6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
No experience personally, but I think your problem in part was the saran wrap. You should have removed it when your seeds germinated.
No need for humidity after that, aloe dichotoma originates in "dry semi-desert southern part of Namibia". Needs a well draining sowing/growing mix, very little water.
Karyn's point of Mold is usually the result of too much moisture and poor air circulation cannot be overly emphasized.
You can treat the mold with any of the suggestions above, you can even just scrape it off the top of the soil. But if you don't solve the too much moisture and not enough air circulation, it will just return to plague you. ;)
Dave
I had some mold/fungus/whatever start forming in one of the gal. milk jugs of onions I started 2/4. I sprayed with 3% H2O2 further diluted about 1:10 and it disappeared. Plants seem fine. Probably wouldn't have been a big problem, but I figured a preemptive strike was best.
JMO,
Tom
Emily planted some of the black oil sunflower plants in some of the containers Im using to try to root cuttings in the kitchen.
I try to explain that is a "sun"flower and not a "lightbulb" flower by showing her how the stem is, like 8 inches long with just the seed leaves on it. She wont really understand until she seeds how the seed grows outside.
Agree with rachel but with your shorter gardening season in Colorado I'd sure start them inside NOW - peppers are slow to germinate and slow growing at first. They need 8-10 weeks to develop into useful size seedlings for transplanting to the garden.
Dave
As rachel said, peppers like it warm to germinate(78 to 85 deg F). To get the best germination it is good to have a warming mat. If you don't have one, put them in a slightly warm place until they germinate (like on top of something appliance that gives off heat). The cooler it is the longer it takes to germinate. Once they germinate, they will need a lot of light. Good luck!
Great plant, s-l-o-w germinator. What's your patience quota?
I'd soak overnight, it's too late to place outdoors Fall, so depending on where you live, you could sow and either place the pot in your refrigerator for a month or two, or outdoors if you will still have 4-6 weeks of chilly weather ahead of you. Top the pot with grit or fine aquarium gravel to discourage moss/algae - a good idea for anything that's going to be around a while before germination. You could get some germination in as little as 30 days after the chill, but it could be as long as 545 days. You'll want to keep the pot intact for two years, water it occasionally so it doesn't dry out.
Patience. ;) Basil is slow to kick into gear. It's fine hairy roots need time to develop first. If you haven't fed it yet try a one time watering with a diluted to 1/4 strength liquid fertilizer.
I prefer to start it in a small seed tray and then transplant it to small cups (it will never fill a 16 oz. cups) or 6 cell cellpacks. That encourages better root development.
It seems easier (and more logical) to just sow the seeds into larger containers from the beggining to ensure adaguete space for the plant to grow.
It is easier for the gardener but not for the plant. ;) It's the staged transplanting process that stimulates root development.
Dave
Lettuce, broccoli, cabbage - no problem if you harden them off first. They can even be direct seeded and will tolerate light frosts.
Tomatoes and peppers - at 3-4 weeks they would be awfully small transplants - easy to damage. But check your soil temps first. Tomatoes need a minimum of 50 degree soil at the root level and peppers are the most tropical - they prefer 60 degree soil.
Good luck.
Dave
you could warm up your soil first for the tomatoes and peppers (plastic mulch or row covers) and/or use the plant protectors (like cloches or the Wall-o-Water), but if the soil is too cool it's really not worth it to transplant the warm season crops: you'll stress the plants and they won't produce as well during the season, even if they don't die. one month transplants could be ok, but not if you're talking about doing it right now (march 10th!) in zone 7 - too early both air and soil temperature wise.
You could always try if you have some seed to play with, but I don't find documentation to support mechanically breaching the seed coat for this particular seed - more like your best weapon is 'time' (unless having access to a flock of cooperative birds, and of course I can't tell you when/which year they may have planted the seeds for seedlings I'm finding)
This was an interesting article on holly germination:
(most text on germination mentions 'extreme dormancy')
Here is a link that might be useful: Ilex from seed
Take any seeds you have leftover and scatter them on the snow or soil now. You may be able to get a crop of seedlings sown in place.
Foxglove and poppy seedlings are both a royal PITA to divide (tangled, hairy roots), even when they're small, but they are reasonably forgiving and will recover if not too heavily damaged in the process.
Just transplant them Ginny into new, deeper containers and they will do fine. Then get them some supplemental light source (not direct sunlight) - they are leggy due to lack of sufficient light.
When you transplant them plant them so that at least 3/4 of the stem is down in the dirt or deeper if you can - you can plant them so that just the cotyledons - the seed leaves - at at the soil level. You can even coil the leggy stem a bit with care so that it is deeper.
But without sufficient light they will get leggy again. If your weather allows, give them a week to adjust to the new containers and then gradually expose them to the sun.
Dave
Yes, in fact if stored in a cool DRY place, they will last for several years. Some seed savers store them in Mason jars in the freezer and seeds have been germinated from this type of storage after 20 years. The fridge also works - anyplace that stays dry and relatively cool. It is heat and humidity that do them in.
Basements however are often too damp. Just put you packets in a sealed jar (plastic bags retain too much moisture at times) and store it on a high shelf in a closet or kitchen cabinet.
Enjoy your seeds for years to come. ;)
Dave