Winter Sowing 2010 What's Sprouting #2

Where's the pictures Clpgirl? I want to see all the chia pets!!! LoL I don't have any chias yet but I'm working on the thin afros. LoL

today i found...

Yvonne Salvias
"Big Red" Salvia
Purple Milkweed
-- and something else... i lost my little note pad, can't find it anywhere.
I know there was 4 new containers.

Since we are expecting MORE rain tonight.. i've put a few containers under the over hang of my sunroom so they will be protected.. i rarely get rain there.

the 4th was Scabiosa Summer Berries Mix. those were sown on the 29th of March.

Will post chias tomorrow!

Went out this afternoon, and ALL but one tomato, out of 23 heirlooms have seedlings. Also Rosa Blanca Egg-plant. A bit worried cuz I know we'll have more frosts, but thrilled this is happening. My bro-in-law had to EAT HIS WORDS this weekend. (A rare occurence!) WIsh I had bet a good dinner on whether WS would work. Plus have made a number of new converts in this area.

Love this thread and look forward to reading everyone's sucesses, and challenges, every night.

I do not WS because I live in Las Vegas and we really do not have a winter. But I get such joy just reading your trials and triumphs that I check in everyday just to cheer you on, an on, an on....May all your garden beds be filled with worms..

I just tallied my containers.... 63 out of 103 have germinated. these warm days are certainly having an effect on the seeds.

we only have one cold night coming up... I think expected to be 30 or in the 30s... ops, make that two days... 37 and then 34 for Wed and Thursday. I'll just make sure the lids are on.

that's awesome!!! supposed to be 84 here tomorrow.. starting off to be a wacky season.. it should only be 50's right now

I have been watching mine for the last week and tonight my jug eye spotted so many sprouted seeds.... Oh my goodness. The silly rain keeps not coming so I'm gonna have to water them as a lot of mine are dry.... The weather man says temps are going to be dropping on Wednesday night so all I'm gonna do is just lay some weed fabric over them as I'm not about to go through putting tops on all those jugs, so weed fabric better be good enough... we will see.

Janet

I have decided I am going to put all of mine in the 4 tier little greenhouse thing I have and put them out on the deck in it. I'm tired of putting them on the table for sun and an hour later, under the table because it is raining or hailing.

Maybe that will make mine start to sprout. We re still below freezing every night. I planted my strawberries tonight anyway. My helebores are up about 6 inches and blooming.

I brought one of my jugs of rudbeckias in the house to see if they would sprout. Hope they haven't rotted.

Janet... where I mentioned 'putting the lids' on... that was not for the milk jugs.... it was for the big yogurt containers and the flat ones [i dont have a photo of ] but it's like a big rectangular take out dish with a big lid... some of my Zinns have surpassed the lid area so i have to take them off.

ugggggg - rain/snow showers expected the next 2 days.

today, another halfa inch of rain!! OK enough is enough.
but sun is back in the forecast for Friday.

well, mine were dry and it has been saying that we were going to get rain each night for the last 2 nights so I didn't water them (which would have been the first time that I've done anything to them) and then this morning wake up to find about 20 jugs scattered all over the patio... so can't find the seed in the mix and they could have fallen out... going home at lunch time to water the jugs so they will stay put....

oh well at least there are about 15 jugs that have sprouted and I will be transplanting them into a container... provided the pots I ordered get here before this weekend...

Janet

Janet,
I am so sorry about your jugs. The wind hit here too. I've been similating rain with the sprinkler head of my hose set to shower over the WS area. I've also been bottom soaking some of the jugs which is very, very time consuming. This wind is just awful.

I am, as I'm sure you are, hoping one of these rain predictions finally comes TRUE.

Diamond-
You wanted to see pics of my chias, so I'm posting what's 'up' today. Some have already been unchunked....LOL. Like this one!

Cleome chia-let

Cypress vine mini-chia

Forgot what it was when I came in the house chia.

Yellow hollyhocks

Lemon Gem marigold almost chia-there are teeny ones in between.......

Your guess is as good as mine.............LOL

Somehow this nicely seeded little WS container snuck in amoung the chaos...............think my gardening partner did this one! Osteoporum (sp.?)

