looks like time to plant those tomatoes deeper .. but looking good Gita!!
oh man I would love grape kool aid... and that is a beautiful garden!!!
2010 Seed starting in the MA group
Wow buttoneer I can't believe you have that much growth already! Looking good!
Onesie, consider it yours, as soon as it is horticulturally able to ship. Blooms the color of grape koolade, and a KNOCKOUT scent of grape koolade. (anyone else, I have more than enough to share)
I started the zinnia and it came up. In the little hothouse I put it in. I used potting soil to plant them.
thank you KD!!... yeah for the zinnia!!!!
Karldan, I would love some grape koolade and a side of steroidal tigers. Thanks
onewish--
Potted my tomato seedlings "up" to deeper cell-packs yesterday morning.....Wish they were just a bit deeper--but it will have to do.....I don't grow anything in a large quantity--just some...Tomatoes? I think I had 28 plants total.
Many of them will be going to other people....I may keep about 6.
karldan--I have a small, oval w-box full of tiger lilie's bulbils that came up as well. Will have plenty at ourPlant Swap....
G.
Plant swap????? Where and when? I'm trying to get well enough to be thinking like joining the fun.
Hi Doc,
I know for sure that we are having a plant swap on the first Saturday after Memorial Day weekend at my house.
We can do whatever is convenient for you to be able to be here comfortably.
Regards,
Teri
Karldan,
Do you still have some grape koolaid iris to share? I'm intrigued!
Kathy
Some of my winter sown Cosmos have been going topless for a week or more.
This message was edited Mar 31, 2010 1:21 PM
As have my Calendulas.
While others I have to open to look at, such as my Agastache Honeybee Blue,
greenthumb
Oh how wonderful to see your up and coming plants...
Love your containers, were did you get them? or are they from getting take out Chinese?
Janet
and my Linaria Northern Lights
Janet, the containers are one quart deli tubs. I get them from a restaurant supply business. A sleeve of fifty tubs runs about $6.00, and a sleeve of fifty lids around $2.00 or so. A lot cheaper than eating out and a lot less fattening. I use a 1/8" drill and drill holes in the inverted stack, penetrating 8-10 tubs at a time. Do the same with the lids. Very quick and easy, plus no knives involved, so fewer trips to the ER.
These hollyhocks (front) and Mandragora officinalis (peat pots) were germinated indoors in cups of damp vermiculite, then planted and placed outside in a Bio Dome 2 or 3 weeks ago.
I was rather astonished today to discover a precocious rue anemone up and blooming in an area cleared of leaves a couple of weeks ago to make way for more plantings
greenthumbs,
thanks we have a rest. supply place down the road, I think I will finish up my ws with those types of container if I can find them.. preparing the milk jugs is just too time consuming and the think I like the most about your containers you don't have to tape them shut.... just lift the lid and go... too easy....
you sure do have your share and maybe more of rocks in your ground...wow...
by the way were is Lucketts? I grew up in Alexandria by DC.
Janet
Empty milk jugs are so dang space consuming too. But free.
I got Agastache but today noticed it said to chill, and I haven't yet. Could try the refrig,
Sally, fridge works great but you'll need to "moist stratify" the seeds. Put the seeds in a baggie with a bit of damp sand, vermiculite or other material before putting in the fridge. Dry cold is good for storage but it does not break dormancy.
This message was edited Mar 31, 2010 8:10 PM
Janet,
Lucketts is the last stop on route 15 north of Leesburg before you cross over to MD. Too small to rate a post office, so we are officially Leesburg. You are sooo right about the rocks. We'd do better selling gravel and buying the plants.
Pat
nice babies GT... good to know about the restaurant supply.. there is one not too far from here.. will have to check that out.. thanks!
Hit quote instead of edit for my post above. Wish one could remove an erroneous post. Of course if I hadn't been too lazy to preview an edit of one word neither of us would be wasting our time reading this.
This message was edited Mar 31, 2010 8:11 PM
This message was edited Mar 31, 2010 8:19 PM
David--
--How protected did you keep these containers? Where?
--WHEN did you actually seed in them?
--Do you keep them in semi-sun for the warmth of it? Or--in shade? WHERE?
