6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
i love sowing in trays, but if ya have to use those peat thingi,s at least empty them into the trays, for some reason its worked better for me that way, now i just use stay green starter soil, works great!! and is cheaper than miracle grows. i love it!! i never knew about some of the things about dark germinataion til ponderosa lemons! LOL now i know they need the dark to germinate. mine never germinated, but once they were covered they did, the first ones i had forever never germ, but once cov. they did. ones i just got i covered inadvertantly right away and they germinated right off the bat!!! LOL its crazy about this stuff. just had to add this, dunno why :'))
I have used Jiffy 7 pellets for many years with ZERO problems. I use the "greenhouse" with 25 pellets 5x5.
Soak them to expand, open up the mesh on top and plant.
As soon as I start getting germination I remove the clear top an put them under lights. I have always had very good germination results.
I can't say much about flowers, as I don't really normally start any, only vegetables, mostly tomatoes and peppers.
I transplant up to newspaper pots filled about 2/3 with Miracle Grow potting soil when they are ready.
Always water these from the bottom.
In the extremely unusual event I see mold or whatever I use a very dilute solution of hydrogen peroxide (3% dilulted 20:1) in a small sprayer.
The last 2 years I have also used a heat mat which speeds things up considerably. I have the cheap one (about $20) with no thermostat. It heats about 10-15 degrees above the ambient temperature.
JMO,
Tom
I bought one about 5 years ago and am really happy with it. It's great as long as you don't have rock hard soil. I had to get a more powerful tiller to make new beds in areas that haven't been turned in 30 years but the Mantis works very well in existing gardens or soil that's fairly loose. It will work on compacted earth but you have to go over the same area so many times.
Karyn
OK, Plan B, for helichrysum -
Surface sow, do not exclude light, @ 75ºF, grow on after germination @ 65ºF , germination in approx 7-14 days from sowing.
(On the surface, do not cover, you said you put them at their specified height/depth, the depth should be on top the sowing medium and just gently pressed in to make good soil contact, then mist to keep moist.)
Sure looks like spider mites to me. But instead of the Murphy's mix (the oil/soap combo has been undermined lately by new research as ineffective - the oil and soap seem to work against each other) try the oil baking soda mix: 1 T light vegetable oil (not olive oil) and 1 tsp. baking soda in a gallon of water and shake well. be sure to get the soil and undersides of the leaves too.
The soil in your photos looks awfully wet too. did you just water? Try letting them dry out more between watering too. But keep in mind that the SM can travel - get the seedlings further away or they will just get re-infected.
Good luck. ;)
Dave
Here's a link with some suggested temps.
Here is a link that might be useful: Hardening off temps.
The white stuff sounds like a type of fungal contaminate called "cobweb mold" and often times be remedied with a little H2O2 (3% hydrogen peroxide) sprayed directly on the contaminate.
The actual mold is growing beneath the surface of the soil and as it's mycelium (fungal roots, for lack of a better term) consolidates control over the soil it can litterally drown the plants by not allowing any oxygen to filter down into the roots where it needs it. Remember, the leaves need CO2 (carbon dioxide) but the roots need O2 (oxygen) to survive.
Most people advocate bottom watering but this often times only perpetuates the damping off diseases such as the one it sounds like you're experiencing.
generally speaking, I don't try to transplant anything until the second or third set of "true leaves" form or when the plant is at least 3-4" tall...so that might have something to do with it.
Also, I'm not really a big fan of jiffy products with the sole exception of their peat moss "jiffy mix" because it tends to be loaded with trichoderma (forest green mold) and occasionally penicillium (blue-green mold) spores.
What I've been doing recently is using coco-coir (which comes in bricks that when mixed with boiling hot water expands into about 3.5 gallons of material and mixing it about 50/50 with jiffy mix. The jiffy mix is peat moss, perlite and pH balanced with lime to offset the slightly acidic nature of the peat moss. I make pots out of 3.5" x 10" strips of newspaper with a Paper Pot Maker and plant in those.
Same net effect and it gives me yet another way to recycle the newspapers my neighbors would otherwise toss in the trash.
No specific clue given... so... is growing on temp betwen 60-70F? adequate water not over or under watering?
extra fertilizer/trace minerals/pH adjustment not usually required.
Is the fact that they are "laying over" pose any problem other than it appearance?
soil is, yes.
they are growing indoors under grow lights, all of my other plants i started from seed are doing just fine.
no, i've noticed no other problems, i just wanted to make sure that they weren't on their way to the compost pile.