Hi, Is anyone starting seeds inside now. If so, what are you starting. I have a greenhouse and I started some daylilly seeds I get in trade. Tell us if anything else would do well now. I am in zone 8. Alda
CLOSED: starting seeds now?
Do tropicals count? I've just sprouted some adeniums and a buddha belly plant. The roselle haven't said hello yet, and going to start my newly acquired fish pepper seeds this week too (thanks again joparrot)! Good luck with your daylily, I'm going to try some from seed also, any tips?
I tried to start some daylily seeds a few months ago with nothing to happen. First time ever for me, they have always been the easiest things for me to sprout. Don't know what happened to them, and they were the last from my garden up north. I think I have about 4 seeds left to give another try to. Going to do Deno method to see if it would help along with the Hdroproxide too.
I've been wanting to try Deno for a few seed varieties. Don't know why I haven't yet, fear of the unknown maybe? I'm a creature of habit lol
Found this DG article on sprouting daylily seeds helpful also:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/989/#b
I hope you have better luck this time around Meadowyck! I'm afraid I'll have bad luck w some varieties this year and then not enough seeds leftover for a second try. Man I sure am a fearful gardener, huh? LOL
Alda, I've been starting seeds for about a month. I start them on a heat mat inside and then when they germinate I transplant them to 4" pots and move them into the unheated greenhouse. I have had great luck with "Chocolate flower" Berlandia lyrata, scabiosa, delphiniums, asters, and I'm just starting some asclepias. If your weather is staying above freezing you can start quite a few perennials now. I'm waiting another month before I start putting the annuals out. It's been warm here so I figure why wait!
Fearful gardener, that should be my name, as what seeds I had left and what few seeds I got from the very few plants I had this past year, I almost didn't want to try and fail, but hay, ya just got to get in there a do it and hope for the best.
I'm vesting a lot of time reading up on the deno method for the seeds that I want to grow the most... and adding the information to my spreadsheet so when I start than I can hopeful be starting them off the way nature would do.
thanks for the link to the daylilies.
meadowyck - The way I'm successful is I try to germinate mass amounts of seed and then I'm actually happy when they don't all germinate, LOL. I also get involved in all the seed trades so I have so many seeds to try. Every year I find at least one "new" favorite plant. This year I'm doing lots of nector plants for the bees and butterflies.
dee, I got in on the last seed robin to start building back up my seeds. two months ago that is what I did I took some of my older seeds and mass sowed them but nothing came up. Well a few lupines did but then for some stupid reason I put the tray cover on a forgot about it which in one afternoon killed them. I sometimes wonder where my mind goes off to when I've done some plantings....LOL
Jan
Yeah I know it.. I don't want to miss out because of waiting for the 'right' moment. Ive been working on a spreadsheet as well, main purpose of it to pinpoint which seeds will be candidates for WS. I need to finish it this week and get my jugs out ASAP!
Domehome - I remember seeing pics of your greenhouse.. So envious over here. Sigh. Maybe next year.. And I hear you on the happy they don't all germinate comment. I don't know what the heck I'll do if even a small fraction of my babies sprout. I see a 'seedlings for sale' table in my future!! Hahhaa I'm sure my hub would love to come home and see me siting curbside peddling my plants!!
I signed up for the spring round robin.. First one.. Can't wait!!
My next question is, if you sow a ton of seeds, and you're not successful, what do you do w all that soil? Bake it? Compost it? I don't have a ton of money to play with, so the idea of dumping soil with each 'miss' seems like too much for my budget.
This is a good question. Usually when I finally give up on what's left in the trays I'm potting plants. I just recycled the soil, figuring that if they didn't germinate they weren't going to.
I have had some of the most interesting "weeds" in my pots this year. I have had just dozens of sunflowers come up in other plants, you would think that if a sunflower doesn't come up in spring that it wasn't going to come up at all. I mean California has a six month long spring. I will continue to recycle the soil, I can weed out any late bloomers. I'm with you, I spend way to much of potting soil.
My friends always end up with lots of little seedlings. And I always have a few "plant sales" in late spring.
Stillalyswdirt, plant sales are so you can purchase more seed starter soil to play in...LOL I have one friend that did so well with her plants sales each year that she is now on the threshold of starting her own small garden center. She would divide her current plants, and seedlings to sell and then go get more plants, now she usually has well over a 100+ show up for the weekend sale.
