6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
mori1, I'm guessing we've been dealing with some very similar weather.... ;)
I removed the Agribon today.......... Let's hope we can get on with spring now.....
My tomatoes, peppers, & melon (transplants) all look terrible even though they were covered! I've lost several sweet pepper plants in spite of my best efforts.....
Does gardening have to be this difficult?
>> Is this normal?
Not really, but the peat pellets don't do much beyond the germination thing which is really all they're designed to do. At this size they should be getting some nutrition beyond the trivial amount in the peat. I'd say to either fertilize the peat or, preferably, put them in the ground or cups or pots right away, pellet and all.
Ah! My favorite topic. I strongly believe that messing with roots on annuals you've just started (in other words this ain't trees in pots) is a mistake, so I never mess with the integrity of peat pellets. There is nothing about them that will harm or hinder a seedling that's sending out roots into another medium. There isn't a root (nature's mighty hydraulic machine) growing on this green earth that will be slowed down in the slightest by that nylon mesh. When you pull the plant later the pellet will probably be completely intact but surrounded by roots that are ignoring it.
That said, many people play with their little roots a lot and it works out just fine, but those guys are experts in all that. They know what kills and what encourages. I would never recommend stripping the pellets, but for you this is an opportunity to see which way works best with the way you do things.
There are two main limitations of peat pellets that you should remember. One is that they drain so easily that they can dry out too easily, but being surrounded by a transitional medium in the Dixie cups negates that. Secondly they have low nutritional value, so a transplant into something once the roots start reaching out is usually a good idea.
you can take two paper towels and put them on a plate. Wet the towels so that it has a skim of water over it. spread the seeds on this. put one paper towel over the seeds and if necessary add water to create the skim. you can set this in a window with sun. It will dry out quicker than you think so make sure you watch closely. Wet to replace skim of water. Once you see some of the seeds start to open reduce water to just dampen the towels. Plant when seeds are all sprouted. Good luck.
I always preferred to grind a bit with a Dremellike tool. Some nail files were good.
As for germination on paper towels, some say use the brown ones if you plan to remove and plant the seed after germination as the root hairs are supposed to be less disturbed by removal from the towel.
Being under lights I had to keep up with watering daily since the soil dried quickly.
Watering daily? Sorry but even smaller containers than the cups you are using and even under lights, daily watering is very uncommon. Maybe every 2 days. The soil may appear dry on the surface but it isn't dry down at the root level. It is better to go by the appearance of the plants - any drooping leaves, any loss of turgidity in the stems - than by the soil appearance.
Most inexperienced growers are way over-watering, even when they are convinced they aren't and stunted root development results.
So maybe they want more food.
What food have you given them and how often? A diluted solution of a well balanced fertilizer weekly is the common recommendation. But given the poor root development I would mak it any stronger than 1/4 normal strength.
Are there drain holes in your cups? There should be and if so then bottom watering is always better than top watering.
Dave
Dude.... the soil comes dry to a crisp under lights with a small amount of soil. It requires most times daily watering and YES... plenty of holes for drainage and there's a little bit of water in the pans for them to soak some water up.
I haven't use any food for the starters... I used decent potting soil.... never been a problem with anything else but these I mentioned above... and mint is hard to grow period in pots.
I SLOWLY introduced them to light... started with shade in the evening.. 20 minutes each for several days... brought back to lamps.... introduced more sun... quit growing. I've followed the rules by professionals... done so same with many other types of plants and not a problem.
Has anyone experienced what is happening here???? I surely can't be the only one. I don't know if my thread got in the right Colum.
Nice update! Always nice to see experiments. I encourage it.
And encourage back-up 'insurance' starts/plants. : )
Those of us in northern climates need to try various methods as every spring can bring crazy temps and late winter-like storms. Prevents 'hysterical' gardening. Enjoy the challenges, makes it interesting. Accept failures and let it roll of with acceptance.
I noticed two different fabric weaves in my garden shed last weekend. Not planned. Just bought-it-when-i-saw-it. (A few yrs ago).
I may have to 'speed' plant a few things early this coming weekend due to work. (may be out of town a few weeks)
Might just hoop and lay over double or four fold a dozen toms and let nature/weather decide the outcome.
Water the pot thoroughly before attempting to remove any plants. I would tip the whole pot onto its side and tip out the whole clump of soil onto a sheet of plastic or something. Easier imo to disentangle roots like that than by attempting to dig down.
When I planted this morning they were not root bound too badly. I only fertilized once...on May 1st which was when I brought them outside for the first time. I made a diluted fish emulsion solution fertilizer in a five gallon bucket and dunked each plant for about 2-3 seconds. All 52 plants (14 varieties x 3 plants each).
When I planted this morning they were not root bound too badly. I only fertilized once...on May 1st which was when I brought them outside for the first time. I made a diluted fish emulsion solution fertilizer in a five gallon bucket and dunked each plant for about 2-3 seconds. All 52 plants (14 varieties x 3 plants each).
One old trick is to mix tiny seeds with sand. The idea seems to be to improve the chances of putting a seed down near another while reducing the chances of clumping them up.
Remember the movie Summersby with Richard Gere? He came back with an extremely tiny (but extremely expensive) amount of teeny tiny tobacco seeds. They mixed them with dry sand and then broadcast them is seedling flats to sprout. Don't remember? It was a bad movie anyways.
Park Seed has a seed dribbler at http://parkseed.com/pro-hand-seeder/p/06528/
Burpee has a cheaper and simpler version at http://www.burpee.com/seed-starting/handy-seed-sower-prod001219.html?omn2pd=bz&catId=cat230002&trail=
Or you could hold the seeds on a folded piece of contrasting paper that makes it easier to mete them out carefully.
Here is a link that might be useful: Summersby
Thanks for your kind suggestions... I'll look into them.
...Gary
"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature -- the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter."
â Rachel Carson, "Silent Spring"
Don't soak the seeds! And mimosa plants love to grow in medium that covers the seeds loosely, ive got many many mimosa seeds sprouting this spring cnt wait till they get bigger! What i did was take the seeds plant them 1/4 inch away from each other after thoroughly wetting the soil which is a mix of fast draining peat and perlite, cover the seeds with a light layer of soil make sure it's loose-ly covered! - then wrap some plastic wrap over the top held in place with a rubber band, and put it in a sunny warm window for a while don't water until the seedlings sprout about 2-3inches and remove the plastic and water when soil ids completely dry, first start in a cut out bottom of a plastic cup with no drain holes then after they get bigger transplant them into a bigger pot with fast draining soil and drain holes, good luck hope you give it another TRY!
Jada, no you cannot mulch over sown seeds. One of the benefits to mulching is it will prevent the germination of weed seeds that are present, but it will prevent the germination of any seed including those you want to grow.
One common reason for failure to germinate is sowing seed too deeply. Your mulch would add to that depth.
Those seedlings will need to find sunlight shortly after germination, or they die. The struggle through mulch can be deadly if they run out of energy before exposed to sunlight, their only source of energy upon germination.
And there are some species of plants that have seeds which need sunlight in order to initiate germination. It will be your job to do a little bit of time researching each of the varieties you intend to plant.