6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed

Redbud does poorly in pots as it wants to form a taproot very small. I pull the seedlings at about 6-10 inch high and the root is often a foot long. I grow some collected in the Oklahoma Ozarks here and they do fine so your zone should be okay but may be a bit warm in winter if it is as wet there as I think.

I bought the mother tree as a bare root and it didn't have much of a tap root. The leaves don't turn yellow in the fall on the little ones either. They just later fall off.

1) I've noticed seed potatoes in the local Rural King in the spring. If you have a local farm supply type store or a good local garden center, perhaps try there. Since potatoes are heavy, I am guessing the shipping costs would be high (but worth it if you want a certain type of potato).

2) If the outside soil temperature is warm enough, many seeds can be direct sowed. Some veggies take a long time to produce (peppers, tomatoes, etc) so it helps to start them early indoors. Indoor lighting is almost never bright enough... 16 hours under your grow lights helps but plants still need to adjust to direct sun gradually. I find many seeds germinate without extra heat. However, pepper seeds and basil seeds germinate much better & faster with some heating (warmer soil). Peppers can take 2 or 3 weeks to germinate with heating... and never germinate without. Last time I tried basil without heat, zip.

Damping off can be a big problem when germinating seeds indoors. I like to put a slow speed house fan on a timer and have it come on periodically (for 1/2 hour every 2 or 3 hours). You just want to seem them vibrate a little in the breeze. The fan also helps strengthen the small plants so they can handle wind when they get planted outside.

3) Onions (and I assume shallots) are cool weather crops and can get in the ground early. I have not tried sets. I have been starting onions from seed (maybe 2 months before they get planted out). It gets old taking care of them that long, but they are good come harvest time! I don't recall seeing shallots sets locally... You may want to mail-order them to make sure you get some. But I would think you could find onion sets at several places locally.

4) It's one big experiment! You learn by doing. Hopefully your book mentioned cool weather crops and warm weather crops. If not, research it on the web. But by all means, enjoy!

Many grocery stores stock seed potatoes and onion sets in spring. They will cost least if you buy in bulk and split a large order with friends or neighbors. One other thing you can do is to select small potatoes from the open grocery bins and cut your own sets. Each potato will have several "eyes". Cut the pieces so there is one eye on each bit. Then lay them out to dry for a week or so. This will harden off the cut edges so they won't rot when you set them in the ground.

I, personally, think that 12 hours of GOOD light should be enough. In most places out there in the natures seedlings do not get much more than 12 hours of sun/daylight. Having said that, switching back and forth just require some extra efforts and if you are willing to put up with it , it should be fine. Plants need certain amount of light , like moisture that hey really need and can use. Beyond that, the excess is not utilized. That is why they have found out that a shaded plant getting 40%(~~) light for 6 or 7 hours will do fine. This is just my general opinion in the absence of scientific laboratory experiment.

The other issue is that our indoor growing seedlings is a temporary thing, until we plant them out. So it is OK if they are slightly less than perfect.

While I will agree that most plants outside don't get 12 hours of sunlight we run our lights longer to compensate for the lower intensity. Depending on lights, you may have to run them16hrs/day to make the equivalent of 6hrs of sunlight. While the OP has found results seemingly favourable, I have not found this to be the case running similar setups. YMMV

There are TWO issues here: (1) Germinating seeds and (2) Growing from seeds (Indoor):

1) To germinate MOST seeds, you don't need light, but need HEAT. How hot, depends on what you want to germinate. For example, most cool crops seeds will germinate at 50 to 65F or in most indoor conditions. BUT some plants like Peppers, eggplants , ... require much higher (SOIL) temperatures. I think peppers, tomatoes will do best around 75 -85F. When the soil temperature is lower than optimum(say 65 instead 85F) it will take much longer for the seeds to wake up and germinate.

Growing:
Once the seeds have germinated , they need light to start photosynthesis to grow. The soil temperature then is a lesser issue. Most indoor temperatures , 60F+, will be fine. BUT the seedlings will need good amount of sung.

visit "GROWING UNDER LIGHT" forum to read more about it.

Michael,
The patio greenhouses can work wonderfully. I used them to get a head start on tomatoes, peppers and tender annual flowers. You need to be vigilant about opening the greenhouse when there is much sun/warm temps, since they can turn into an oven and cook seedlings, even when the weather is still relatively cool. It's useful to have a thermometer inside the greenhouse to keep track of temps.

Martha

Bunch more discussions on how-to.

Here is a link that might be useful: How to grow alpine strawberries

I must be missing something here...I don't see where the OP mentions alpine strawberries. This is the website for the breeder of the Beltran variety

Here is a link that might be useful: ABZ

Dave,

Thanks for the advice. I will certainly look into those varieties for sure and do direct seeding this year. I'll also keep them in my fenced in garden because I have a major rabbit problem in my neighborhood.

