6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed

Not missing anything but I would question the info source. The average on all cole crops is 6 weeks before transplanting, 8 weeks max. Small, younger transplants tolerate the stress of transplanting much better than older, larger ones do.

Dave

Thanks for your help Dave.

My seedlings will be 7 weeks old when I transplant them into the garden, so they should be good.

I really appreciate everyone's patience with my completely inexperienced questions!

Mine too Dave--Mine is set to come on at 10C which is just about what yours is set at. My greenhouse is 6'x8' and consists of mostly shelves on 3 sides,with a square on the north end for me to stand and work. I have a pullout rack under the shelves on the east side for impatiens and begonias and a few hooks for hanging baskets in the rafters. It is as airtight as I can get it, but still needs suplimental heat at night.

We live in Northern Ontario and get colder nights than many of you do. In the daytime if the sun is shining it can be below zero outside and I will have to open the vents to let out the excess heat. The reason I described mine is to say that it costs me about $50 for the season to heat.

I open it in mid April and things are all out of it by mid June. Most of my heating is done in the first month. I start most of my seeds in the greenhouse. I do have a cold frame which gets the overflow the last month. because my greenhouse is too small to hold all I plant, but by then I scarcely have to heat anyway

You are lucky you have until June oilpainter - I have to have everything out by middle of May at the latest even with 60% shade cloth on. ;)

Ours is 18x30 with 6 auto vents and 2 big exhaust fans on the ends and when the sun is out come June it is still 110 in there. So the sides come off and the screens go on. Until then, since we try to keep the max temp at 65F we spend far more on cooling than we do on heating.

Dave

TIPS ON GERMINATING SEED.... No pretreatment... do NOT COVER SEED as light required for germination... soil temp for germination 75-78F taking 15-30 days to germinate.. Also apply 1/2 strength solution of fertilizer every week to promote germination. after germination..... 12 hour light / day needed for growth & run on dry side...

Thanks everyone! I will give them a shot, and keep you posted with results!

I will see if I can put them by the shed. If I don't put the moonflowers there, will the cup and saucer vines do good there? In a book I got at the library, it says that cup and saucer can climb rough surfaces (in my case the shed roof).

Brad AKA Moonwolf

Yes, either would do well there by your shed in full sun.

Keriann~

Sorry my temps were way off...

Air temps for seedlings should be 50-65 degrees.

I push it and mine do pretty well at 65-70 but they would be happier a bit colder.

Keriann~

Thank you all for your advice I wouldn't have known being I'm fairly new at this. I'm definitely going to replant the healthy plants asap.

Small weak stems is a sign of too little light so the supplemental light will help. You can also transplant them deeply into larger containers.

The coloring is normal for most seedlings and they get over it quickly once transplanted outside. Cooler temps, which can cause the color changes, are better than warmer ones so keep in mind that it may be a very different temp near that window than in the house as a whole.

Since fruit trees such as this have very different needs than the typical Growing from Seed questions you might also want to post your questions over on the Fruits & Orchards forum where they deal with fruit trees for more specific info.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Fruit & Orchards forum

Thanks for the advice

All of my plants are still in seed starting mix in the small trays (i.e the 3x3 trays where you can fit 72 into a flat). I am actually having the opposite problem I think... my plants seem to be drying out very fast. If I went more than a day w/o water I would (and have) likely lose some of the smaller seedlings. The older, larger plants are obviously more tolerable but I lost about 8 petunias the other day that were very small.. simply dried out and died. I've got the plants in the basement with a space heater going to keep it around 70 degrees and then a fan on low constantly - about 8 feet away.. just enough to see the seedlings move slightly in the breeze. I'm thinking that it's a combination of the fan and the small containers and that's why I'm having to water so often?

Why are you keeping it at 70 degrees? JMHO, I don't think you need to run the fan 24/7 unless you're having problems with damping off/too much moisture. If your only goal is to help encourage stronger plants with the breeze, that can be done by running the fan for an hour or so every couple of days. And it also isn't really necessary until the seedlings get a little bigger. Think about it; the wind doesn't blow constantly outside. Just my two cents, because I agree that they shouldn't be drying out that fast, especially in plastic cell packs.

Grow anything..how cold does your garage get? Have you monitored the temp on the set up at all? We still get some 15-20 degree nights here (garage is unheated and drops to 25-35 degrees overnight. I'm thinking similar set up with insulating material flaps around it so that I can use it for germination and continuing to grow the transplants. otherwiase it'd have to go in the basement. This is a really cool set up...I think my hubby just got something else added to his list:)

Yes, I did monitor the temps around the garage. It has been 10F-15F at nights, but the temps in the garage stayed above 35F. With all the lights on the stand the temps there were plenty high enough to germinate all my seedlings. A thermometer setting directly on the cardboard and between the seedling trays stayed around 75F. I started 1000 seedlings this year over a period of about 30-40 days. They are all outside now in the full sun and in a small heated, portable GH. I take the doors off the GH when the temps get +50 and cover the whole thing with a solar pool cover at nights if the temps are going below 25F.

I think I'm figuring that out! MOst of what I spent so far was using a Park gift certificate that I got for Christmas..It seemed a waste to use it buying seeds since I could get them so much cheaper elsewhere, and the marketing that claimed that you could keep them in the biodomes until transplant time...well a sucker is born everyday:)

Dave..when you transplant out of the sponges do you do anything special? I have read that sometimes the sponges prevent the roots from extending out. Should I try to remove some of the sponge or will I just do more harm? Have you ever used a seed start mix in the styrofoam flats (for the next time?) rather than getting more of the sponges?

You transplant the sponge and all and plant it deep so that it is totally surrounded and covered with firmly packed new growing mix. Otherwise it wicks water away.

The problem with trying to trim off any of the sponge is you can't always see what else you might be trimming off - like roots. ;) With tomatoes I transplant them up to just below the top set of true leaves. I bury the cotyledons and all - just as you would plant them in the garden. That means deep containers. We use 6" deep nursery pots but the 16 oz plastic cups Keri mentioned work well for many - just punch several drain holes around the outside edge of the bottom. A soldering iron or woodburner iron works well for making the drain holes.

And yes there is no reason why you can't use the cell tray filled with seed starting mix in the future. Wet it well, wring it out, and then pack the cells with it.

Dave

2000 ppm-that's pretty strong-interesting! Thanks.

I double checked that one when he said it.

He said it helped with seeds that you would usually nik or soak...not all seeds can take it that strong.

Keriann~