6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
Is it hot enough in your area for peppers to grow? Whenever I've tried to plant peppers too early they always make a point of maintaining a stunted growth when it's too early. If I plant them in the heat of summer, I can't keep up with them.
Thanks tuscanseed for easing my mind. I so don't want to repot if I don't have to; it is enough work moving my light up and down and watering all my seedlings. I fert. with 1/4 tsp. of 20-20-20 when I water understanding that with so many roots and so little soil, they need food.
I have over 100 plants going and they are starting to get on my nerves. My set up was so cute when they were just little seeds all organized under the lights, sharing heating pads, and all at the same stage of growth. But now, they each have their own personalities along with their own growth habits and their own needs for water. Come to think of it, they are a bit like my children but a lot quieter. My kids, (13 and 15) claim they want their independence so I guess my seedlings are filling that void. LOL
Thanks again for your help, I still have about 3-4 wks for my tender annuals (warm soil, etc.) but I am hardening off some of my snaps, four o'clocks, stock, digitalis, delph., sweet peas and should be able to get them in the garden by this weekend. I am zone 6b. Pa.
Ally
You are hiliarious. Just to add my 1 cent, I'm of the mindset that they're not too root-bound to growup to be nice, healthy plants. There are many times when I've had a much larger root mass than your pictures indicate and have not had problems with my plants (but that's just been my experience).
It's a recent iteration of my seed starting efforts that I've engaged in the process of repotting seedlings. Most of the time, I take the seedlings from the starter tray after they've hardened off and plop them into a plot of earth (with the primary problem being the slugs and snails realizing there was a smorgasbord of edibles for them to destroy).
And, I've only recently become a 'repotter' out of necessity because I'm running out of space in the garden in comparison to the increased number of seeds I start. I've found repotting just buys me a bit of time...although it's probably best for the plants in the long run. I've honestly not noticed a difference in the growth habit of any of my plants either way but can certainly attest to the fact that I've successfully yielded much vegetation and flora from my collection of root-bound specimen.
Best,
Julie
Thanks digdirt, tuscanseed and jeanne re feedback on seeds losing seed covers. Appreciate your assistance. Jeanne, you hit the nail on the head with planting depth. I replanted at approx. 3/8 to 1/2 and all seedllings have lost the covers. Fortunately, I have a wife with infinite patience who removed most of the clinging seed covers by hand and most of the plants look like they'll make it. On the down side, I now have enough seedlings to supply half of Michigan.
My ROS drop their seeds in my beds all the time and every spring I'm pulling up hundreds of seedlings. You could either try germinating the seeds in baggies with a damp coffee filter or just plop the seed into seed starting mix, keep moist and see what happens. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!
These are the germination suggestions from Gardens North
(OT - a very good reliable source for fresh and many unusual seeds even though being Canadian, purchasing a phytosanitary certificate for shipping is required)
"This species responds dramatically to GA-3. When treated, germination is in 2-4 weeks at warm. Without GA-3, keep seed warm for 3 months, followed by cold (summer sown, left out over winter accomplishes this simply)."
Your Fall sowing may have been a little late for 90 days warm preceding the chill.
Thanks, George! I guess I should keep them watered then, too? Wish I had started them earlier!
If it helps, they are the waxflower seeds offered by Gurney's
Here is a link that might be useful: 'Purple Belle' waxflowers
And there's the problem with common names. Your photo looks something like cerinthe major, were the seeds similar to large black beads but with edges, corners and not round, smooth?
Cerinthe - sow 1/4" deep, germination 5 - 21 days @ 70F. May be direct sown after danger of frost.
I don't buy seeds or plants either one from vendors who don't supply the botanical name...
I've heard of this happening to brugmansia seedlings, and from what I read about them, some survive and sprout true leaves, while some don't (to be the bearer of bad news, ~70%) I would say start a new batch, but don't toss these just yet, as long as the stems are green, you never know, they may sprout new leaves.
Origami_master: I'm so glad I read your post. I sowed some Brug seeds for the first time, and one germinated a few weeks ago with really pale, sickly-looking cotyledons. They've since died off but there do seem to be seed-leaves growing.
With the advice I got from people here I simply bought a shop light of 4' which had the bulbs for under $8 at Lowes. I put in 2 screw hooks from the floor joists above the basement and put the light on some chain. I connected the light to the chains with S hooks so I could move the lights up and down. I would say the total cost was about $12. I now have 18 healthy tomato plants, Aunt Molly's ground cherries and some pumpkins growing (a project with the granddaughter). I also have been taking all my plants outside for the past 3 weeks as soon as the temps are 45 degrees or better...of course I started slow to harden them off. I have been very lucky that the past week has been low's in 50's and highs in 70's so I have been leaving them outside with protection at night. They are now completely hardened off and doing amazing.
Hi Christie,
Hope you're following digdirt's advice. I couldn't say it better. If you're interested I'll go ahead and take measurements of my seed starting setup. It was rather cheap to make since I just used material that I had laying around. My tomatoes are about 18" and very full now. They're going in the ground this weekend. The peppers are over 8" and are going in a week after. The rest of my veggies are in now. The key is to give them lots of light. I've been leaving my lights on 24 hours and it's still not near as much as sunlight.
Good luck!
Rick
Depending on how big the area is that you've planted you might be able to try cutting the bottoms off some milk jugs and putting them over the seeds. If you leave the jug top off it won't get too hot, but it will be warmer than 62. I've read that pepper seeds (hots and bells) need soil temps of around 80 to germinate! Best of luck!!!
I attempted to start seeds (tomatoes) from a SASE that I got, and they didn't do well, thought they were all dead, so I went out and bought 84 plants (NOT at $3 per) I found some from a local nursery that were 3packs for $1) and then found some 9 packs (heirlooms) for $3 at Home Depot. Home Depot was cheaper than the $3 plants at Lowe's...I even found some singles of 1.09 or 1.19 I forget.
And then, out of nowhere, the once considered DEAD tom's have come to life, now I have 13 more plants to put out later this summer....glad I didn't toss them afterall.
I have my Greenhouse FULL of veggies, so many in fact that I'll never be able to plant them all, most of my seeds are from the dollar store, 4 for $1 and I have had better germination with those than almost all the ones I bought at the garden centers!!! So with so many growing, I put an ad online and am going to try to sell them...50 cents for veggies, and 1.00 for groups of herb seedlings. If that doesn't work out, I guess I'll open a farmers market in my back yard this summer :)
We bought a whole bounch of tomatoes in 6-cell trays at a local garden center for about $1.50 (maybe $2.50 each, I for get) for each tray. The plants were 4" tall. We even bought a really nice tomato plant in a (I think) a 1 gallon pot for about $2.50. The plant was about 2' tall and already getting a tomato on it. The single tomato plants about 4" tall were about $1.50 each. It's alot cheaper to buy the cell trays than the singles IMO.