Speedie---
You can keep the potted Caladiums UNDER the GH tables, especially if the tables are heated.
They do not need any light at this point--just warmth.
One of the growers i worked for did this.
He had a table covered in a very thick felt which had his AV's on it. The felt was flooded
with water so the AV'd got bottom watering--and, OH! the wonderful humidity!
This felt also hung all the way to the floor. Under there is where he kept all his potted Caladiums to germinate. Warm....dark.... very humid....PERFECTO!
G.
Your neck of the woods part 6 1/22/14
Speedie: You are really kind to offer to handle my caladiums, but it isn't always predictable when I'll be out in your neck of the woods. My DD's spring break is a likely time -- but then no trips planned the end of the school year .... at which time we are moving her back home so the car is overloaded with her junk and there's no room for anything else!
Somewhere I have a heated coil to go under seedlings -- if I can find that, that'll work perfectly.
How about aa heating pad? Well insulated, of course....as even on "low" it
could be too warm. Most of us have one...
If you have forced air heat--do you have registers on the floor?
Another possible place...in top of a little table or tray, of course.
Or--a tray above a light bulb--as some have suggested...many options..
G.
I have a bakers shelf with fluorescent lights I set up for starting seeds some years ago - it used to sit in the furnace room. Then we had to get a new radon fan in our basement, and the radon piping is so large that I can no longer put the bakers shelving where it was supposed to go, to my frustration, and I haven't found a new place to put it. I think my seed starting supplies (including the heated coil) are there. Maybe this will inspire me to figure out where to move it.
I found an article about caladium. I have 'Moonlight' languishing in a pot. I got them on sale late in the season. they got a good start in a pot on the patio, but died back inside. The bulbs look healthy. I am unsure if I should lift them and wait for warmer weather or leave them in the pot. Maybe I will lift them all and repot one or two in a smaller pot. My place may be too chilly for them, the heat is set at 62-65'F.
http://www.hortmag.com/weekly-tips/qa/growing-elephant-ears-or-angel-wings-as-a-houseplant
GardenQuilts, You can do either with them, I have tried both ways. Most of my bulbs do get dug out in the fall and saved in brown paper bags over the winter. But, sometime I just don't get my caladiums dug up so I just stick the pot under the seed starting table till spring. Then I just start to water them, mostly they do pretty well with this treatment. Last year I dug the bulbs out of the pots in early spring and repotted them as I wanted to add some new fresh bulbs to the pots.
Heat Mat Alternatives: http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/556/
(this article always gets a big bump in activity around this time of year!)
I found my seedling heating mat, 20" x 20", still stored in the box!
Great article, Critter!
Thanks!
I'm pretty proud of the whole Seed Starting 101 series... they were some of my earliest DG articles, and although there's no One True Way when it comes to growing from seed, I do think anybody can be successful following the tried & true methods and tips in the articles.
Those who have Dmailed me about problems have often made some radical changes from the articles' guidelines... you know how it is when you share a recipe and somebody says they didn't like it... but they didn't have any butter, so they used vegetable oil, and instead of pine nuts they put in peanuts bec. they're almost the same thing, and their daughter doesn't like onions so they left those out. LOL
Gita, that would be a great idea.. IF the underneath of the tables at work were in fact warmer than the top-sides, which are exposed to the sunlight. LOL!! Sadly, the greenhouse is very low-tech; no draping covers to be found. No worries, when the time comes, it'll be plenty warm enough in there to start them. At least it is very well humidity-controlled. :)
Happy, you are very welcome for the offer, and no worries, I totally understand. It really is quite a hike down this way from you. =)
Critter, that really is a wonderful article!! But yes, I know what you mean about someone trying the "recipe" but changing it, then wondering what went wrong. Or better yet, I love going to sites like the Pillsbury site and people "rate" the recipes, then they comment: "The recipe was great. I changed this and that and this other thing and it was wonderful!" Wait a minute, you didn't even try THE actual recipe, you're just rating your changes! LOL!!
When I first went to my great uncles to work, he still "imported" all his annuals in 72 count trays or market packs. Our propagation house was all bottom heat benches, I convinced him I could start and transplant most of our annuals, his 1st choice was impatience. A real challenge, he bought $30 worth of seed, in the late 70s that was a lot of seed. We were using Penn State soil less mixes, (today's equal PGX and BX), my success rate was such that we had some of the cheapest imps on the local market, a real retail sales draw. We also had begun started raising hanging baskets over our stock plant benches to offset increased fuel cost, one house we filled with baskets of imps. The wholesale profit from 1 house offset the seed cost and the supply cost of baskets for the entire season. Our baskets wholesaled for $10-15, Yardley Florist retailed them for $25-40 off the truck. Heck, our own retail was $19. I remember one trip the part owner/ mgr. from Yardley came in and said he'd take what we could fit in his truck, our tally. My aunt didn't exactly faint, but I was no longer considered a family tie liability.LOL
Ric--a bit off topic....
Your Avatar and Terry's avatar could be a happy gardening couple...Mr. and Mrs.
When I see Terry posting on "What's for Dinner"--I always think YOU are posting...
Same colors..one man--one woman dressed similarly--real county bumpkins....
******************************
In the link above--by garden quilts--I found it odd that people call caladiums
"Elephant ears" and "Angel Wings"....
Some other plants are called "Elephant Ears"---Nephtytis for one.
And, when it said "Angel Wings'---to me that was, without doubt, my big Begonia.
******************************
Re enough humidity--My furnace has a whole-house humidifier attached which
I keep at 50%. That is as high as it goes. Yes! it uses a lot of water as it circulates
through the humidifier--but I think it is worth it. For ME as well as all the plants.