--Will you plant straight out of these WS containers into the beds--or is there an in-between phase?
Just think of all the disposable food containers--like "Glad" and "Zip-Loc". You could do 4 different seedings in the shoe-box types! Just divide the areas.
They all come with lids, are semi clear, and not all that expensive. IF you belong to a "Costco" or "Sams" or "BJ's"--they sell greens and veggies in these really sturdy, bigger-than-shoe-box-sized containers. Like--Baby Spinach.....other loose greens.....PERFECT!
I use these next to my drain board to hold all my veggie scraps. Lasts me about 2 years--then it gets too yukky!
Saving other types of containers that are suitable works too. I still like the higher domed bakery or salad bar containers.....Think of it every time you shop--and buy something for the container.....assuming you would eat it, of course!
I did a lame attempt to WS in 2-one-gallon bottles in early Spring this year. Nothing has come up yet.....May be too late in the striation season.....
I don't like the bottles either--(sorry, Jill) as the uncut part does not really "hinge" very well. It seems a struggle to open up the bottle to look inside.....moves the soil around and all that......
Of course--isn't a small WS container just about the same as a much bigger Cold frame? Think Jr. and SR. ...:o)
Fun to see all these seedlings, David! They look so healthy and plump.....
Gita
I planted mine in January (late by a month) but still had success with them coming up. Of course the ones in Va. look much better, probably cause it is warmer down there. I am still so very happy they came up, anyway.
Gita, as many of my containers that would fit were kept on our fairly sunny patio table, the others on the ground nearby. I started seeding January 24 and it has been ongoing since. Earlier ones sat under the heavy snows and I simply placed later ones on top of the snow. I don't have a hard and fast plan as to how I will proceed from here, probably varying from case to case. I did use some other containers (milk, soda, roasted chicken, etc) but I didn't decide until middle of January to do winter sowing and had to come up with containers ASAP. (Pat did offer to empty as many Cheesecake Factory carryout containers as I needed.) Sown 130+ containers so far and will probably do more with tender annuals yet. It is so much easier on the household to have a major portion of the germinating done outside. I had a goodly number of native plant seeds that required 60 days of moist stratification, that's a lot of refrigerator space and I like to eat. By the way, not all my containers are full of "healthly and plump" seedlings, at least not yet.
greenthumb==LOL your 'correction problems ' post. Oh Panera Bread has these great, clear large drink cups. I can't bear to throw them out. That would fit nicely in my fridge for cold treatment with seed sown. One came packed with cookies. Darn the luck, had to eat cookies.
love the logic Sally!!
Sally, the sacrifices we make in the pursuit of gardening! :-) I have had good success this year moist stratifying seeds in 2 oz. condiment cups with lids. Small seeds are scattered on top of moist vermiculite. When the cups come out of the fridge they sit in either a cool or warm location for germination. The little sprouts are easily lifted with tweezers and planted into 6-packs or whatever. Larger seed I simply put in a small (2x3) zip lock bag with damp vermiculite. When it comes out of the fridge it just lays around in the appropiate location. As the seeds germinate I tweeze them out and plant. The Hollyhocks and Mandragora in one of the pictures above were both done this way except they never spent time in the fridge.
Geeez!!!!
Some of you may think I am some kind of a "major" gardener! NOPE!
I just seed little bits of many things--and--I can tell you, it takes all kinds of time to gather, dry, and remove seeds from everything that I grow....Often, my DR table is covered in cups and plates and all that.....al just waiting to be picked over and stored.
I learn as I go------Zinnias and marigolds and Rudbeckias-----the ONLY mature seeds are at the base of the dried flower petals. It is easy to just pull them off and snip off the seed. All the rest of them, at the tops of the blooms, are worthless! Don't waste your time!
If the seeds are on the smaller side--and buried amid chafe--rub them all off...then, VERY gently, take the container outside and blow on it as you shake/rotate the collected seed &.chafe stuff. Here, you have to have faith----that ONLY the productive seeds will stay put---while the rest of them will "fly to the winds"......BLOW softly!!!!
