6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed

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hatchjon

Beans don't transplant very well. Perhaps you could try to explain to her that beans liked to be planted directly in the garden? I have a feeling that 3 year olds are not very patient, but if she plants some outside after the weather warms up she will be eating beans soon enough.
In the interim why not start some tomato seedlings inside.

Jon

    Bookmark     April 3, 2009 at 3:35PM
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Karen Pease

Meh, it's soil. :) As long as it's not too dense and it retains water, I personally wouldn't worry.

    Bookmark     April 3, 2009 at 1:17PM
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morz8(Washington Coast Z8b)

Chloe, haven't grown it but from the book Oriental Vegetables, it looks like you may be sowing too deep. It's suggested there that some light may be beneficial to germination, sow the large seed only partially covered or as deep as 1/4". Soak overnight or nick before sowing.

The suggestions go on to say they will germinate but erratically direct sown, better may be to start them indoors and transplant plants when small before any sign of the taproot developing. Will germinate at temps as low as 50F (10C) but optimum results at 68-77F (20-25C)

    Bookmark     April 3, 2009 at 11:55AM
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Karen Pease

You're *trying* to grow burdock? Why? Do you need some Smartweed or Lamb's Quarters to go with it? I can send you a ton! ;)

    Bookmark     April 3, 2009 at 1:14PM
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retiredprof(7)

Sketches: I'm a Philly boy from way back, and I've never been able to over-winter cannas. You have to dig them up every Fall or they will winter-kill.

    Bookmark     April 2, 2009 at 6:08PM
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donperkins(MS z7b)

My cannas spread like crazy & the only time I have to dig them up is to move some to another part of the yard.

    Bookmark     April 3, 2009 at 2:27AM
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nbreau

thanks for the comments.

I water between the pellets as low as possible.

    Bookmark     April 2, 2009 at 9:38PM
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tn_veggie_gardner(7)

Absolutely remove the netting immediately. Those are some beautiful plants, but they won't be for long if you don't transplant within a day or two and move them to something bigger.Grab some 16-20 oz clear plastic cups & some MG Moisture Control. It may be hard to separate the plants in the same pellet, but i'd recommend getting a flat head screwdriver and also one of those mini-screwdrivers. Take the pellet & gently use the flathead screwdriver to break off the edges (don't get close to plants) of the pellets. Then, once you see some root, dig carefully around them with the mini screwdriver. Separate the plants, put into cups with some of the MG (make a little hole for the seedling so it gets buried almost up to it's first set of leaves). Firm the soil down with your finger lightly (so plant can still breathe & get some water) and so gthe plant stands straight up on it's own. Then, add a 1/2 inch or so more soil (still below or right at first set of leaves). don't press it down as much or at all. Get you a spray gun filled with some water (and maybe 1/4 teaspoon of MG Tomato food). Spray each seedling about 25 times (until water stands on surface for a while). Sit in a sunny location (inside for now, unless you're in FL). They will root them selves into their new home, literally over a few days (you'll see roots on the side of the cup when this is about done). Then, watch them babies grow until it's time to place in the ground, depedning upon your location).

Peace - Steve

    Bookmark     April 2, 2009 at 10:04PM
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jessicavanderhoff(7 Md)

that was supposed to say "plump" not "olump"

    Bookmark     April 2, 2009 at 9:01AM
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ashley_minnig

hello all good news , I think they got a little chilled for one thing but I highly believe it was the soiless mix I was growing them in. I didn't transplant until they developed there first set of true leaes and by then they started looking rather badd.

Within a week of transplant to a different mix containing sea based compost and fert. at 1/4 strength with "Neptunes Harvest Seaweed and Fish Emulsion they look great!

Here they are now. ( I should post the before pics! They looked AWFUL!)

    Bookmark     April 2, 2009 at 9:40PM
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tn_veggie_gardner(7)

When I do grow cucumbers or zuchini's, I never transplant. I always start the seeds in a normal large (and wide) container.

    Bookmark     April 2, 2009 at 2:01PM
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hatchjon

karenrei: Good point. I think I fell into the trap of assuming his climate was like mine, i.e still snow on the ground.

Jon

    Bookmark     April 2, 2009 at 7:54PM
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seattlemamadrama(8 - Seattle)

What a total bummer. Thank you for the warning. I am a new gardener too and we happen to own a labelmaker, but I went with the old Sharpie on sticks method. I was thinking about using the label maker for the next starts--warning heeded!

Good luck with your surprises! :)
Deb Seattle

    Bookmark     April 2, 2009 at 4:23PM
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ontheteam(5a-6 (S.Eastern, MA))

YA know the sharpie stick thing worked for a little bit till I started potting up.. Now I do not know which are the h ot peppers and which are the Bells...

    Bookmark     April 2, 2009 at 6:24PM
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hatchjon

You should be fine. Peppers should be started 8 weeks before planting out and tomatoes should be started 6 weeks before planting out. Both the peppers and tomatoes will start growing more rapidly over the next few weeks.

Make sure you water only when the soil is almost completely dry, and not just dry on top. If you are using tube floroescents you should have the plants as close as possible, touching is fine with t12 tubes but no more than 2 inches away.

Jon

    Bookmark     April 1, 2009 at 1:57PM
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witchywoman51(6-7)

Thanks so much for all of your help. I guess I just need to be a little more patient.

