6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
I don't understand why i should care if its "rough looking" and "finely textured and uniform". This is and extreme close-up, its dried out, and is possible "rough" b/c of the way i filled the trays in (loosely). That coir info is good stuff though, ill be sure to use peat for my homemade mix.
I can't find how to start HEIRLOOM NON GMO Coleus Mix 100 Seeds seeds. Any help. Thanks
There is a photo of seedlings (cotyledons) here....The next, or true leaf, will be distinctly 'hairy'. You said 'weeds in the spot', if these are outside and germinating in the ground, protect from slugs and snails or you could lose them.
Scroll to very last photo:
In which case neither the Asparagus nor the Uncinia will live through your winters. It might be best to grow them in containers which you can bring under cover. The Uncinia is slow growing so it would be some years before you had a decent clump and you'd need to keep it going through several Winters.
You don't want to pull healthy plants out, but if you mean that you don't want to KILL healthy plants, take some and separate their roots from their twins and re-pot them. Many people do that all the time and have great success. Size is an issue, though, so don't wait too long.
Every sort of plant has a suggested spacing from others. It's not chiseled in stone but it's a rule of thumb that one ignores only at peril unless one is experimenting or knows a whole awful lot. So in a way you can say that the tom seedlings are healthy but they won't stay that way without some serious work. 99%+ of gardeners wouldn't plant them out while so doubled and tripled up.
Yeah, normally tomatoes are grown in clusters :) so those needed to be transplanted to individual containers some time back. This assuming you want most of them to survive.
If you don't then just snip all the extras off and then transplant the remaining ones into a larger containers individual 4" containers - they are already rootbound in those 72 cells as those are intended for germination but not growing-on.
It's going to be very difficult to separate the root balls now without doing damage but you should be able to save most.
For future reference the term "thinning" normally applies to direct-seeded vegetables, not those grown as transplants. So while it is possible to germinate several tomato seeds in the same cell you cannot grow healthy multiples in the same cell.
And when you transplant those to the new containers be sure to plant them deeply burying most all of the bare stem.
Dave
patchwork, please use a very light hand with the corn meal. Corn gluten is a natural germination inhibitor. Pure corn gluten is sold as a weed and crab grass preventer (pre-emergent) for lawns, I don't know how much is present in amounts of corn meal.
It means the stems are stretched (aka leggy, etiolated when pale or yellow) disproportionate to the amount and size of top growth. This stretching is due to "reaching" for/seeking light. Not only can they not support the weight of the top growth as it develops, they cannot adequately provide it with nutrients and water. The cellular structure of the stretched stem becomes distorted, twisted, resulting in sluggish circulation at best.
You can see it easily in most all your plants. The stems are easily 3-4x the height of normal seedlings, 3-4x as tall as the tops are wide even at this point. And the situation will only get worse, get more imbalanced until the plant stem finally breaks.
You can Google any of these terms for many photos and much information but you can't get around the need for adequate light. It is the single most important factor when growing plants indoors. Which is why as I said above, even in the greenhouse with all sun exposure it has we still have to use supplemental fluorescent lighting for growing seedlings.
Thank you for all the help, I've only got a few questions left. Do you think I should I start over? and would it be better to buy florescent lights now and try again with the inside garden, or start my garden outside since it's warming up? And if I do start my garden outside will they become leggy while trying to reach for the sun?
I started all sorts of seeds using this method; mainly the older seeds in which the germination level had been rather low. This method was very effective.
Seeds such as:
Lacinto Kale, Lavender, Zinnias, Lunar white carrots, Heirloom sunflower seeds etc
You can either trim the plug trays to fin into a 1020 or you can set the plug tray on the mat without a 1020 as long as you use some sort of 1/4 to 1/2" spacer so there is no direct contact. Small shims of wood work, plastic coat hangers, etc. It is easiest to just trim the plug trays to fit a 1020 before planting them or you can buy flats that fit them but they aren't inexpensive.
Dave
Well you can but as a professional grower I will say that the quality of the plants won't be as good. Not necessarily "too leggy" but more leggy. It is the act of transplanting that triggers the development of fibrous feeder roots in the plants. And transplanting them deeper eliminates any leggy development.
But some do it the way you suggest and get away with it. If you don't fill the cell packs more than 1/3 way when seeding then fill it more as the plant grows so that the stem is buried each time you can eliminate the leggy appearance. Won't do anything for the root development though. Your choice.
Dave
Perfect.
I knew better (thanks to info on here) to do tomatoes with peppers but when I was dividing my Patio Princess and my BushSteak tomatoes, I used a spoon to scoop them out and, inadvertently, had to deal with tangled roots...
Again, thank you.
I will have to wait and see what becomes of what I did! LOL!
As explained in the FAQs here, lights go on just as soon as there are any signs of germination. Can you put the trays under the lights sooner? Sure, it won't hurt but it isn't necessary.
Dave
I don't know what you are growing, but there are several varieties of flowers whose seeds benefit from or even require light for germination. Statice, snapdragons, scabiosa, and dianthus are examples. You'll also get a little bit of warmth from the lights if they're nice and close.