Aha good idea domehome! And what a nice surprise, cheery little sunflowers saying hi and wanting a play date with your container plants! Lol!
I fear I have already spent too much on various soil mixes this year. Even if I sell plants, and that's a pretty big IF, since I am not a very good gardener and there may not be any plants worth buying.. I would just be breaking even. Lol! Tell your friend she is my hero.. That would be amazing!
Oh well, even though I may not have a future doing this professionally, everyone needs a hobby. My husband has beer, I have seeds and soil :D
Becky ❁
Becky - I wish you lived closer my hubby lost his beer brewing buddy and hasn't made any beer in a year, LOL.
Meadowyck - Seems I snagged a few of your seeds from the fall robin too. We're in the same zone on opposite sides of the country. Makes for some interesting plants to try.
Domehome - Let me clarify.. my husband doesn't brew beer, he just drinks it!! Lol!! If we lived closer you'd never get rid of us.. I'd be walking your garden oohing and aahing while my husband samples your hub's home brew for 'quality'!! LOL
Maybe it's good you don't live closer, when my hubby brews beer he drinks it too! I have a little trailer we set up as his "brewery". This is because the first batch of beer he made he put the jugs (sparklett's bottles) in the spare bathroom to ferment. It smelled awful and I kicked him out of the house to brew, LOL.
I have sowed the Annual vinca seeds that I saved from my plants last summer in jiffy peat pellets and put in the swifter wet sheets container and put on the lid.Then I put it in a black plastic bag and placed it on the baseboard heat at the side of the chest of draw. It took 8 days and 15 out of 24 seeds have germinated I then put them under the grow light today.
Ugh yes I bet that smell was crazy! I am going to try my hand at dandelion wine this summer, hope it doesn't smell that bad!
Cytf - good luck with your baby vinca :)
Dandelion wine, that sounds fun.
Vinca is a very popular ground cover here in CA. It grows like crazy here. Will it overwinter in NY?
I'm making it for my hubby's 84 year old pap who swears it's the best wine he's ever had. He can't track down the family recipe but I found a few online that are from the Pennsylvania Dutch, being that's where they hail from, I'd venture to say its about the same. I'll keep you posted on that, might have some slurred responses though ;)
Thanks for the link.
I had hoped to start mine, and thank goodness I didn't get a round to them, as my father went into the hospital and it is looking like he won't be coming home this time.
Hi Still Pays, picture1 my vincas have germinated and I have them under the grow light. I also sowed gomphrena seeds in clear plastic egg cartons, this are my steps, cut the cartoon in 3 parts, one to fill with soil, one for the water tray and the other for the cover.picture 5 gomphrena germinated
Meadowyck - I'm so sorry you are going through this. Cherish every last moment you have with him.
Cytf - that's genius :)
These are my transplanted seedlings.
cytf how cute they are.
Thanks Meadowyck I have 30 seedlings , I got backache today just standing and transplanting them.laugh
Yes they are cute little seedlings, cytf! I've got my hands full with over 200 tomato seedlings, then decided that wasn't enough and now have a dozen or so fish pepper and ghost pepper seedlings. The rest are going to have to wait until I've cleared some room from my light shelves. Good news is, I finally finished my spreadsheet, well at least the logging of names, and whether or not they can be winter sowed.. 185 carpal tunnel inducing rows, still need to add light and water requirements, and growing habit, special germination tips, but alas there is light at the end of the tunnel!
Started seeds towards the beginning of Jan in Zone 6. Blackberry Lilies, Daylilies, Tomatoes, Gr. Peppers, Ghost Chilils, 4 O Clocks, Herbs, Broccoli, ect.. all are doing well, except mom has the "spring fever" now haha. Iv taken over the Man Caves bar with all the plants. I havent started the rest of my veg plants yet. Here Pretty quick Ill be done. Garden is going in the second week of April minus the gholst chilis. Theyll stay inside until may :)
I have started tomatoes, sweet peppers, okra, herbs, spinach, eggplant and cauliflower. I have a small four shelf greenhouse inside with grow lights on the bottom shelf. The spinach and cauliflower have sprouted. I have a larger greenhouse on my porch I will move them into when they outgrow the small one.
Badcat, have you noticed the ghost chilies are real slow to get growing after germination? Mine still have little cotyledons while the fish peppers they are growing alongside sprouted their first set of true leaves over a week ago. Maybe I'm just being impatient, but they seem slower than most other veggie seeds I've tried. Also have you had any luck w the 4 o clock's? I've never grown them before, but received some in trade, and am soaking them overnight and will set them out tomorrow as a late winter sow. Hope it works, if not I've saved half the seed as backup!
