6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed

I didn't want to gross anyone out Susan, sorry.

But the water is actually safe, and everyone downstream that has public water is drinking it after a little more treatment.

I have actually saw a salesman drink effluent water! I wouldn't do it myself though!

The plant filters out the gross stuff just as good as the public water suppliers do!

Ted

Wertach, your experiment is not gross, if Susan knew what was in the river water then she would starve. The plants will filter a lot of the gross stuff but not all of it. Its not surprising that the tap water ones are suffering.

I fail to see any reason why you cannot grow them in the gritty mix. I would water more often, not look for more retentive mix, which would negate the reason for using the gritty mix. Use a weak fertilizer such as half a teaspoon per gallon of Foliage Pro every time you water. In gritty mix it is easy to underwater, but almost impossible to over water. Al

Thanks all for the comments. Here is a quick update.

I am planning to grow these as bonsai. I started from seeds and now have one each Wisteria Sinensis and W. Sinensis Alba growing. I know it will be years before they bloom, but think how exciting that day will be!

So - I have added a saucer under both to create some perched water. I read this suggestion at a bonsai forum and thought I would try it. It seems to be working, both seedlings are now growing well again. From what I have read they do not like to have dry feet, so this approach seemed to work best for me. I want to keep most of my bonsai in the basic 1-1-1 gritty mix as it works very well for my others. The only exceptions are my 3 giant sequoia trees. I planted them in the 1-1-1 mix with 15% peat moss by volume and no lime - they are growing exceptionally well.

As for the foliage pro, I shoot for 50 ppm nitrogen - 1/2 teaspoon per gallon is about 59 ppm and seems to be working well.

I'm going to pinch a few off tomorrow, any thoughts on how many I should have in that pot in particular? I used Jute Twine for the ropes, I've seen that quite a few people have used it with no problems?

I'd say 5-8 would be enough or one per twine. You could dig up the others and plant them somewhere else. I planted some in a small pot and old souvenir cups.

I will agree that this is a great thread. I was a bit discouraged to say the least after my first two searches on this site for Tulip Trees and Royal Empress Paulownia took me to forums that were so off topic one even strayed to the subject of the frivolent use of the term nazi and how it devalued the something or other... wwII... I had to skip 10 pages before I could find something about a tree again. Glad to see not every forum has been turned into some righteous stand against something. I appreciate everyones helpful advice but I will not be using this site as my go-to for info.

I sowed delphinium seeds into the organic seed trays with seed starter mix back in March. I put them just under the surface. They didn't germinate until I bottom watered, top watering wasn't enough to get them going.

They were tough to keep alive, the seedlings were very fragile in comparison with other plants that I started at the same time. They liked support and they didn't like harsh weather, too much wind, rain or sun and they would look sad. After moving them outside in the end of May, they really took off and I got some flowers this week.

I planted a few cultivars and they grew differently, the ones that got big right away have flowered with nice purple and white flowers. It looks like they're dying a little after I moved them into the bed. The leaves are turning yellow on one of the flowering plants and a similar type just totally turned yellow and wilted. These were the biggest at time of moving so maybe their roots got damaged when I removed them from the tray. Also the bed may be too shady. Most of the others are looking great, green and lush. I'll post up some pictures if anyone wants to see what they looked like at germination or how they look now.