6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
I've used small aquarium lites and shop lites with cool white bulbs. I'm small scale and experimenting. Then I dug out a four bulb photo lite bar from the attic. Put two shelf brackets on a wall above a radiator and hung it there with two spiral florescent bulbs in it. I have two small aquarium lites with florescent tubes over another radiator and both seem to keep the seedlings happy. Maybe the spirals have less leggy seedlings but the seeds are different varieties so I don't know. Also used a bath lite bar with 6 bulbs on it. Put spirals in there in March and the seedlings under them did very well and are now outside in a cold frame.
I have not had success with cims from my own seeds, maybe let them dry up first too much. Anyway seed has to be fresh for best results. I do a lot of my seeds by winter sowing method and it seems works fine. Also I started using GA-3 on some toughies, had some good results.
All in all, after you get nice fresh seeds and start them approprietly, rest of it just waiting- something I am not always good at.
Winter sowing - Two cycles of warm/cold then warm/cold....
I had fabulous germination this spring of some seed I sowed (in a container outside) in the fall of 2005, but I forgot about them and they froze...aak! Boo-hoo! I think I will break down and buy this one.
bindersbee...Just a suggestion that has worked successfully for me for the last three years...
I know most gardeners who use the camomile tea remedy have their own recipe as far as how many bags/how much water/how long to steep/how long the tea is good for...I have 32 oz. spray bottles. I drop one camomile tea bag in the room temp water and use that to mist my seeds if they appear dry prior to germinating in the soil and for several weeks after they have sprouted. I use a regular (guess it's a gallon) plastic watering pot with one or two (my whim) teabags to bottom water. Once the water is no longer discolored from the tea bag, I pull it out and drop a new one in.
No recipe, no rhyme or reason...and NO damp-off in three years of thousands of seedlings started in a heated garage w/artificial lighting. (knock on wood...lol)...Give it a shot!
Barbara in AK
Back on April 6th I inquired in an earlier thread here how about hollyhocks and calendula not producing true leaves. The calendula are just beginning to get true leaves at about 20 days. The hollyhocks are not. But I planted some sunflowers in a couple of pellets where the calendula did not germinate and they are up with true leaves in about five days.
All were outside in full sun all day. I have had to bring them in the last couple of nights because of a cold front. But it surely looks like the delay is some combination of the species of plant and the environment.
Even though I am looking at it, twenty days seems too long.
I have some Datura Inoxia and Datura Alba seeds that I bought last year and didnt get to plant them early enough so I kept them. Well of course now it is April & I still haven't planted them. Is it too late? I thought about starting them inside under lights to help them grow faster. Anyone have any thoughts?
Rebecca....
Same question here: What kind of seeds are they. Different seeds require different conditions. If they are regular old popular annuals, you probably won't have any problems with them sprouting. Give us more info and we'll see what we can come up with. Good Luck, Joe.
I have done germination experiments on many, many agava. They germinate much better when quite fresh, usually mid to late summer. In late winter or spring I would expect significant seed not to germinate. It is stated above "AGAVE--SURFACE SOW AND DO NOT EXCLUDE LIGHT. KEEP AT 70-75. ON GERMINATION, APPLY A LIGHT SPRINKLING OF COARSE GRAVEL TO HELP SUPPORT THE YOUNG SEEDLINGS AND LESSEN DAMPING OFF." I am not sure you need to exclude light, otherwise I like the quote form above.
Were I to write instructions I would say (1) plant fresh seeds in late summer (2)KEEP AT 75-85°F. ON GERMINATION, APPLY A LIGHT SPRINKLING OF COARSE GRAVEL TO HELP SUPPORT THE YOUNG SEEDLINGS AND LESSEN DAMPING OFF (3) wait 20-30 years for results.
also wondering - do i need to move them up to bigger home before hardening. ie: they are in little burpee cells and have 1st set of true leaves coming out. do I need to transplant them up 1st. and if i do, it will be within hours of putting them outside. seems like that would be too much stress on little children....
Steve, there's no point in potting them up a few hours before putting the plants outside. The reason to move to larger pots is so they can fill it out with their roots while growing to a larger size. That takes a few weeks, not a few hours.