Nice collection of CHIAS ClpGirl! I'm feeling inspired!!!!! You're in zone 5b and I'm in zone 5a...when did you WS your marigolds? I need to look those up to see if they are hardy or tender annuals here. I have some of the snow ball varieties I'd like to WS

I just went over the "STICKY" but I could not find the answer to my question. If someone answered this, then I'm sorry for asking again. When do you remove the cover from seedlings containers? Am I supposed to remove cover as soon as I see significant germination? Do I wait until the temperature is consistantly 60 or more degrees? When do I uncover my seedling? I have quite a few that have sprouted and I don't want to suffocate them. One of my containers has seedlings that are touching the lid. That can't be good the tender seedlings???

Open hardy annuals and hardy perennials whenever you have decent germination. Same for half hardy or tender stuff, but keep the top handy in case those need to be covered for late frost.

Karen

Thanks Karen! I was thinking I probably should open the lid but I was worried about shocking the seedlings. do you think I should open the containers tonight or wait until a nice day?

I have the lids off my Zinns, and it's gonna be in the 30's tonight.

I have my indoor sown Tomatoes out in my sun room... it is currently 50 out there ... they have been out for a few days already... i'll take a peek at them tomorrow -- only supposed to be mid 40's If they are looking sad and limpy, they will have to come back in.

I'll go take a photo of the other dishes i've been talking about... they are more shallow, but not like the Chx dishes ... but no room for the seedlings to grow... so the lids are off.

this is the area where i put containers when i want them out of the weather... either too much sun in teh summer and currently -- out of the rain.

the box has the deli containers [lunch meat from Sams] and the yogurt container that have the Poppy chias.

here you can see the back one, the seedlings have 'hit the cover' ... they've grown a lot in the past 2 days.

here is it with the lid off. from the top of the soil, to the edge of the container... it's only about 1.5" ... so not a lot of growing room... i honestly did not think they would have germinated this quickly.

I think these are the California Giant, Zinnias

close up

100% germination of Milky Way Morning Glory.

**edited to add.... took a few "jug eye" photos of seedlings... both were blurry.
One was Wild Lupine, which is getting tall, and the other was a cluster of Bee Balm.

This message was edited Apr 7, 2010 7:04 PM

nice!!!

Diamond, if you're using milk jugs, you should have the lid/cap off and some air/water inlet holes on the top of your jugs. They'll be fine in there without removing the top half of the jug until you're ready to plant or until they start growing out the top.

clpgirl

love seeing your stuff.... yes again no rain, so out I went when I came home and soaked down all the jugs.... wow what a job...plus I'm sure some seeds were dislodged from the wind and the watering so who knows if I'll get any germination from those jugs... one good thing is I found a lot of jugs with a bunch of germinated seeds....hurrrrrrayyyyyyyy

Janet

We're supposed to get rain tonight. Some areas of the city have had rain recently, but not in my neighborhood. We could use some. I've been watering my jugs.

Karen

i think we are finally NOT getting any rain. but rain/snow showers tomorrow.
50's friday, and 70 again on Sat.

Some of the Morning Glory seeds I have are soaking overnight, can't wait to plant them tomorrow. More Verbena and Columbines are up and the Cosmos seedlings are a 1/2" tall. What am I going to do with all these? Campanula is sprouting and "Chater's Double" Hollyhocks need to be transplanted. Blackberry Lilies I W/S'd in January are 1" tall and a few Dayliles I planted two weeks ago are already up.

I can't imagine still having snow! We're having an unseasonably warm Spring with high's the last week in the 90's and low's in the 60's. Am I doing the right thing by keeping the top-half of the jugs open or should I close them at night? Some of mine are drying out really quickly too, and I've had to water them daily for the last week.

How cold are your nights?

we are upper 30's tonight and i have a few that are open, only because the lids do not fit due to the height of the seedlings.

if we are expecting below freezing and or frost... i will protect them, other than that, they should be fine.

tcs

do you have any weed blocker material? if so maybe that would work and not be heavy on your plants should you get a slight freeze.

Janet

I have old flannel sheets or an old comforter... or i can move them to my sun room.. it;s unheated, but they would be out of the elements. I'll have to see how cold it is going to get tomorrow night.