6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
Do I juggle all the harden off periods?
You can if you want to but IMO it just makes it more complicated. ;)
Your safe plant out date is May 15th. I would wait till 10 days before that that then do them all at once. It saves all the toting in and out hassles. Out they all go - gradually increasing the time each day a bit - and then they stay out.
Good luck and enjoy your plants.
Dave
Thanks! That makes more sense to me..doing it all at once.
Everyone here is a little nervous after last year's late freeze. It was my first year trying to garden and I didn't know what I had killed or what nature had done. Some people lost all roses and peonies didn't bloom...so I won't be in a hurry and let them hang out under the lights a little longer. Thanks again.
They can take up to another 6 months after stratifying to germinate (35 - 180 days after chill) so don't give up. In this milder climate, I usually Fall sow mine outdoors for early Spring germination rather than store the seeds, seems to work.
Bookmark this site below. Here is the photo of a zinnia seedhead, seed, and seedling. Zinnia seeds have a bit of plump to them if they are fertile, as many zinnia seeds are not viable in the seedhead.
Here is a link that might be useful: Photo of zinnia seed.
Hi Dave,
I love that setup you have. I was wondering if you would be willing to share some specifics (e.g. dimensions, kind of wood, how the lights are attached to the wood frame). I am having a crisis - got the bright idea to start seeds and since I had a little growbox setup in the basement where my jasmines live, I germinated the seeds in there (high temps, light, humidity). Unfortunately, the first batches (cosmos and nasturtium) are breaking my heart. The cosmos shot up and I think maybe because the temps were too high they grew too fast i.e. the length of the stalks between the surface of the soil and where the cotyledons emerge is too long (2"-4"). The result was that the stalks are too spindly to support the top of the seedling so now they are all growing lying down :-(
I read somewhere that you could bury them in soil, stalk and all, upto a point close to where the cotyledons attach but I don't know if that will help these guys. Maybe it's worth a shot? I have now decided to remove the seedlings from the growbox as soon as the seeds germinate and put them on a windowsill (lower temps so perhaps they won't shoot up in this abnormal fashion). Basically don't know what's going on - I know it's not daamping off because even though they are lying down, the seedlings look healthy and are happily sprouting their true leaves - so sad, they probably will not make it into the ground ever.
Anyway, sorry about the long sad story. I guess getting your kind of set up might help prevent this happening to all the 500 (slight exaggeration)other seeds I'm starting. I really appreciate any advice you could provide.
This was supposed to be a zen activity and it was thrilling to see the little green shoots coming up but now I've probably ended up dooming them all.
Best regards,
Amna
For the fencing idea, you got me beat on the cheap. I use masonry remesh wire as it has 6" x 6" spacing and is made of welded iron, but that costs about $6 USD at Lowes per 4' x 7' section... then I have to be bothered with cleaning off the rust, priming and painting - but I'm a little anal retentive and have little "form over function" in my blood.
As for the humor, I love it. When I tell people I lost over 85 lbs in eight months they always ask me how and I tell them it was easy once I dumped the first 180 lbs (my ex-fiancee)... :grins:
Any possibility you could put them outdoors? I see you live in Nashville. I have my radishes in a greenhouse, as I'm in Wisconsin, but it should be much warmer down there, and radishes are a cool weather crop anyway. You'd just have to "harden them off" like you do anything else. And you'd have to protect them from any freezing weather, although there shouldn't be that much for you by now (Lucky you!) The only other thing you can do is pull them out and replant. By the way, how much nitrogen do you have in your mix? This can also cause a lot of top growth at the expense of the vegetable. Just a thought. MacThayer
lol @ the freezing weather comment. We went from having lows in the 50's for three weeks to having two days of 30(F) nights, now we've gone back to the spring weather.
Last year we had a month of very warm spring like weather and then a hard freeze for four nights that killed all a lot of vegetation that had grown (my six oaks lost all their budding leaves) and the followed by a drought that left us two feet below our annual rainfall. I've only been down here for two years from Detroit and the weather here is decidedly CRAZY.
Regarding the radishes, I figured the best thing would have been to leave them outside and let nature take over, either way I'm not losing anything by doing it. The nitrogen content may be an issue too because I used an old back of potting soil to grow them and there's a good chance it contained fertilizers as I can see the little green "bubbles" of it mixed it... d'oh.
What can I do to help these plants get strong enough to be planted outside?
Do some research on "hardening off plants". It is the slow, gradual process of adapting plants grown inside to growing outside without the shock yours experienced. There are many discussions here about how to do the process properly and tons of info available on the web.
Good luck with your plants.
Dave
Here you go. The previous discussion linked below should answer all your questions. ;)
Dave
Here is a link that might be useful: Trimming Onions
I just did some repotting last week as well, for my tomatoes. I didn't have any seed starter mix, but I did have a high quality soil-less mix. It did seem a bit "heavy" so I mixed in some perlite, plus some organic tomato fertilizer. So far, so good. Also, I've been watering them with dilute Chamomile tea. That has always worked great for me in terms of preventing damping off and other fungal problems. (It also helps with germination, I've discovered). Regular black tea also works, but not green tea..
Part of the reason seedlings do not grow straight up has nothing to do with the light. Of course, it always helps if you keep the light very close to the top of the plant, and raise it slowly, so it grows upwards toward the light. However, what is missing is a source of wind that will "stress" the stems and make them grow stronger. This happens naturally as they grow outdoors. The stress of the wind actually changes the composition of the cells in the stem as they grow, producing a stronger, more fibrous result. For indoors, I use a fan to "stress" my seedlings so they grow with a stronger stem. Hope this helps! MacThayer
here's one that shows companions and incompatible chart
here's another from wiki