Winter Sowing 2010 What's Sprouting #2

Your sprouts look real good and healthy Anita. I started my dahlias inside too but this time I may have made a mistake. I only put them in 6 inch pots. I normally start them in the pots they are going to stay in. But, I don't know where they are going to end up. I got short ones. Maximum 24". To use for height in my conainers. I planted them last week and all but one are up. They are ones I bought at Wallys and also some I got from Jan the gourdbeader in Oregon. So, today I moved them out to the mini greenhouse. I may move them back in in a couple of days 'cause the nighttime temps are suppose to get back down to near freezing again.

That one plant that you have in the right hand corner with the big leaves looks like a shrimp plant. A white one. LOL, just because I have one that sucks. Yours looks better than mine. What is it?

Oh, I forgot. I started some dahlias 2 weeks ago from seed. Some I got from a dger. One is up. Got a sprout about the same size as the ones from tubers. How are the Marmelade Rudbeckias doing that I sent you? I noticed they are coming up in my WS. I think that is the 3rd one. I may have a 4th one up can't remember what it is.

The original 3 jugs that I sowed a couple of months ago using some really old sweet pea seeds did not germinate.
So, yesterday, I finally started my belated wintersowing, now spring sowing, since I had collected all these milk jugs during Jan and Feb with great intentions of wintersowing. One jug of foxglove (Anita - those are the ones that you sent me! - any idea what color?), one of godetia - year unknown, one pink forget-me-not, and one papaver that I got in the mail a couple of years ago. If any of those germinate, I would be thrilled. I will probably do some zinnia and baby's breath.

And since it is so late in the season, I threw some hollyhocks directly into the ground. Some larkspur that I direct-sowed a month ago has germinated. We had periods of warmth, followed by days of rain, so that combination was conducive to germination.
Has anyone tried to germinate any seeds of the black millet?

I will probably store the rest of my jugs - about 10 - for next winter with the resolve to start earlier.

Yes, I bought Black Millet off of Marketplace. I planted that and also some purple millet. They both are up. Not a lot, but then I didn't plant a lot at first. I was going to share some so I planted more later and don't think those are up yet. That was just a couple of days ago.

Why do you ask?


Oh, BTW, I always plant purple millet with a mauve petunia weaving up thru the spikes, leaves, of the millet. Really looks nice.

This message was edited Apr 16, 2010 10:39 PM

Jnette, that is a shrimp plant! I was sent some cuttings and that's one of the two that I have. I have never had those type of shrimp plant. I have had the blue shrimp plant. I fell in love with that one. I think its the cerinthe major??? It went wild once we put it in the ground. We would trim it back with the weed wacker. LoL Soils, I'm pretty sure those foxglove were pink. I planted some and they are beautiful!! Foxglove is one of my favorites.

Just heard on the local news that there's a frost warning in the Cincinnati area tonight. I'm not even sure if I have many tender sprouts out there, but I do have some tiny tomatoes. I guess I'll cover them, or stick them into the unheated garage overnight. As of yesterday I had 8 sprouted out of 12 cups. It's times like these that make me glad I'm a procrastinator and haven't finished sowing tender things yet.

We were supposed to finally get some rain yesterday but actually got very little. It's really getting dry for April. It probably wasn't enough rain to lower this awful pollen level. I dust my porch in the morning, and by afternoon everything is covered in green film again. My allergies are going nuts.

Karen

Same here-frost tomorrow morning, not getting rain we're supposed to, and itchy itchy eyes. Old blankets ready to go over the ws containers.

Pulled in all my newly potted seedlings yesterday. It snowed !Tonight should be our THIRD night of mid 30's. Can't even get out the breezeway door!

I was out of town.... here's the new thread as this one is really long

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1088838/

How did your sprouts make it through the frost last night? Hopefully, we won't have many more nights of frost!!! ;-)

Here's a picture of my Gaillardia. It's getting tall inside the 2 liter. I didn't take the top half off today. It was only 44 degrees today. Should I crack the bottle? I'm afraid to leave the upper portion off because our weather has been iratic. Should I leave the the bottles as they are? I'm still getting more sprout so I'm guessing they are okay. I think I read that I'm supposed to transplant once the sprout have the second set of true leaves. Is there a rule of thumb? I think I also read you only transplant once your weather is consistantly 50 degrees?

This message was edited Apr 18, 2010 8:05 PM

The picture didn't load so here's the second attempt.

Wow Anita that is cool. If it were me I would get them out of there and put them at least in 3 or 4 inch pots. Can't you do that and still leave it in a protected area?

My things are finally starting to sprout in the 4 tier greenhouse I put them in. But our temps are running in the high 60s to mid 70s during the day now and so far, got my fingers crossed, 40s at night. But boy it sure does heat up in that mini gh during the day when the sun hits it. That is what is making them sprout.

Here's the second picture

I don't have a protected area outside and not nearly enough pots to transplant my sprouts. I have a question for you. Why transplant to a pot? I thought part of the reason for WS was for the ease of starting from seeds and to minimize acclimating seedlings to outdoors and transplant shock??? Did I miss something?

Nope. Stick 'em right in the ground. No need to pot up.

Karen

Remember she is in zone 5. If it were later in the spring I would say the same. But she might lose them if she does that.

come on over to the next thread... this one is even slow for me on high speed
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1088838/

Gailardias are quite hardy, so I'd set them directly out into the garden. Part of the whole concept of wintersowing is the elimination of the need to transplant into cells before going into the garden, regardless of zone- the plants germinate and develop according to the climate they're growing in. Sometimes I have plants that need to be planted before their beds are ready, in those cases I've potted them up from time to time. Wintersowing produces hardier seedlings that can tolerate what natures throws at them much easier than tender greenhouse grown plants.