Hope everyone's babies are growing happy, healthy :D
I have 4 o'clocks from the Fall trade to start too. I should probably get them out in the greenhouse. I tried some last year and they never came up. Weird because I was expecting them to be easy growers.
I have some heirloom tomatos that are growing great guns. I noticed some even have roots sticking out of the bottom of the 4' pots I have them in. Guess it's time to figure out how I'm growing them in greenhouse this year. I did them in buckets last year but I think they would do so much better in ground. Problem is I have such gopher issues and I hate to lose them to a hungry varment.
I'm thinking about drilling big holes in the bottoms of the buckets so they can root through the bottom.
StillPlays this is my first year with the Ghost Chilis. Yes it seems like they are the last to do everything. haha. However once they get past the seedling stage they seem to do better. Iv got them on a heat mat with a plant light inches away from them. 5 month maturing period before fruit is a long time! Heres a pic of them at about 6/7 weeks. They look better than my bell peppers haha.
4 O Clocks are very easy for me, maybe bad seeds Dome? I dont know, I just put them in seed starting soil and water them. They come up pretty quick. I just potted mine on last night, ill put a pic on. Think Ill find some stakes for them today. Theyre beautiful flowers, get nice and bushy. They usually come back if you have mild winters.
PS dont make fun of my broccoli, my squirts planted them hahah probably to see if I can get them apart without killing them haha.
Badcat, ok good, I'm just glad to know it's not just me, it's the seed! Lol
I hope my 4 o clocks germ for me, and get good and happy so they might come back after winter next year.. I love them! And your seedlings look happy to me, don't worry I won't laugh at your broccoli, at least they look healthy, some of my seedlings are so wonky right now I wouldn't dare load a pic! ;)
Def the seed! haha I was wondering the same about mine in the beginning :) When they get their true leafs, it speeds up a bit. Its just trying to get them there alive.
Just put a 1/2" of dirt in a seed tray, sprinkle your seeds and cover with a 1/2 in of dirt. The seedling are sturdy enough to handle and you can immediately pot on when they sprout. Thats how I did it this spring, or just stick in the pot and plant. Good Luck! Show a pic of them!
Thanks about the seedlings, been spending the kids naptimes in the basement trying to make sure these all live. I swear theres about 200 plants down there haha. 1/2 are daylilies. Well get em sorted, Im going down to play musical plants and start my squashes and pickles. :)
Hi Still Plays Dirt, my cute annual periwinkle seedlings have been doing well .They are doing much better then last year since I gained experience sowing them.My 4 different types of tomatoes have sprouted well and I make cuttings of 5 different types of coleuses
OK, you've got me really wanting these 4 o'clocks. I have some of the fancy two color ones too. I think I'll do some in the greenhouse and some on the mat here inside. Those Asclepias can be moved outside, they're being a bit slow to keep inside. It's supposed to rain today, yahoo! Good day to go work on those tomato seedlings in the greenhouse.
Ok don't laugh but these are my ghost peppers in the row on the left. The fish peppers are in the center and right rows. I replanted the empty cells, some of them were duds. Can't believe I posted a pic of these little guys lol! Today I decided it was time, well late rather, to start some siam queen basil, peperone de cuneo sweet peppers, ponderosa lemon and strawberry spinach. Hope they do well, I'm counting on them to transplant into my new raised bed :)
Pam those coleus are pretty. I'm trying them for first time this year as well!
Domehome, I wish you luck on those maters!! Can't wait to see this years setup, your pics frm inside the greenhouse last year were so inspiring!
Becky, I wouldnt laugh at them! Theyre just babies! :) They look happy too! Another thing I noticed with them is they like dryer soil. I had duds too, out of about 8 planted, I have 3 now. BTW What do you use them for? I plan to make hot sauce and we did a Man V Food Wing challenge last year with some powder I bought. Was pretty comical haha.
The coleus and periwinkles look great. Iv never done those from seed. Great to see everyones pictures! :)
Thank you Belliville , I grew up seeing periwinkles grown in our flower garden and I just love their beautiful flowers. I just sowed some hot yellow peppers seeds today since the first set I sowed did not germinate ,and I have eggplants seeds soaking to sow tomorrow. Hope all of us have a great garden this year.
