6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
I am on the West Coast of Florida and have the same problem with the jiffy pots. I stopped using them and just use the pellets or clay saucers now. Works fine for me. I do find that if I use the right size clay pot with the top of a soda bottle i get the perfect balance since the clay pot absorbs the extra moisture.
Kristen
For the past 2 years I have used the ones in the mesh netting, they swell up when you water them. I liked them only in the house. What I liked was they were very easy to water, I only watered them a few times as they did hold the water well but didn't have a problem with too much water. I have tried and do not like the paper pots tho. They do dry out too fast and I don't think they use a very good grade of soil in them, the concept is good,ie, place them in the ground no need to remove the seedlings. That's all well and fine if they make it that far, mine never did.
This past spring I used a plastic bag, not a zipper one just one you tie with a twist tie. I like it cuz I could open it up when it needed to be and when it was time to plant them out I just put the soil from the bag right in with the seedlings (in a pot or in the ground) and I didn't loose one seedling due to exposed roots. I don't think I would use them for WSing tho, too flimsy. I like Trudi's method best.
It is the easiest plant to direct sow where it will grow. It always puzzles me to read how people have trouble sowing the seeds. Mine reseeds everywhere. I also shake the dry seed pods over the spots where I want them to grow. The seeds germinate in late summer and overwinter unscathe. They are blooming now.
I wintersowed some and direct sowed others in a warm spell in February (even though in my zone April 15 is the sow date). Both sets germinated. They take a while to get going but mine have buds now. They don't seem to like to be transplanted and the direct sown are taller than the ones that have been moved, but I do have a wintersown bunch that is doing quite well. Cut your seedling hunks big I guess :D
George
I love Four O'clocks; they are very pretty :) I have some that I started from seed that got leggy and when I cut them back a little they did amazing.
I am curious about something a older lady told me when she gave me some that she just dug up. Do they overtime produce a large brown potato looking bulb? Since I have never lived in the same place long enough to notice this nor have I ever desired to dig them up. I planted the ones she gave me and the leaves look exactly like 4 O'Clocks but they just wont bloom. I would imagine they could be a different variety, she did say something about Colorado 4 O'clocks....
Kristen
Hi, I started my seeds in a plastic bag that I poked holes in, when the seedlings were ready to put in a pot I just cut away the bag and set in in the pot. In the past I have used flats and trays and peat pots etc, it is always such a challenge getting them to their new home without crushing the new stems, so I tried this and so far it worked well, I knew what pot I was going to use and filled the pot with soil, then dumped the soil into the bag, when the seeds were ready, I cut the bottom out of the bag and set it in the pot, easy as that. I kept the bag twisted closed when I first put the seeds in it so it would stay moist, which worked well too. I will use the bag method from now on, it's cheap, easy and virtualy fool proof.
It helps if the soil isn't really wet when you move the seedlings, the soil seems to stay in tack better. Hope that helps.
Yes, poppies (pollinated by insects) will cross quite readily. I wish I had more information for you about the distance required, but I can tell you that it would be several hundred feet. Even more than that! But since you are growing multiple colors....why do you want to avoid cross pollination?
You are correct in thinking your pits from pickled apricots aren't viable. You might try the Seed Exchange Forum here and see if anyone has ripe fruit or untreated seed they could send you -
Soak seed, stratify 4 months (give the seeds a prolonged moist chill of approx 40F), and sow 4" apart early in spring, just covered, well-drained soil essential, sunny spot preferred. Needs light to germinate. If germination is difficult, try planting and keeping seed warm for 2 weeks before stratification, or simply sow outdoors in early in fall.
Raintree Nursery (reliable) sells young trees, but they also caution that in a mild maritime climate (like my own) they may bloom so early as so not to set fruit. If you were to order a tree, you might ask about your own zone if it's the fruit and not ornamental quality of the tree you are interested in.
You can plant the pit so that the roots are down and the shoot is up. They WILL bend that way if you were to plant it in the 'normal' position, but there is NO need for you to do so. Roots will always exhibit positive geotropism (growing down in response to gravity), while shoots will develop under negative geotropism (against gravity).
Plant the seed in the direction it has already begun and give that poor plant some LIGHT!!! ;-)
I believe that the origin of the seed may be fairly important to how and when it will germinate. The desert in Southern California and Arizona tends to green up and start anew in the Winter. Many cacti start growing in the shade of brush during the Winter when the weather doesn't bake the ground dry.
In the early Spring the deserts take on a certain beauty as all of the new cacti emerge as tini replicas of their parents.
Many cacti produce hundreds of seeds within each seed container and dozens of these containers on each plant. Some seed requires far more effort to extract from the containers. Some states have laws protecting certain species of cacti. Phoenix even has a relocation requirement for Saguaros.
I like Fedco seeds www.fedcoseeds.com
Pinetree seeds www.superseeds.com
and Harris www.harrisseeds.com
There is all kinds of mail order seed companies. I like to use certain companies more because I have reliably good germination from them.
JL Hudson, seedsman- many rare plants, my source of GA-3 and really cool tiwsted catalog, also got few rare bulbs from them as well, have been their customer for years.
Gardens North- just found them last year- very impressive seeds of rare plants, shrubs, woodies, excellent germination. Many seeds sent moist packed so germination is great.
hardyplants.com- does not have pictures but excellent prices and varietes.
Superseeds- small seed count but prices are affordable and germination always decent.
For veggies I used Totally tomatoes.
Chilterns - all time favorite, expensive/UK/ but one can have a field day browsing through catalog.
Secret seeds/ UK/ - the only company that has aconitum hemsleyanum seeds, always like them even that ordering overseas are somewhat pricey with present $$ standing.
JJA- lots of rare seeds for collectors.
Recently I used Summer Hills perennials and Swallowtail Perennials- found them to be very good with germination and good varieties of annuals.
Park seed has good $1 deal section so always nice to find something on clearance.
And of course, my best all time favorite is NARGS seed exchange. Your membership is $30 and then small nominal fee for the packets, there are two rounds so I usually end up with about 100 packets of seeds per season.