6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
I plant my seeds in recycled plastic mushroom boxes that I have punched holes in the bottom of. They are just a nice size to hold a package of seeds. I use recycled grocery store clear bakery containers as tray and humidity cover, or regular trays with a humidity cover, until they sprout.
When They get their second set of true leaves(the first leaves are seed leaves)I transplant them into pots or packs--plastic containers that have compartments. I use pro mix or a soilless mix for cuttings and seeds.
These containers I use over. Before I put these away for the summer and winter, I wash everything with soap and a little bleach--to kill anything that may be there. Beytter to be safe than sorry
I plant my morning glories in styrofoam cups with holes poked in the bottom. They are not invasive here and I spend a lot of time in my yard so if I do get something that is invasive i can trim it back or whatever to keep it
from taking over. I'm going to try some up next to my block wall this year as I'd love to cover it up.
Happy Gardening,
Pam
I see you are using those Jiffy peat pot trays.
How do you like them?
It looks like you have a lot of water in the bottom (but the stick keeps it from laying in it?).
Have you found it hard to regulate water? Are they sturdy?
Keriann~
Actually the stick was just laid in the tray by accident. I like the trays, but they are not real sturdy. When you double them they get much stronger. I even use the clear cover under them after I remove it and that makes them triple thick. I think I may have just watered that tray when I took the photo. As soon as they all sprout I move them from the lights to my mini-greenhouse.
If you are just looking for a 'tray' to hold your pots from things around the house..... After they germinate what about a cookie sheet with a 'cooling' cookie rack the paper pots sit on with about an inch between the paper pots for airflow? The cookie rack would have to sit just at water level but then you could just bottom water and the paper pots would wick it up as needed? Just a thought My only other suggestion would be a 1020 tray without holes (large black garden flat) that you could set all your pots into. I know Menards sells them and their ridged bottom helps to keep the pots from drowning.
No matter what you use... your friends should be very thankful. Best of luck. Happy gardening!
Keriann~
Ok, folks, I see we have a good group of experienced seed-sowers...
I have a bunch of small to medium plastic containers that I saved over the course of last summer. You know the kinds that you find in the blueberry/strawberry department? Well, they could not be recycled, and I wanted to reuse them. I have plenty of nursery containers in which I have purchased plants over the course of a period of 5 years or so. My thought is to start the seeds in these smaller transparent containers, which already have drainage holes in them, at first covering them with the throwaway plastic bags that a available from the grocery store, rather than spending money on Saran Wrap. After the seedlings have germinated, take off the plastic bags and let them grow until they are read for the "prick off" stage, and then put them into the appropriate size container for growing them on. Also I have read that chamomile tea is excellent for preventing damp-off and other soil-born fungus. I have made up a weak tea mixture into a spray bottle from the kitchen that was originally intended for spraying on olive oil. I have already ran that throught the dishwasher, and also disinfected it with a Clorox solution of which I am also now using to clean the containers, and then, of course, changing the waters frequently, as the most of the labels were able to be scrubbed off as well. I am almost finished washing all of my nursery containers.
Anyone see any problems with my plan? Thanks!
Hmm, I dunno, I guess it was just one of those things I had heard and never questioned. I've never had a shortage of space and the types of lettuce I like grows like crazy, so I guess I've never really looked into it. Good to know for future reference, though. Thanks!
I used a foot warmer mat that I had bought many years ago to keep my feet warm when I had to work in an unheated building, it was made by Tripp Lite. My tomato seeds sprouted in four days using it. It is rated 75 watts so gets quite warm, but if you have a thick layer of dirt and don't have a dome over your seeds it didn't overheat the top of the soil where the seeds were.
Hey, Tomtuxman....I agree with you. If you have the time and patience, you might get something interesting, even if it did not match the hybrid plant. Have you ever planted dried beans? They are cheap, and I read somewhere that if you harvest them early, you can use them as green beans. That would be a huge savings compared to seed packets.
Average germination time for astilbe is 21-60 days, any seedlings appearing within that time frame would be considered the norm.
