Propagation: WS Poppies & transplant problems, 1 by RickCorey_WA

RickCorey_WA wrote:
Hurray! (I think.)

I've been grumbling for weeks that none of my WS Penstemon did anything, and moved them from the shady porch to the deck where sun hits them part of the day. (It still gets cool at night: down to 4o until just recently.)

Those tubs have been condensing on the inside for weeks, since I put them in the sun, despite vents in the filkm on top. I grumbled more, "yeah, now I'm probably steaming them."

I checked again earlier today. My eyes may be playing tricks, or those teeny, teeny, teeny TINY things might be single-celled algae.

But I THINK I have quite a few VERY SMALL Penstemon sprouts! They seemed smaller than pinheads: more like pinpoints.

I think I'll cut the vents wider, even though that will let in more rain. But my belief is that seedlings don't like 100% humidity, even if they are tiny.

I guess Penstemon are just really slow and really small ... and I guess they need warmth to germinate, after months of moist cold to break dormancy.

My eyes really popped open when I saw that sprinkling of microscopic green dots!

Here were my WS tubs when I started. Since then, a few sprouted but disappeared when I took their pots out of the tubs (slugs? cold? sproutnappers?) A few others are still huddled against the vemriculite, too small to see easily. The "teeny tiny Penstemon" are FAR too small to photograph. So this "before" WS shot looks much the same as my "after" WS ... so far.

(Meanwhile the indoor trays are doing well. As usual, once I start potting up, I have no room under lights for the overflow.)

Corey


This message was edited May 9, 2011 12:56 AM