Can you elaborate on what you mean by hilling the center? Aren't the enormous leaves of a single one of these plants already large enough to fill in a single container? I can't imagine more than one per container. Unless the varieties your specified are way smaller than what I grew this year.

"Hilling" is just building up a 6-10" high hill that is 8-10" in diameter in the center and planting the seeds spaced evenly around the top of the hill. Plant 5-6 seeds and then thin to the best 2-3 plants.

Most all squash varieties are planted in hills for several reasons - lets the soil drain faster since they don't like wet feet, lets the plants drape down the slope of the hill while still supported to avoid stem breakage (otherwise they tend to lean over from the weight and can break), and it gives you loose soil to bury any breaks or SVB punctures so the plant can keep going.

As to # of plants - it is root mass that is the issue. 1 in a 5 gal. does ok with lots of extra feed and water care but produces only a few. 1 in 10 gallons does great but needs some hand pollination for good production. In 20 gallons you can easily put 2 and and maybe 3. They produce well and help support each other and you get much better natural insect pollination. You can always remove 1 of them if it gets over crowded. I routinely grow 3 in my cut in 1/2 40gal plastic barrel planters.

Dave

Thanks for the info. If they need cooler temps to germinate I could put them in another part of the basement. What is average length of time for them to germinate? Also, I saved some seeds from some really fancy coleus I had purchased this spring, I am certain the were hybrids, what are my chances of getting plants that look like the parent plants? Fell in love with these coleus this summer, they outperformed everything else I grew!

Germination days varied with average around 8 days.

If they are hybrids it is unlikely they will be true to parent.

Coleus are great plants, now to decide what to grow next year :)

I fully agree with wertach ... scissors, tweezers

PS: you don't need/have to separate/pull the seeds out of the paper.
I am test -germinating and just transplanted some from paper to pots. Of course, I had too many sprouts that I didn't want to grow and I picked the easiest ones. Now they are under light.

This post was edited by seysonn on Tue, Nov 19, 13 at 5:36

I use the paper towel method for all my squash, melon, pumpkin and gourd seeds. Too many years I planted them directly in the garden and waited for something to appear! After a month, I would dig down and sadly see that bugs had bored into the unsprouted seed and ate the insides.

They are easy to handle with my hands because they are all substantial in size. For those type of vegetables, the sprout gets planted downward under the soil. I plant them when the sprout is 1/2 inch long or so. The seed husk is planted upwards and I leave a tiny bit of it showing at ground level. The leaves will unfurl from under the seed husk.

I've never tried this method with tiny seeds!

I ended up going to Harbor Freight and got the 24x36 polypropylene wheel cart for a great price just over $100 (they must have just reduced it this morning). It can hold all six of my 1020 trays.

Now I just have to design a form of wind protection that will surround the cart (but allow filtered light to pass) on windy days. Suggestions?

See link below for cart.

Here is a link that might be useful: my new cart

Smart move with the Polypropylene. Don't know about the wind protection. When I have an extreme weather day, I put the trays in the garage. Maybe buy some cheap dollar clamps at Harbor Freight and wrap regular screen around the cart and clamp it several places. That's a guess.

But an important thing is: what size container are you talking about? :) I mean to ask, once your seedlings emerge, what sized container do you transplant them to? From where you transplant them outside.

Your seedlings appear to be in 4 inch pots, and that is ideal for the size to plant from, into the garden. My seeds are started in mostly 4 inch pots, with from 9 to 50 seeds per pot. For most seedlings, from the seedling pots, they go into salvaged sixpacs, and from there into the four inch again, one per pot. I am growing ornamental plants with tiny seeds. If you are doing vegetables, seed into either the sixpacs, or directly into the four inch pots. Most vegetables are sowed directly into the garden. Al

It's both, acts to provide some moisture and fertilizer retention, and also a bit more air space. All by itself bark does not provide enough of anything to really support plant life (except for possibly orchids), but once it is mixed with peat moss - bark fines help extend the âÂÂlifeâ of the potting mix by being relatively slow to break down.

It's helpful in container mediums for perennials, woody plants - I don't see benefit to adding it to your short use seed starting combination - I do like a container medium that is bark based for things like hydrangeas if growing those long term in pots. I have sweet box in containers at my entryway in bark based medium, it supports those well but they are supplemented with a (half strength) liquid fertilizer occasionally.

None of the so-called soil less potting mixes(peat Moss, perlite, vermiculite, pine bark) has any food or nutrients. It is just a MEDIUM fir the roots to grow int it. You add nutrients to that. The only thing that might have anything for plant life could be COMPOST, if you choose to add some.

Pine/fir/cedar barks provide a better aeration and control moisture retention. So you will never have a soggy environment. The draw back is that it requires watering and fertilizing more oftern.