If it is hard to decide on which seeds will actually germinate on the larger ones---like Zinnias--take each one and test it for firmness. It it flexes and bends as you poke at it--it is, probably, NOT a fertile seed. I always choose the stiffer ones. You can, almost, eyeball it....
You can save yourself a lot of time IF you do all this "choosing" and "sorting" in the Fall as you go through all your collected seeds. In the Spring--you will not have the time to do any of this.
My brain is lazy! I do not want to keep track of when, or how, or where to striate seeds. I just want to plant them in seed starting mix when i think it is time...and leave the rest to the "Gemination gods".......:o)
LOVE reading all your methods and ways of doing things.......Thanks! I always remember something from it all.
It just adds to my "brain collection" of facts--that I can retrieve in seconds when needed......
Gita
you are funny Gita
Hey Gita, that was GREAT!!! You sure do know your stuff. I just pick 'em (sometimes with a toothpick (spit on the end & pick them up) and plant em. Sure is fun watching them come up.
Well here it is the first of April already and I still haven't started any seeds :( I got my new little portable greenhouse set up over 3 weeks ago and it's still empty! Looking at the progress of everyone's seedlings on this thread is inspiring me though - it's only Thursday so maybe by this weekend I'll finally get some sowing done? I purchased seeds of Lavatera http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/24/ from the DG Marketplace in December and they're first on the list! I had both the pink and white in my gardens years ago and always loved their flowers and finally found the seeds so I can try it again. I have leftover seeds from last year that I'll be sowing as well but these are the ones I really want to see in the gardens this year! If I'm successful I'll plan to take some to plant in my daughter's gardens this summer :)
Hey--everyone!
Just wanted to let you all know that HD has all kinds of wonderful, in-bloom, low-growing perennials in 6" pots. Lots and lots of them---$5.97. Like--candytuft, Rockcress, creaping flox, and many more I never heard of. Many suited for rock gardens....
Garden at HD is starting to rock and roll.....this weekend should be insane!!!!
Next weekend--April 11th--I go out to garden with my table and my "Garden Know-How Clinics" and will stay out there for the day.....(that's new to me!) Will be doing this every Sunday I can until end of June. Got my big sign up by the front entrance and made one yesterday and posted it by the garden gate. I am excited!!!!
AND---All this is my own doing--no one has asked me to do any of this. This will be the third year i am doing the "clinics"....
Will take my camera along on Sunday and take some pictures to show you all---especially of the different perennials....
Today--or tomorrow--will mow my lawn for the first time before we have another "monsoon"...
I choose different topics every week and they are posted on the BIG sign (by the entrance) a week in advance......Do you think anyone pays attention to the topics? NAH!!!!
I end up cruising around the garden and helping people do/choose the right thing. like....NOT buying a cart-full of cheap top soil if they are planning to start a flower garden.....OR--Stopping someone if they have in their cart BOTH a bag of lawn fertilizer with crabgrass pre-emergent AND a bag of grass seed.
"HEY! HOLD IT!!!! You CAN"T do both!!!"
Here's my table and me w/a customer in 2008. Gita
Gita, Gantz Goot! Can we call you the plant nurse now?
....Scalpel---PLEASE!!!!
Gita, What fun you will have. Just think of it a whole day talking gardening. Don't you just love helping people make their gardens more beautiful.
I never saw anything like Gita's learning center anyplace in this area. Here they do a nice job with in the home "how to" programs. I've gone to a couple. One is best to remain a listener and not ask any hard questions.
Here at Lowe's our best comment might be that the help knows how and can keep the shelves loaded. They do not always keep like products together. Either they don't know or don't care. They know little more than stock monkeys. Thank God the labels are reasonably good.
way to go....
I know how wonderful it can be, I help a lady yesterday on my way out of HD, she was looking for a low shrub and the HD kid gave her two boxwoods.... don't get me wrong I love them, but the place she wanted to put them was right by a window and were customers would be walking up.... I suggested the smell from them might not be what she was looking for and they really had limited stock on hand but I did find some blue stars, and helped her with soil selection for them.... HD should love me as my suggested costs more than what their kid had suggested....
I love offering help.
Janet
edited for spelling...
This message was edited Apr 1, 2010 11:59 AM