6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
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
Are these the bottom leaves? If so, it is the seed leaves (cotyledons) that are dying. That is natural. Those are the leaves (two, in the case of marigolds) that are in the seed itself. When true leaves start to form, the seed leaves die off. If all is well, you should have new leaves at the tops of the plants that actually look like marigold leaves.
Eleanor
I know others will disagree with me, but I never feed my seedlings. The potting soil I use (Metro 360) has some fertiziler in it. That is all the babies get. I figure they will be out in the sun and soil soon enough and can get what they need from their outside environment. When I plant them in baskets or planters, I do include a feeding of Osmocote time release fertilizer.
Eleanor
Could you take a look at this "cosmo" in my seed album.
Do you mean I can bury this plant up to the 2 thin long bottom leaves. Also what about the bean plant?
Sure would like to know what flowers you can bury deep...
Thanks,
Patsi
Here is a link that might be useful: Seed Album
I think Mom meant to snip the growing tips just above the last leaf node, which will encourage branching. If you cut more than this, or do it while the plant is too young, you can weaken the plant, since the plant relies on its leaves to make food. Wait until there are five pairs of leaves and the lowest ones are at least an inch long.
These guys are singing, "Sorry about your petunias!"
But this fellow is reminded of his own penchant for decapitation.
Good luck!
I have some emerging now that were started on 2/9. Generally 4 to 6 weeks to germinate. They don't need any pre-treatment if that's what you're asking. Just plant, cover lightly, give full light and keep misted. They germinate best when temps are on the cool side 40F or so. But mine are in a 50F basement and doing fine. Germination is erratic.
Hi Cynthia,
My daylilies are up and about 6 inches tall now, but do not seem to be growing. It seems as if they have been at this stage for a while now. Do I need to fertilize or do anything special to get them growing again? I put the actual seeds in a little water in a baggie when starting the seeds. When the roots formed I placed in pots.
I have zinnas planted too and they have about 6 leaves on them. Are you saying to plant them, stem too, up to the first set of seeds. Also can I pinch them now? Would that help them to bush out more? or should I wait until I have planted them in the ground and they have gotten bigger?
Yes, coppertop, that's what I'm saying, but I was looking at Tina's picture above. If you have a 4" difference between the top of the soil and the bottom of the seed leaves, I'm not sure what you should do because that has never happened to me before.
Pinching will help them bush out, definitely. I'm not sure if you do it at 6 or 8 leaves. But yes, do it when they need it whether they are inside or outside.
Lime
justaguy,
I notice a yellow cast to your photo, which suggests you are using a sodium light. I think cool white fluorescents are more suitable for seed starting, because of the higher blue spectral content. Would it be possible to try some cool white fluorescent light on at least some of your seedlings?
Also, I notice your vermiculite has a distinctive brown color to it. I know that some vermiculite has a tan rather than the usual gray color, but I never saw any look so very brown. Did something you watered it with turn it brown?
I don't know what the problem is at this point, but your dahlia leaves shouldn't be turning brown at the tips.
One of the reasons I don't like yellow sodium lights or purple gro-lites is the unnatural color they cast on the plants for photos, or for just visual observation.
MM
I am using a high pressure sodium bulb. While I agree it doesn't make for the most natural colored photos, it does the job for growing. A Metal Halide would be preferable for seed starting, but I can't justify replacing the HPS at this point.
Just going to wait and see if the plants outgrow whatever the issue is. The newest leaves appear to be doing better still so maybe whatever the issue is/was is lessening.
I'm a newbie too, so can't really answer your hardening off questions. I just read a suggestion elsewhere that if you're worried about your plants getting too cold overnight in a coldframe, just put a couple hot water bottles in there.
I gave some of my germinating seeds a nice kickstart by putting hot h2o bottles in with them!
Good luck! Ruth
Eddie,
There are more than a couple classes of plants, and the classes need to be treated differently. Hardy Perennials and Hardy annuals will be ok in your cold frame. Then, when it's reliably in the 30s day and night, pull them out where they can get sun and rain.
How do you know if you have a hardy annual or a hardy perennial? Go to the T&M site and do a search on each seed you sow. They have the class of seed right there. HA, HHA (half hardy annuals, what we would call a tender annual), TP, P, Gh (tender tropical, these might have minimum temperatures of 40 or 50 degrees.)
The most common tragedies that kill seedlings when they go from the basement to the outside is pounding rain, sun scald, animals/children, extreme cold. I would put them in that order. (That's all I can think of, anyway.)
Next year, start your seedlings in 2 stages. Start your perennials first, your hardy annuals second. Then start the annuals that take a long, long, long time like Lisanthus and Torenia. Then stop for a while. The hardy perennials and hardy annuals can be hardened off VERY early and can be planted out, then you can start your second wave of sowing. Hardy annuals I planted out three weeks ago, well-before our recent 6 day cold snap were:
Annual Chrysanthemum Tricolor
bachelor buttons,
Annual alyssum,
DWARF Ensign Morning Glory,
Calendula -- I had some losses on the Calendula,
Clarkia,
Snapdragons,
Gilia,
perennial Primula often grown as annuals, and
Wallflower.
ALL of these were outside, planted in the garden when it got down to 23 degrees and when it was sub freezing for several episodes lasting more than 12 hours. (Actually I was sort of shocked they came through so well.)
Flowers that have grown tooooo fast for me indoors under lights are dahlias and Zinnias. I heard about the dahlias, but I didn't realize what they meant -- those things grow FAST!
If you're a vegetable gardener, I've heard broccoli, kohlrabi, and several others are cool weather crops and should be treated like hardy annuals.
Lime
Saturn69,
The sprayer may have been a good idea for when the seedlings first emerged, but now you should probably use something that gets the water on faster and in greater amounts.
A measuring cup with a pouring lip could serve. Just gently dribble some water around the base of the seedlings without getting their leaves wet. You can pour water on faster than you can spray it on. Some garden stores have small watering cans with handy long necks that could work well.
It's also time to think about adding some soluble nutrients to the water, because your Hyponex growing medium doesn't contain a lot of nutrients, if any. As your seedlings develop a root system, you can water and feed them from below by pouring soluble nutrient solutions directly into the drainage trays.
Since your growing medium is probably sterile, your soluble nutrient formula should not contain any nitrogen in the form of urea. In the garden, soil microorganisms break urea down into usable nitrates and ammonium ions. But in a sterile medium, urea can accumulate to harmful concentrations.
Better-Gro Orchid Plus water soluble orchid food (20-14-13 plus essential minor elements) is urea-free and starting off with ½ teaspoon per gallon would be safe and appropriate. As your plants get much larger, you could increase that to 1 teaspoon per gallon. I get Better-Gro Orchid Plus at Lowes.
If a Lowes isn't handy, Peters Specialties African Violet Plant Food has a urea-free water soluble formula of 12-36-14 with micronutrients and it is available at Home Depots and many garden centers and nurseries. Hydroponics supply stores have other brands of urea-free soluble nutrients that could work as well.
MM
Druse, Making More Plants -
Indigofera tinctoria - pour hot water over seed, soak 24 hours. Sow @ 50F for germination in 30 - 90 days.
Yikes....germination means sprouting, yes?
So...I did more or less what you said up there...and planted them yesterday...I won't see anything popping up until...July?
How fast do indigo plants grow?