    Bookmark     April 2, 2009 at 5:57PM
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Karen Pease

I never fertilize seedlings, and the whole concept doesn't make much sense to me. Seedlings carry the energy and nutrients that they need for their early life in their seed leaves. The most mine ever get is a small amount of time-release fertilizer that I mix in when I make my soil mixture.

If your seedlings damped off, I'd assume you were watering too much. How do you determine your watering schedule? Also, what sort of soil are you growing them in? I'd be more concerned with fungus residing in your soil than on your seeds.

I'm curious -- was the damping off in seedlings that were watered with peroxide or not?

    Bookmark     April 2, 2009 at 12:26PM
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newbie_in_nj(6b E/Central NJ)

I've watered all the seedlings with 5% hydrogen peroxide water solution...including the few that damped off in that one 9 pack.

I used the Miracle Gro soilless seed germination mix.

Used ProMix with Biofungicide last year for starting seeds (without lights)and that mix was lighter. I liked it better.

I watered when they felt dry. Didn't think I was supposed to water on "schedule" whether they needed water or not. It's possible I overwatered and the others just didn't suffer.

    Bookmark     April 2, 2009 at 5:00PM
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retiredprof(7)

kawaiineko: I have to admit, your original post confused me as well. I suggest you start answering your question by doing some searching on this forum or the Vegetable forum.

Prof

    Bookmark     April 2, 2009 at 12:11PM
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Karen Pease

I never implied in any shape or form that the plants you
get at garden centers or nurseries that are vegetables are full grown plants.

Nor did I. I just commented that it seems weird to me to plan from the outset to grow your garden from store plants; I never claimed full grown. Please don't take everything so personally.

Now that this has been clarified, can I please receive an answer to my original question, which is this; which vegetables are best grown from seed, and which should be started using baby vegetable plants?

This is based on a faulty premise, though -- that there are some sort of common garden plants that are unreasonably hard to grow from seed, that an expert's help is needed. Nothing that you listed is at all hard to grow from seed or has long germination times. Long germination times are things like coffee, some flowers, a number of trees, etc. Mostly exotic things. What you listed are classic garden plants, and the traditional way to grow a garden is from seed. If your garden is any sort of reasonable size, buying large numbers of nursery plants every year will cost you a pretty penny indeed.

You should be happy with this news! You wanted to grow things from seed, and lucky for you, that's very easy for common garden plants like you listed above. Now, if you ever want to grow sequoias, or kauri, or something of that nature...

By starting the ones that take longer to germinate indoors I mean this; you plant them under grow lights, and wait for them to germinate. When they're big enough to be transplanted you transplant them to a bigger container. When the seedlings are big enough you gradually harden them off, and then you finally transplant them to the container you intend to grow them in, or directly into the ground that is your gardening plot.

You're making this needlessly complicated. In general, for plants started indoors, you just plant your seeds in little planter pots, cover them up with a little soil, keep them watered (preferably from the bottom) and in a place where they can get enough light so they won't get leggy, and in general just let them do their thing. You don't typically keep re-transplanting them unless you started way too early for some reason; they'll go straight from your planter pots to where you want them to grow for good (after hardening, of course).

There are lots of variants on this, of course -- peat pots, peat pellets, germinating in plastic bags, and so on down the line, but it all works out to basically the same thing. Starting from seed isn't nearly as hard as you're making it out to be. The only real challenge, in general, is making sure they get enough light. And all seedlings need this, not just a select few (although some are more likely to die with insufficient light than others -- lettuce, brassicas, etc).

The only transplanting I generally do apart from putting them straight into the ground is if I need to thin out some seeds; the ones that get removed get put into pots of their own. Transplanting shocks plants, slowing down their growth. Also, you want your plants to have a nice rootball that roughly fills the pot by the time they get put in the ground. If the plant is in too big of a pot, it'll lose all of the dirt, its roots will hang free, and there'll be more transplant shock.

Not all plants need to be started indoors. In fact, some are best started outdoors because they're more sensitive to being transplanted (melons and squash are the classic examples of this). In general, almost anything *can* be started outdoors, but you'll generally get a later start on the season when you do. And if some plants are marginal where you are (for example, eggplant is for us), if you don't start indoors, it may not make it to harvest before it gets cold again.

    Bookmark     April 2, 2009 at 12:16PM
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trillium15(z5a Ontario)

Thanks. Do they need to be gently eased into cooler temps or can I move them right now and leave them there?

    Bookmark     March 31, 2009 at 8:33AM
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jessicavanderhoff(7 Md)

I think that amount of temperature drop could cause the plants to wilt a little (although it would probably not kill them). Maybe you could move them in during the warmest part of the day, to ease the transition?

    Bookmark     April 2, 2009 at 11:17AM
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Karen Pease

How long ago did you start them in those containers? If you started them in there just now, they should be fine.

    Bookmark     April 2, 2009 at 12:11AM
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jessicavanderhoff(7 Md)

Glad to hear that :-)

    Bookmark     April 1, 2009 at 2:34PM
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tn_veggie_gardner(7)

Some plants tend to "stall" their growth above soil somewhat for varied times after being transplanted. It's the period I hate the most cuz it often makes me think they're gonna die, but I just wait it out & treat them like normal and they start back growing again. After a transplant, the seedling will tend to get it's hold on the soil again & grow some more roots before it takes back off above soil.

Peace - Steve

    Bookmark     April 1, 2009 at 6:07PM
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