6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed

When you remove the dome you are going from 100% humidity to what ever your household humidity might be. Do you know what it is? I can tell if my cuttings are rooted by how they respond to to removing their tent. If they are not rooted the wilting will be dramatic and within a few minutes. This should not happen with seedlings unless the difference in humidity is great, or the area is moving a lot of air, or moisture is lacking in the root zone. Al

I did not mean to imply that a carbon monoxide detector would detect a natural gas leak, but when plants die so suddenly when exposed to the air in the area, it would make one concerned about the air quality, and for gardenwillie's safety, I was just trying to give him a direction to check. O.k.? : )

haha!
eric, i applaud you on your clean laundry room! mine is covered in dirt and strewn with pots, seed packets, and garden stuff and plants brought in for the winter :)

You should see the rest of the place, looks like the Tasmanian Devil came through! Thanks for the compliment!

Same happened to me. I was keeping my broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage a few inches under flourescents for 16 hours daily, yet they still grew leggy and fell over. I re-potted them up to their leaves, which did the trick beautifully, and they have since transplanted very happily.

Thanks, I will replant them up to their leaves:) That sounds better than waiting to see if they make it or don't. It helps to know it worked out well for you.

Your help is much appreciated!

I DO have a floursescent light in my basement..how close to the light to they have to be?

Preferably inches. Or less. It takes a lot of light hitting those leaves to convince the plants not to go leggy.

I assume 24 hours also?

That depends. There's still a good bit of debate about whether it helps, and it seems to vary from species to species and setup to setup. But in general, it usually helps.

I also chose to not spend money on new equipment. Here is my setup. Note that I am a first timer at this. Notice how I have the shop light bearing down on the seedlings. I go for 16 hours of light per day. When germinating your seeds I would recommend putting them someplace warm until they sprout, then move them to the light. Top of fridge, water heater, on the dryer when it is running... or your basement might be warm enough.

Also as tn_gardner stated, folks have been starting seeds in a window for many years.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Blooming plants can be had very quickly from cuttings. Soft wood cuttings root really easily with rooting hormones and warmth. Since wisteria needs regular pruning, maybe you can find someone to share cuttings with you.

Not only can seed grown wisteria take a decade or more to bloom, the quality and quantity of bloom can vary highly from plant to plant. I have heard that some plants from seed NEVER bloom... So, I hope you can find cuttings.

kms

I planted 1 wisteria plant 14 years ago and it has bloomed every year since then. Every seed that it makes also sprouts and will bloom in a year or 2! I have to take the seeds off or it will take over!

I've had almost all of my melon seeds germinate, and they're usually quicker than any other kinds of seeds for me (2-3 days), but I also put them on top of a heating pad. I think seeds take longer to sprout without bottom heat, so they could take a week or two if that's the case. I've also heard that older seed can take longer, but don't have personal experience with tihs. I'd probably give up after two or three weeks. I heartily recommend jiffy pellets for seed starting!

In my experience, melons and squash vary a *lot* in their germination time. With a flat of tomatoes, brassicas, lettuce, etc, once one pokes up, the others will usually all be poking up with in a couple days. Not so with melons and squash. My first plant up was a pumpkin. My next pumpkin didn't come up until a week and a half later. Same sort of thing with my muskmelons, watermelons, odessa squash, etc.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. IMHO, I find pumpkins and squash very rewarding as seedlings, because once they get going, all that stored energy really helps them take off fast.

I'm new at this and have started zinna seeds indoor and they are getting leggy and somewhat droopy. I feel it is too early to plant outside. Any help on what to do now? Do I transplant to another pot or directly outdoors in another week or so?
Thanks for all your help

"I'm new at this and have started zinna seeds indoor and they are getting leggy and somewhat droopy. "

"Leggy" virtually always is the way for a plant to say, "I want liiiiiight! Pleeeeease give me more liiiiight!!!!" It's their natural response to seeing shade in the wild: if they're shaded, that means there are other plants growing around them, so they don't need to worry about being strong, but they do need to get as tall as they can, as fast as they can.

Get them light ASAP. Got any blue LED christmas lights? Those are perfect, but you need a lot of them (a 100-LED string every square foot or so... less if you have a good reflector, but you'll still need a lot). White isn't bad either. Avoid red unless you have a good alternative source of blue light to supplement it. If you want a setup that you can do "cheap, easy, and local", fluorescents are your choice. For especially cheap and easy, go with CFLs. If you want to go large scale and don't have the upfront capital for a massive LED setup, metal halides are your best call, preferably with an electronic ballast. They really pour out the light and have a fairly good blue component. LEDs and fluorescent should be no more than a couple inches away from your plants, and packed in close together (unless you have a very good reflector setup). MH should be far enough away that the light feels just a little warm on your hands; you don't want to burn your plants. With fluorescent and MH (especially the latter), make sure you have enough ventilation.

As for bringing them outdoors, that depends on your weather. Whatever you do, don't rush it too much! The last thing you want is them dying of an unexpected late frost in the middle of the night. Also, with leggy plants, it's especially important to be gentle when acclimatizing them to the outdoors -- start with short periods of exposure and/or being kept out of direct sun.

Many native plants will have much better germination rates when temperatures fluctuate as it does in nature. Those plants I prefer to grow out of the greenhouse, subject to daily temperature changes and rain. I keep then covered with 1/4 inch hardware cloth for bird and other critter protection. Al

Low germ on Statice doesn't surprise me. Seed is notorious for not storing well - GENERALLY fresh seed is better with Statice. That said, we just did a germ test on some statice from a vendor that was 9 years old - and it had a germ of 88%. You may have just purchased the seed, but who knows how long it sat on your sources shelf. I would ask for credit on the marigolds and statice.

Ohh my they are small

I agree with Californian. I did my marigolds in pots last year for that very reason, and it worked out quite well. My mistake last year was actually with what the marigolds were acting as a border for: I wanted some "wildflowers", so I did direct sowing of a wildflower seed mix... but didn't realize that some of the wildflowers would get 8 feet tall! I hope they didn't shade out my apple tree and blackberries.