Seed Swap Chat #53 (sowing the seeds!)

I have one room that just has a narrow path through it because of all of the plants I have had to overwinter this year. I have a lot of plants that are doubles & triples and such that I am going to have to narrow down to just one or two of each. No reason to have more than 5 full grown spider plants!

Then I've got all the different brugs people gave me at the beginning of winter, and yes, EE's & Ginger too! And Bird's of Paradise & oh, my very favorite plant I received last year... The most beautiful Begonia I have ever seen. It is like metallic pink mostly & other colors, just gorgeous! And it has grown so much! And 6 citrus trees that I have been dragging in & out for the past 8 years. There are more, but too many to list... Hoping to replace some of this indoor stuff for outside stuff this spring :)

ants

I made a resolution this year, any bulb that has to be dug up or plant brought in for winter goes in a container. I was "attacked" by my Wildeve rose while digging out my gladoili this fall.Now, I just have to come up with some more containers this spring, been reading about papercrete. I would love to make some trough style planters.

Will those hold up to the weather & watering?

ants

People claim that they hold up to weather, like any kind of concrete. I haven't make any yet, but have been reading about it. There is also a yahoo group caled papercreters. Some people make papercrete building blocks for houses and walls. The mix is concrete or quick concrete and paper pulp (ripped newspaper and water). I like that it uses recycled materials. A dgmember named tomtom from Japan shows some of her containers in the container gardening forum.

Thanks :) I'll have to check that out.

Forgot to share this: I received Kenaf in a trade & didn't notice how fresh the seeds were & when I went to plant them they were all moldy. I winter sowed them hoping that the cold would kill the mold before the mold killed the seeds & hoping that didn't already happen & 2 of them have come up :)

ants

Ants... great!!!!!!! : )

I use dog clippers to nick canna seeds and lotus seeds too it will work on . Ya can hold the canna seed run it a coupe of time s over the dog clipper blade and whalla. it done. No worrying about sanding your nuckles at all. : )

Lebug.. which Dahlia seed did you get?

Lea ,
bet you thoses canna's if all the wild weather hasn'r killed them be back okay and don't fuss if you get a box full , then up to you to grow and let fi; out to find them short babie's which I love the bestest. And think I put them in front , lol called doing the best I can with no direction.
If they come back you gonna be in trouble??
High's and a few low's will tell them to lay off the grass this spring and let them grow some mine and some from Stephanie she liked tall and lol don't let me forget my dearest frind Ella who we all need to support trying to stand on her own. Come on let's show her some support !!
Carolyn

Has anyone tried watering with hot water to try to get rid of the fungus gnats? I had to change the soil & wash my baby brugs today because it was full of the fungus gnats. Now I am worried about the rest of my babies. I looked for mosquito dunks at local stores today & couldn't find any. I cannot get to Walmart... Long story. So, do you think hot water will work & not kill the seedlings?

ants

Happy 1st day of March.
I just love that the 'F' month is over!
Today I'm going out to buy more seed starter soil and then starting many more seeds.

Lebug, I know I started some canna seeds a couple years ago. I never knicked them, just soaked them for a day and they all germinated. I know I planted them in late April, but they all died in May when they didn't get watered for a while. :o( I know that wasn't any help for you ... sorry.

I fianlly gave away all my cannas, the big red ones grew like crazy, but never did bloom well enough for me. The place I could use them was a little too shady I guess.
Now I save a few Dahlia's, Calla's, and one EE. I'm getting better at decreasing the amount I overwinter.
I left a bunch of my Lily bulbs in their containers outside last winter, I'm really hoping they come back. I believe I read somewhere that a container is considered one zone lower than your actual zone, so that would mean they are zone 4 or 5. I'm crossing my fingers and toes! Anyone else do this?????

Ants, I don't know for sure, but I just can't see water that is hot enough to kill those gnats wouldn't hurt your plants.