Why don't you harden them off for the next week after you get back from your trip by just leaving them outdoors during the day? That will help acclimate them and give the garden soil a chance to dry out a little bit while you wait. Use the weekend to gradually increase their daily outdoors time. If you do build the cold frame, leave the roof off.
We had LOTS of fun LOL!!
Marigold (Crackerjack mixed colors)
Zinnia (Lilliput mixed colors)
Cosmos (Sensation mixed colors)
Daisy (Shasta Alaska)
Daisy (Gloriosa)
Old Fashioned mixture
Wildflower Countryside Mixture
Calendula (Pacific Beauty mixed colors)
Phlox (Drummondi mixed colors)
Naturtium (Jewel mixed colors)
Shirley Poppy (Mixed colors)
Forget Me Not (Firmament)
Aster (Crego Mixed Colors)
Baby's Breath (Covent Garden)
Dianthus (Mixed Colors)
Some of the plants are starting to develop some little "true" leaves. This is so much fun! Why haven't I done this before? Oh, and I took out one of my bulbs in my shop lights to see what kind they are and they are 40W!!! Yay! I'm usually not this lucky.
Yes, all were started from seed. In that picture they were a few months old. The walls of my plant room started to look like a little jungle! And the plants did very well outside.
You could also try letting the plants grow horizontally (with no stake) under a fluorescent shop light, starting one or two plants at each end. While they're getting started, you could use the middle for flowers like pansies and violas that can go out sooner.
Here's an indoor-grown sweet pea, about five feet tall, with vines climbing up to the ceiling in the background ....
Along the lines of staking up baby vines how do you stake them in your garden? I have Purple Hyacinth beans that I grew last year & used fishing line & the got too heavy. Would you suggest a trellace? I have a garden that is about 10 feet long and about 2 feet wide and it is on the side of the house so I could attach it to the side of the house & let them grow up it. What do you think?
Rebecca...
I am a zone 4 and we are like.....3 weeks from getting ours outside but I have done the same thing.....I removed my tall tomatoes plants from the starter trays with a fork...gently....and planted them into 3" peat pots! I put one....maybe two is they had only one set of true leaves! Then I put them in a sunny window.....I had to do this for the past like 3 weeks! Theyare doing fabulous and seem to be keeping up with the ones under my lights! Especially the Cherry tomatoes..they are like 6" tall and when I repotted into the peats I buried the stems all the way down to the condoyle (Spelling...of the first "artificial leaves")!
So...I recommend getting some 3" peat pots (then when you put them outside you can bury them in the pots too!) Bury the tomatoes stems all the way down to the first set of leaves...they will root all the way up and get much stronger! Then put in a window! Watch to makesureyou keep them moist...I have little cheap sandwich baggies on the bottom of each peat pot so that when I water it doesn't run all over andit seems to keep the water moisture in a bit better...they need watering like every 3 days, rather than daily!
It has worked for me!
Bon chance!
Bec
Hello all,
Yet another desperate mold question-asker. Yesterday, I noticed redish discoloration on the perlite of one of the trays of seed starter mix. This particular tray has had a high rate of seedling mortality (either not growing or flopping over). Is this damping off? I pulled some of the flopped-over seedlings (tomatillo and cauliflower), but there's none of the black-brownish discoloration I've been reading about for damping-off. Some did have stem constriction around the root line, but some didn't, which is why I was confused.
Panicked, I sprayed everything with 3% peroxide and sprinkled cinnamon liberally on the affected and unaffected flats. I tossed the seed starter mix in the packs that didn't grow and soaked it in 10% chlorine for 30 mins along with the bottom tray. I already had fans going for several hours/day, but I turned them on 24/7 now. Is there anything else that can save the affected flat or are all the plants goners? Anything else for prophylaxis?
Thanks!
Hi yeti00,
If you note the last photo above, there is also a brownish redish discolouration on the perlite.
I chalk it up to dead green mold. Maybe you got it in time, I really don't know. Hopefully someone can educate both of us.
Good luck... I'm still fighting the stuff. I'm winning thought!
Bill