Your Bayer product/imidacloprid was overkill and I hope you didn't mean you sprayed this in an enclosed environment, like indoors. Imidacloprid isn't appropriate treatment for gnats. It's use outdoors is even in question given the possible consequences to bees and pollinators.
A very effective safe for you/your seedlings approach would have been to use BTi - Bacillus thuringiensis israelenis - for fungus gnat and mosquito larvae. But it was too soon to assume fungus gnat larvae were feeding on seedling roots.
While damp-off is most common at the soil line it can actually affect any part of the stem. Damp-off can even affect large transplants after they are in the garden.
In this case most likely the stems were infected at the soil line but the symptoms weren't apparent until the plant had grown past the soil line. A bit simplistic I know but picture the fungus attached to the stem and riding it up the stem until growing conditions were right for it to activate.
Lower the air temperature, decrease the humidity, and increase the consistent air circulation for the rest of your seedlings.
If you want an experiment to do, snip off the affected seedlings a bit below the damaged part of the stem and leave the rest of the stem to see what happens. Some have reported they have been able to salvage affected seedlings this way and new growth develops from the roots once the growing conditions are changed. See what happens with yours.
Dave
The smell is caused by bacteria growing in it, just like if you had a bucket of kitchen waste full of water.
If it's worth it to try to keep it, spread it out fairly thinly on something that drains well. Vinyl window screening cut to fit the bottom of some flats comes to mind. And sit them out in the full sun until they're dry. If it's going to rain again, put them under shelter.
You CAN put them in the oven, but the smell is worse than you can believe -- really bad!
If it isn't crucial that you use this particular bag, just toss it into the garden like Calistoga suggested.
If you have seeds that are very important to you, don't use this soil to start them.
And keep your potting soil out of the rain.
Sue
Yes begonias are slow to get started, even from tubers. They just seem to sit there for a while then all of a sudden they seem to spurt up.
Yes I would wait until they get their second true leaves. I would off set or raise slightly your humidity cover so the plants get some air circulation and it will still keep in the moisture. However when they are getting close to all having their second leaves I'd get rid of the cover.
Since you don't have lights or greenhouse, I'd move them outside in the day when the weather is warmer and bring them in at night. Put them in a protected spot in shade. If you leave them on the window sill they tend to get leggy and lean towards the sun.
Tried the plants, or tried Plant World? I order from them, would certainly recommend. They ship well handled seeds that are as they describe.
The angelica should be fairly straightforward...pre treatment not required but a 2 week moist chill might improve germination.
No pretreatment for the silene either but germination can sometimes be slow for s. dioica that appeals to you. Keeping that in mind, you might want to get going on that order coming from overseas.
Wow, everything looks great! I'm so jealous of your seedlings, all I have are little begonias and lobelia that are soooo teeny tiny and take forever to grow. But we just got another 4 inches or so of snow yesterday, so that's helping me remember that it's still too soon to start anything else up here. :)
Thanks, they are not getting much sunshine these days. We have had lots of rain and the temps are still real low. I know I started everything early, but I wanted to try and get my plants as large as I could before they get planted. Next problem will be re-potting. I do hope for some sun for a few days.
Leave them for now, they are too young to pinch. The habit of ivy geranium is more vine like, it's not unusual to find some of the stems longer. If you want bushier plants later, pinch back the growing tips when your seedlings have gained a bit more size and have more than one leaf per each stem. Pinch, or cut, just above a leaf - clearly you don't want to do this when a stem has only one leaf. :)
There is a latent growth bud located at the node (node = the point on the stem where each leaf is attached). Cutting of pinching off the growth just above that node will cause that stem to branch out. More branching will mean more flowers.
Some longer stems on ivy geranium aren't necessarily a bad thing though...leaving some of the longer growth to spill over the side of a large container or drop down from a hanging basket may be desireable too, depends on how you plan to use them.
Well i must say your ivy Germaniums are growing absolutely well. IF you think that some stems are de-shaping the plant and giving it bad looks then you can cut them to some descent level otherwise keep them going.