Carolyn I've been to see Ella :) It's a dead this time of year over there as it is here :) I'll go over this fternoon after I get back from town :)

Toofew lol No you weren't any help lol The one canna that I started in 08' (I finally looked it up) didn't write down how fast it grew or when I started it I just wrote it down it's always like that I need to start taking better notes I always say this and don't do it LOL Anyway I gave it to a neighbor and haven't seen it since she planted it right by her tall cannas toward the shade more and I bet it died or she just planted it too close to the tall ones and they took it over. It was a yellow one her favorite color so I thought she would take care of it guess not.

Well need to start some petunias, coleus and torena then I'll go ahead and start the cannas. This may be the year that I run out of room on five plant stands I always wait for it to happen and it hasn't yet but this may be the year :)) Wouldn't that be awsome that would be a lot of plants for downstairs lol

Ants, I saw one gnat downstairs last night put my little shot glass of applecider vinegar out for him hope he doesn't have friends! Where there is one there is a million!

Ants.. I agree with Too few. The temp to eliminate the larvae at least would source your babies roots.

Your got some vaseline in the house. Get ya blue and yellow construction paper or a marker or a crayon or colored pencil anything to make small squares of color on the paper. Make some yellow and some blue. Glue then on to a twig piece of ya have too. cover with vaseline and place about a half inch from the soil line around your babies. If you don't kil the adult flying ones, you'll have tons of larvae eating your root system and what you thought was damping off really wasn't the root system has been compromised.

One of those blasted gnats just got stuck in my lip gloss. I am addicted to Carmex and lip stuff, especially in the winter. That is even worse than flying up my nose. I can't get to the store either until Thursday, assuming we don't have another storm. I don't drive, so I rely on the bf who only has Thursdays free. Of course, the past two weeks we had blizzards on Thursdays. They are forecasting snow again this week, hope it isn't much.

I don't think hot water will get rid of them, but it may slow them down. I used warm water with lysol and soap and it didn't stop them at all. I got more flies up my nose than in the glass of cider vinegar.

I have coconut scented petrolatum (like vaseline with coconut oil) I'll try that on paper. Why do you have to put blue and yellow squares on it?

Is there a favorite brand of mosquito dunks? I sure hope they have them in the stores now.

Shoot Garden if they sticking to your lip gloss I sure would smear it on some paper. Some of the knats are attracted to the color yellow and some to blue. also if you have any other minute pests that fly in, or develop they will go to the color of their choice.

Found my skitter dunks at lowe's but don't know if they out yet?? Haven't been out for awhile no wheels here cause I gotta thumb a ride but will ask but know they had at wally world last year.
Carolyn

Thank you. I don't have any vasaline, but I DO have lots of lip gloss! :)

I could only find 2 of the 5 brug seeds I sowed, so put the others back in the same container & set it outside to let mother nature take care of it :)

I'm really worried about my Mahogany Midgets though. Only had a few seeds & planted all of them. 5 came up & really don't want to lose them.

ants

Unfortunately, I don't have yellow or blue lip gloss.

My coconut vaseline covered solid blue plastic markers haven't nabbed any gnats, yet. There are quite a few floating in the sweaters I am soaking and hand washing in the bathroom. I placed out a few bowls of soapy water around. I will have to try some with yellow dots. I put lip gloss on one marker to see if it gets any.

Lets hope for an early, warm spring so that we can out these things outside already. The cat will miss the bug zapper in the bathroom. She sits on the floor and watches it zap the bugs. (Don't worry, it is too high for her to reach.)

The stockists at Walmart and Lowe's are going to wonder why they are selling so many mosquito dunks when there is still snow on the ground.

GQ - "Unfortunately, I don't have yellow or blue lip gloss."
You gave me a good chuckle this morning!!!!!!!

Make you some yellow stickies with the lip gloss. You may have stumbled on a new method that will start a major research project at some college. LOL

Make sure you have them stickies, horizontal and close to the surface of the soil. The gnats are not gonna fly far from the soil and their young.

