6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed
Well they're known as Impatiens for a good reason -- known as "explosive dehiscense".
I've enclosed a link to an ehow site that's supposed to tell you how to collect the seed.
Here is a link that might be useful: How to get seeds from Impatiens flowers
Unless the seed is very very fine, I find this method works OK. I use fly-screen material (if you know what I mean - it is not wire but is some sort of pliable mesh these days). I cut a small piece, maybe a square or a circle and carefully enclose an un-ripe seed pod so that when it opens, the seeds will be caught inside. You need to do this carefully and use a light material so as not to weigh the seed down or break the flower-stem.
You can double up the material if needed to make it a bit denser for smaller seeds.
I find the easiest way of securing it firmly round so there are no gaps is with a small paper-stapler. If the combined weight is still a bit much, you may be able to support the pod's stem with a small stake as well.
On trees or vines, I also mark the pod's location by sticking on a tag of fluro coloured duct tape, but really anything like that will work just as a reminder where it is - a bit of plastic bag, ribbon, wool.
The advantage is, that the "wire" mesh is see-through so you can follow the progress of the pod and hopefully catch the seed if it ripens early. It is light and airy so the plant receives normal conditions and you do not risk the pod becoming wet or mouldy.
I think it's the cold weather here in NY, even though we did have some hot days. Peppers and eggplants like it hot. My cukes are still tiny. I put everything in the ground already. I know the next week will be cold again, but as soon as it heats up they will take off. I feel they are better off in their outdoor place (now that frost threat is over) and I don't have to worry about them.
Like I said before, each year brings new and different challenges. You adapt and change what you're doing and in a few more years you will have the right routine. People have varying success with windowsill gardening, pre-fertilized potting mix and with peat pots.
I had similar problems with tomatoes and pepper seedlings this year (and they weren't in peat pots). (Acually I'm running a tomato test where half my tomaoes were in paper drink cups (removed at planting) and half were in peat pots (top rim torn off at planting)).
I found by using a very dilute* miracle gro-like fertilizer started them growing again. I've heard negative things about the slow-release fertilizer in potting soil (don't have an opinion myself). One thought is; is it releasing the fertilizer as fast as the plant needs it?
* when I say dilute - I'm mixing 1/2 TBSP to 1 gallon as a base solution and then when I mix it to use it I dilute it 4 to 1.
Hope this helps.
as soon as that seed even cracks(you dont need to see root)
it should be planted in soil, as a rule of thumb, twice the seeds thickness deep.
if you leave it in the towel, the root will grow longer than it should be, and be prone to snapping.
It will most certainly produce leaves without light. Cotyledons exist to some level before the seed even cracks. Without light to the cotys the roots will cease to grow, and the plant will die.
I planted my seeds in a clear hard plastic food container and placed them in the window sill. After they got a good start and had a couple of leaves I planted them in individual pots and lifted the plant so that 3/8 inch of the root was above the soil line. The ones I planted below the soil line die from trunk rot. Take the standard procedure for growing citrus.
Have your trees turn out well. Could you post pictures. See my picture below.
Meiwa kumquat tree grown from seed.
Here is a link that might be useful: https://plus.google.com/photos/111099372377958308731/albums/profile?banner=pwa
I should mention that everything I have planted in the egg cartons are only about an inch high so far. I am transplanting them to a bigger container this weekend. But most of my other veggies have already been transplanted to large containers already.
Al, I only have 5 seedling plants, and there is another coming up and maybe they all will, but no guarantees there. I wouldn't hesitate to lose one if all 25 took, but we need 21, so every baby counts and now we have 6 counting the twins.
Today DH got out his knife, and separated the twins. Actually, I was surprised that they kept their roots straight down and were not co-mingled.
He then cut another root cube in half, jammed it up against each seedling, and back in the rooting chamber they went.
They will survive just fine.
Not so sure about the new twins. They are about 1/32" from each other. If one is big, it will get culled because it's growing next to a true dwarf root stock. And the dwarf stock is the whole reason for seedlings.
I've been researching Parsley recently and everything I've read says that it takes a really long time to germinate -- like a month or more. I normally grow from seed, too, but I decided to buy plants this time instead. Maybe next spring I'll buy a packet of seeds instead, but for this summer, I went for quick. :)
I often put 4 seedlings into a tray cell that size, one in each corner. As soon as they grow two pairs of true leaves (much smaller than those in the photo), I use an ice tea spoon to scoop out each corner's tomato plant and transplant into a 9 oz. plastic cup. I just use the spoon to cut through the roots.
I never lose one, and the plants I grow are just as healthy as they would be if each was started in a separate cell.
Why kill them? Just washing them off the plants onto the ground satisfies me. Al
Duplicate post.