6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed

sewobsessed: I love that site, thanks so much! Sunita, I just use an excel sheet too. I also use cue cards. On each card, I put down the name I know it as, the Chinese name (for my parents) and the latin name. I record the numbre of days it took to sprout for me and the date I started them, and I paste the information about growing (if it's from a commercial packatge) on the back I organize them by using a cue card box and special dividers made for them

i was also curious about such a program, and found one on download.com called "my garden journal".
there is a free download to try, before you buy.

Here is a link that might be useful: my garden journal

I've had very good results winter sowing coneflowers. I plant them outside (in containers) in Jan or Feb and they come up in the spring. Once they are big enough to handle I plant them in the yard.
Karyn

paulallen, I'm glad you're having success, but freezing isn't necessary for most seeds. To stratify means to expose the seeds to a moist chill and I don't mean to be critical but I'd hate for your own experience to lead too many in the wrong direction with their freezers.

Druse (Making More Plants): "Research has demonstrated that freezing - which may occur outdoors and is still recommended by several sources - is rarely necessary. Seeds that are subjected to cold (rather than chill) may not always be damaged by temperatures below freezing point, but the conditioning process is put on hold at these low temperatures and resumes only when the seeds are not quite so cold. This is one reason that controlled stratification in the refrigerator can be a truncated version of the outdoor process.

It's now clear that the most important piece of technical equipment for performing the operations of stratification, the refrigerator, is already possessed by amateur gardeners."

In this damp zone of no extremes (cool summers, mild winters), I don't find fresh echinacea seeds need stratifying at all and will normally germinate in 10 - 21 days without it - summer to late summer in places where gardeners really experience 'summer' may be a bit warm for good germination.

I suppose 10 seeds would be a reasonable 'test' amount which may guarantee at least ONE resulting in the parents' features. Easy to figure out the percentage anyway! If I can get just a couple to do that, then I can just do plant divisions and cuttings from there. I am working on a trade for some echinacea magnus and some monarda.

fgilles02420, don't know if you still are around, but did they end up as you had expected? I was wondering because I just found a garden with them and asked the owner if she would let me have some of the seeds once they finished blooming. I am hoping that you did get 25% success.

Tommie the last paragraph of your message should be printed on every seed package. Al

Perlite and vermiculite are the Kings of certain crucial things, especially soil aeration. I buy perlite in bulk forms and till it into my flower beds even though I have the best of black dirt where I live. Tomorrow, yet two more boxes of perlite will be delivered in boxes almost big as me, so my wife will sigh and say: "Your Mother warned me before the wedding in 1972, but she never told me you'd become another "potty-trained Martha Stewart. What's next? A chicken coupe full of hens that lay green, pink, and blue eggs?"

I grow MANY seeds both indoors and out. (I forget WHY) I almost NEVER use just perlite or vermiculite as the potting mix for seeds. I add peat moss at around 50%, to help retain the moisture. Yes there is no nutritional value in that mix, but until the seeds become plants with say 2 sets of leaves, my experience tells me that seeds benefit far more from other conditions such as constant temperature, light, water, humidity or say the correct music. One time I accidentally left the TV on MTV after an Eagles concert, and half an acre died from the subsequent RAP!

I DO more heavily use vermiculite and/or perlite for cuttings, but even then I usually add some peat, so that there is better soil contact. It seems logical to me anyway, but then again... I'm the guy who thought it logical to build and put a greenhouse in the living room!

My plants are most always doing well, but I'd appreciate any prayers you can offer for my wife.

jim Palmer