Oh, I love this fox fire I installed, learned it got buttons and I can not look so dyslexic. I just have to be able when I see red lien is hope I pick right word. : )

Thanks for the tips on both lists. I sprayed every pot and plant with a 0.02% pyrethrin spray yesterday afternoon and this morning. I seem to have less gnats at the moment. I had bought it in December and tried it on two problem plants and put it aside because it didn't seem to help. Both of these plants are in plastic bag quarantine with sevin dust. They have lots of dead bugs in the bag, but the plants seem unphased. They are staying in their bags until I can give them a mosquito dunk and leave them outside for the season. I have always believed that if I plant is trying to survive I will help it. I am not the shovel pruning type. However, I may reconsider that stance with these specimens.

So far, I have no bugs on the blue sticks. They are stuck vertically in the ground like plant labels (I also greased the plant labels for good measure) I will have to try the sticks in a more horizontal position and see if that makes a difference. I haven't gotten around to painting any sticks yet.

I use firefox as well. I like it so much better than internet explorer. I also like some of the add ons. It runs much faster than internet explorer on older systems like mine.

I have to get back to the kitchen and finish my winter sowing. I have to get these soda bottles planted and outside and my kitchen back to normal.

Ella where do you get that foxfire I've seen people talk about it on here I want it it's suppose to have something to do with this site isn't it?

I am so mad this morning I told the gas co. I didn't want my tank filled unless I called them well I got back this morning to a bill on my front door for almost $400 and the tank had over half a tank in it! I just checked it last week thinking I won't have to get gas until about April or May. I called them and they said I could make payments the thing is I told them in the first place two years ago I don't want the tank filled unless I call of course they don't have any record of me calling said I had to write a letter or send an email, I told them they won't get paid right away cause I shouldn't have even gotten it in the first place! I am soooo mad!! I have the money to pay it but they will get a little bit of money each month until it is paid off everyone around here hates this company because they do these things and they are the highest on gas around here! And if you let them they would be filling it every two months! I'm always stopping them before they even get to the gas tank when they pull up and telling them I don't want gas yet! As a matter of fact when I first moved out here they were filling the tank every two months with it costing almost $400 each time I told dad that was ridiculous and he should do something about it but he couldn't tell anyone no he would just go ahead and pay it well I thought I put a stop to it, there is a stop to it now!

I can buy another tank and go with another company but it would be over a $1,000 probably because I have to buy another company's tank so that's why I haven't done it yet and now I really can't afford to do it anyway any other co. would be so much cheaper on gas too! They have who ever has their services still over a barrel because we don't want to put the money out to change companys and they know it and take advantage of it there are a lot of people that have gotten rid of them!

They were up here just last week and saw that I was home in the window and just left they knew I hadn't called yet for gas and just slipped it in this morning while I was downtown and came home to that bill on the front door I am so darn mad!

Well haven't been downstairs yet today and almost afraid to go down each day because of seeing that gnat the othert day, I was going to go to HD yesterday to check on some misquito dunks and forgot before they get too bad down there I did put my shot glasses down there with the a. vinegar lol Hey it's worked up in the kitchen before :) Every other time when I start watering my plants downstairs now it will be with the H202 to kill the eggs in the dirt for a while.

I know that there is a potential for funus larvae to ruin the roots of the plants, but I had them pretty bad last year and I don't think I lost anything to them. I was trying to find a solution as well and had a hard time, however I do remember finding somehow info that the active ingredient in a product I use on my roses and lilies to kill jap and lily leef beetles is supposed to kill fungus gnat larvae. I personally was too nervous to try it, as there are no recommendations for using the product this way on the label. But I had considered trying it in a very diluted amount to see what happened. I am a procrastinator and never did it, but I only remember having bad luck with very few seedlings and they were ones that are just tough to grow from seed in general , like lantana. I think I had about 15 flats of seedlings going last year. I did spray them with something but I can't remember what it was and it only killed the adults. I probably only did that twice. I think it was Safer's for houseplants if I remember correctly.

Oops I didn't preview so I didn't see your post until just now Lea, how are you? :)

I'm fine Meredith lol Just a little T'd off today lol Got some seed trays ready to plant today so going to be a busy girl today getting ready to plant them now and find some annuals that I lost the other day some how lol Where do those suckers go when you aren't looking LOL

Lea, go to http://www.mozilla.com for firefox. Free download, and it's great!

