sahara desert because of the HVAC system. If seedlings have grown for long in high humidity, their stomata are open, and some genes may be turned on in the seedling adapting the plant to expected high humidity. Hitting extremely dry air can be harmful to the leaves even if the roots are moist.
As you can tell by the other responses, we've all overplanted seeds. It seems like the smaller the seed; the more viable they are and form a carpet of plants when they all sprout. I volunteer as a propagator at a local arboretum and have found that a couple of common eating forks is best for jiggling and teasing the plants apart.
I might also suggest you join a garden club or other similar group where you can trade or exchange plants.
What I do with a large quantity of small seeds is use a plug tray with 200 cells. I first fill the plugs with my seed-starting mix (Miracle-Gro with 50% perlite) and then dump it out into a pile. I add around 200-400 small seeds to the soil, mix in the seeds homogeneously, and then put it all back into the cells. I keep the mix moist and have excellent germination. Usually I have one or two seedlings in each plug. I grow them on till time to transplant outside or into a larger-volume cellpack. If I have two or more seedlings in a cell, I either tease them apart or sacrifice all but the strongest one. Even if the seeds need light to sprout, at least some will end up at the surface of the plugs; ditto if they need darkness since some seeds will inevitably be covered. I collect my own wildseed around Houston and SE Texas so have lots to play with.
That's really strange. Do you have them on a heat pad? I've had soil stay moist under a dome for literally weeks without watering it. I suspect either your heat is way too hot and causing the soil to dry out or that your soil wasn't moist enough to begin with. Regardless, all you can do now is wait and see. Sometimes they will still germinate, sometimes not.