LeBug.. I'd be upset too. Hate when companies just assume things.
Had to go hunt. Here it is. http://www.getfirefox.com

Lea, I have had Firefox allmost since the day they went on line. My grandson was in college at the time and they were involved. Nobody had ever heard of it. He talked me into it and I really like it. I especially like that red line Ella was talking about. LOL, I always thought I was a pretty good speller. Used to be anyway. Now it makes me look like I still am. Spellcheck.

Lea, it is soooooo sad that you can't make them come back and suck that gas out. Almost makes you want to get an attorney to see what recourse you have. That would cost you more than the gas. Do you have a state attorney general? Washington does, and we can call them. In fact our atty gen. has a law suit against Direct TV because of their business practices. Kind of like your gas company. My TV bill started out at $39 a month. It is now up to $80 due to their slipping little charges in here and there.

Sorry I took so long to get back, I had to run out to work... I can't believe they'd do that! How ignorant of them. What if you didn't have the money!? The company we use only does those automatic fills if you apply for it, they do a credit check on you too. That is the only way they'll take payments, otherwise they only fill if you pay on delivery. One time my checkk in the ziplock baggy blew off the tank and they came out and left without filling. I called because I went to see what percent they were at and they were practically empty, then I looked down and the check was right there! Ya think the guy would have made a small effort to look around for it!? No! They also have a minimum of 100 gallons which is pretty expensive. Anyway the point of that is that they'll only auot fill if you want them to and you fill out the paperwok and get approved. Lea you should call around because the companies around here don't charge you for a tank if your a customer. Unless it needs to be buried then they make you buy one.

Well they sell the tanks around here Meredith that's why I haven't switched since I've been out here that's a lot of money to come up with at one time esp. now :) that's what I have heard from everyone that has their own tank now and using another company. I did a lot of calling around in 08' about it then just gave up.

Attorney General Jenette, I really don't want to get into all of that for now just got done with the worse year of my life and just want some peace for a while maybe later I will pursue it...they won't get their money in one lump sum like they usually do I promise you that! And when I talk to other people about the LP gas I'll mention it to them, this town won't do anything about it seems like I'm always the rebel and trying to get people to stand up for themselves just like the speed limit sign that I got for our street and the drug gang across the street it was always me behind it I don't want to be known as the 'B' of the town or street but the darn people sure are glad when I've gotten what they want I just told someone the other day that was complaining about a truck speeding down the street backwards that I need to do something about that and I told her no she needs to do it they can pay me and I'll fight all they want but I'm tired of fighting and no one else doing anything about it, I'm just going to try and get another tank sometime this year hell it will be fall or later before I empty this tank! They did say I could make payments and that's what they will get! Very little payments! If it's fall before I empty this tank I won't be able to order more gas from a cheaper place at the summer prices, I need to have the summer price locked in. Well if I do get another tank I'm sure I can probably get locked in if I go ahead and get more gas!

Thanks for listening guys I think I'm just about to lose it sometimes :)

I've got seeds to plant and rooms to clean while trying to find someone to rewire my electric and need to go to town to get the homesteaders thing with my house and something else for the house this week at the court house, have my grandson coming this weekend so need to get my seeds to going I'm so tired of trying to get a bunch of stuff done lol I'm just over whelmed all the time it seems I need a vacation lol

Thanks for the link to Firefox now Tony is telling me that he got a bunch of viruses when he had it but that was a few years ago so I'm sure it has improved since and looks like they have upgraded it too from what I read on there I'll wait until tomorrow and see if Tony will download it for me on here I just know they will ask questions that I can't handle I'm so good on computers lol

Anywho :) How long do I soak impatiens seeds? I put them in at 6:30 and will take them out if I don't hear from anyone in a couple of hours. I haven't been having that much luck with impatiens the last couple of times I planted them so I want to get it right this time lol

Lea It is understandable that, that would make you mad - it would make me mad too! Hopefully this is the last time they do that. If you make sure you never completely pay in full (like leave a small balance) they probably won't! lol
I personally am nervous to put firefox on. There are plenty of other ways to get all the nice spelling check and such on the toolbars. I have a google toolbar and it has everything I need on it. I especially love the auto fill button - when I am placing all my seed and plant orders all I have to do is click the auto fill and it fills the whole thing in for me. Once in a while the website isn't set up right for every line to auto fill and I have to go back and add my e-mail or something, but it mostly fills in all of it for me. Love that! I also love my google sidebar - although I think it sometimes slows down my computer - especially if I am running low on memory. When that happens I jsut temporarily close it and wait until I free up memory to put it back on. The only problem with that is they recently sent an e-mail talking about how they were changing the gadgets and the gadgets wouldn't work unless you had some new fangled thing on the computer (which I have no idea if I have) Now i am missing one of my favorite gadgets which is a notepad - I love it because I can cutr and copy links right on it and it is always right on the side bar. It can be a slong as you want it to but it always stays small and you just scroll it to find the older stuff. My second favorite gadget is the picture slideshow - which is the one that I think is the culprit of slowing my computer down when it's low on mem. It si really cool because you can add any link to online photos you want. I added my picasa albums. It came pre loaded with random flickr pics but I deleted that and just set it to my own. It also gets pics from the pics file right on your harddrive. Oh and I have to mention my third fave. it is a countdown to anything - Right now I have it set to the first day of spring - Only 17 more days to go... woo hoo!! : )

I like the google tool bar but until Tony got here with another one which I can't remember which one he has now he comes up with a lot more things to help when I'm googleing so I just want a change don't think google is helping a lot used to think it was me now I think it is google.

I won't use auto fill because of hackers :) I don't want anymore info. in there than what I have to on me I'm not a trusting person anymore lol

That's pretty cool that you can put links to pictures on here and your photo album had no idea about that I never take the time to look into all that stuff I just get on here and that's it lol

Meredith have you ever soaked your impatiens seeds? I've had mine soaking for almost two hours just wondering if I should go ahead and plant them or they should soak longer I've never soaked those before I use to have good luck with them but the last couple of times I've planted them haven't gotten much out of them.

Lea, why don't you ask another company if you become their customer and buy their tank will they take the gas out of the one you have and put it in theirs? Just a thought. I know they can suck it out. I have heard of them doing that. Can't remember the reason.

Jnette, I don't think I could do that leagally and a place selling gas wouldn't want to put someone elses gas in their tank surely. I'm not going to worry about it for a while I sure was fit to be tied earlier though lol I'll talk to some people around here in the mean time and see what they think, well I know what they think the same thing I do about filling the tank up all of the time! They said they give us an option in the summer by a letter to get the gas as the lowest price and have it locked in we just need to tell them how much we think we will use I asked one neighbor today if she knew anything about a letter like that and she said she never got one I don't think we have ever gotten one either I'm going to ask the other neighbors.

Happy Birthday nbgard! :))

Happy Birthday Nbgard! I hope you have a great day! ^_^

Lebug.... Hope by now you have your impatiens seeds out. I have never soaked mien before. They usually sprout pretty easy so wonder why you soaked them?

gas company I have to use, they charge 50 bucks a year for tank rental fee. My gas company gonna get payments too. Spring better hurry up is all I got to say.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NBGARD!!!! Hope ya have a great one!

LeBug, sorry about your gas situation. I was wishing that I had gas instead of electric heat. I rent my home in a town home community. My ancient heat pump isn't working properly. In January, it kept switching into "emergency heat" mode with the heat running non stop. It even kept running after I turned the thermostat off. I had to go turn it off at the breaker. The manager was missing in action throughout this ordeal, like usual. I finally got outside with my own leaf blower and cleared the debris out from under the unit. It seemed to solve the problem, at least temporarily. Now the heat is going higher than the temperature set on the thermostat. I had it set at 62'F, the apartment was 67'F although it isn't in "emergency" mode, yet. I turned it off at the breaker and the thermostat again. My bill hasn't arrived yet this month, but I am afraid to see how high it will be. I called the health department, but they claim that as long as I have heat, they couldn't do anything. I could call the volunteer fire department, but would only do that at a last resort. I want to tidy up a bit before having the town traipse thru my place in full fire gear.

I have had much less spyware and malware since I switched to firefox and thunderbird. (I used to use Eudora for email, but the company no longer supports it.) Add-ons such as no script, web of trust and better privacy help a lot. Check on the firefox page for add-ons, there are lots of them, all have reviews and comments. I really like the ones that gives the weather report on the bottom of the screen, forecast bar enhanced and weather watcher live. I also like plain old favorites which allows you to import your favorites from internet explorer.

Bad weather and a great aunt with a broken hip are keeping the bf too busy to drive me to the doctor, Walmart, Lowe's and the laundromat on Thursday. I called again for a bus schedule. Last time I tried to take the local bus, I was at the stop at the correct time, waving the bus as it passed. I am afraid that I will end up stranded somewhere. This is not NYC where buses run regularly and stop, the water is arsenic free and drinkable without boiling and the power and the phones stay on when it rains. I am shocked by how many people are unable to read! It is considered normal here!!! I am considered abnormal, reading and finishing tons of books on my patio in broad daylight. It is a beautiful part of the country, but not very modern or efficient.

Having a bad day today, but stopping in for a virtual coffee break with the piggies is cheering me up a bit. I am building up confidence to clone and swap my hard drive. Wish me luck!

Sorry Lea, I can't help with the impatiens seeds. I only grew them once a few years ago, I was very new to growing seeds and I remember those ones being one of the easier ones to grow. They were just too small for the spotr I had them and I don't have enough shade in my yard for them anywhere else, so I haven't grown them since. I do know that I didn't soak them though.

Lea I was just poking around in the Seed Starting forum and I found a thread about Impatiens you might find useful! : ) http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1072786/

I soaked my impatiens for about two hours and the Tutu started to sprout so I planted them and then some plain red ones I had they didn't sprout there's a thread about using blue plastic on the impatiens and some sprout better but I don't have any blue plastic anywhere thought about cutting a lid up off of a little food thingie in the cabinet but it looks a little thick I'm just hoping the red ones come up. I used to grow them and didn't have any problems at all but the last couple of times I grew them I only got one or two out of several packs for some reason that's why I thought about soaking them the ones that sprouted were such tiny roots lol I planted a seed tray of both left some of the red ones soaking that I wasn't going to plant and were left over and they still haven't sprouted but I'm not going to plant those anyway just wanted to see if they would sprout I hope the ones in the dirt do!

Thanks Meredith I'll check that link out I know some impatiens can be funny about sprouting I've read all kinds of articles about them I think it was before all the articles I read about them that I never had any problems with them lol

GardenQuilts sorry you are having so much trouble with your furnace do you have to deal with that every year? You've been fighting that thing since it got cold haven't you it's a shame you can't find someone to just come and fix it for good but then you did say it was very old.

Actually it is a heat pump. Not the best idea for the PA mountains. I am renting a town home, so I am depending on the "24 hour on site maintenance" people to fix it. The manager lives on site, but isn't always in her office during "office hours". She gets really angry if you knock on her apartment door, even if it is during "office hours". (Her apartment is in a different building from her office.) They try not to spend any money fixing things, so you have to fight them when anything breaks. I got so fed up trying to get them to replace my dishwasher and stove that the bf replaced them with better ones from freecycle. I am hoping to move this year, just haven't found a place, yet. This was such a nice community when I moved here, but the rents have escalated and the quality of life deteriorated.

One bright note today, I have some crocuses sprouting and tiny red buds on a couple of roses. Tiffany killed another vole burrowing near my lily bulbs. That makes 10 so far this winter. Luckily they were all outside. I brought the camera with me, but didn't have the little card in it. Having a blonde moment, again.

I am going to go blow the leaves and debris out from under my heater, again, and walk to the post office.