Besides--in this terribly cold weather, I don't have to keep a faucet dripping,
as each time the furnace kicks on over 1 gallon of water runs through the
humidifier and down my laundry drain.
Wish I could recycle it--but I cannot. It just runs down the drain.
I am glad our water here, in Baltimore County., is so cheap. Amazingly so.
Baltimore City--VERY oddly-bills the people there 5-6 times the $$$$$.
In the most water used months of July and August and September--my bill seldom
exceeds $40--and that is for a THREE MONTH period when I water my garden every day!
I mean--run the sprinkler for hours and hours...
In the City--most families pay around $100 per MONTH!!!
Something to consider if anyone wants to move to live around here...
G.
Gita, Which Terry's avatar?
I think she means Terry the DG admin.
Yes! The Terry from Admin.
Here is a link to the "What's for Dinner" Thread--it is under Recipes..I think...
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1348645/
Now--look at your kindred soul's picture! Awww....
I came across this website
http://www.whitmanfarms.com/sample-page-2/
Doesn't she seem like a really neat lady? I wish she wasn't all the way over in Oregon. But if she's got what you want, I guess that's OK.
You're right, she (and the website) really look cool! I'm curious about those "Root Control Bags"... I wonder what Tapla would say about them. Hmmm. ;)
there's a video about the root control bags, explains it all, strictly a propagation tool for woody plants. Forces more fibrous root and no circling like with plastic. Watch the video, should be interesting to you being 'in the field' - the video played with some weird pixilation going on but you can get the information.
I think AM Leonard carries both the smart pots & root control bags...
Hope all of those hit with the ICE part of our areas latest winter storm are safe and warm and with power or will be soon. Ric and Holly, Sequoia,Donner, Roses, Gardadore, Doc, Jen, Jan. Gardenquilts, Sissystars, Button and Bobbin......and many others Judy
This message was edited Feb 6, 2014 12:01 PM
She does seem very interesting!!! May have to make a field trip this summer whilst in OR visiting son.
We only got rain the other day. If it had been snow I think I still would be shoveling. Yesterday we were on the line again and got mostly rain. Thanks for thinking of me.
Glad to hear that you are safe Jan!! ♥
I will have to watch that video; I didn't watch it this morning 'cause my time was cut a tad short.
YAHOOOOO! We're back and have had power for 30 mins. We'll catch up later. I'm taking a almost warm shower.
ahhh!
We've been quite grateful at times for our health club membership where we could shower when our end of the neighborhood was out of power.
Ric and Holly, I had no idea you'd been out of power! I hope your coal stove kept you warm.
Our generator gives us a chance to have coffee with all the neighbors that need to shower here. The wells don't work without power.
Oh Roses and Ric and Holly so good to hear that you are okay! Bet your neighbors love you Roses.
The no water is the worst part of no power. You need a fairly large gen. wired in to achieve that. We have heat, which means we have food, coffee and such Holly resorted to melting snow, which we have plenty of, for flushing. Lights are good with the LEDs and camp lantern, and our card shuffler is battery powered.Holly also emptied the fridge to coolers on the porch.
I haven't resigned to the need for a gen. It's been 4 years since our last major outage, and maintaining one to use every 4 years seems to be such a bother, not to mention the initial cost.
You could escape to a hotel for $100 a night...
And if you had a smart house you could use your smart phone to check if power was back on! O make a standing reservation at Roses B&B!
I do like the snow for flushing
We've had lengthy power outages for the past 4 years (hurricanes, ice storms, wind storms,etc) The funny thing is that we thought we had wasted money when we had it installed while the house was being built. For 4 years we hardly used it, but the next 4 years made us change our minds. Almost all our neighbors are trying to get some sort of generator to hook up.
I may opt for one just large enough to run the well. Then it could be used for other appliances. If I were to get one it would most likely be propane powered, less maintenance and less fuel degradation. A small one could be mounted in the GH or garage, provided it had air and exhaust ports. We could also get by with a small hand carried Honda set outside and used to power 1 item at a time. The other option I looked at was a tractor mounted/powered unit. Unless outages become more frequent or longer in duration, we may just deal with the inconvenience.
I forgot you can't take all the plants to a hotel..
= 8 ^0
haha
Ours runs on propane and powers most everything in the house. It turns itself on and off automatically (which is a good thing) and kills everything in the path of its fumes (even humans) if it is running long enough (which is a BAD thing). I was sitting in the covered deck room while this thing was running after the hurricane in 2012. After a few minutes I went to the other area of the deck and realized that my Crape Myrtle and the Clematis and Honeysuckle near the fumes would probably not make it. I was correct. Now we have a fountain and a lovely garden dragon where the plants were.
Holly and Ric, glad you and your house are okay. LOL at "the card shuffler is battery-powered"
Joyanna's preschool had a tree come down on top of the wires, so no peanut pals for her on Thursday, and no guarantee about this coming Tuesday. That's a pretty minor inconvenience, but she was still bummed.
Sure hope we have good travel weather next Saturday, for all who are coming to Frederick for the seed swap!
whoa! who would see that coming?
You sure have gotten your money's worth, Roses.
It was mentioned earlier on the Seed Swap thread that people were looking for a discussion thread for the Spring Plant swap. Just use the main thread for all general discussion:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1347015/
I'll start a continuation thread if it gets too long.
Mike and I went to see The Monument Men this afternoon. I haven't been to the movies in quite a while, but it was nice to get out of the house and defy this horrible cold and windy weather. The movie was pretty good - based on a true story about a group of men recovering art treasures that Germany confiscated during WWII. All star cast of actors too - George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Cate Blanchett....
I did see a promo for that. Can't argue with the starpower! We haven't been ' to' a movie in about forever. I think mark canceled Netflix discs because we got three cracked discs almost all in a row.
Caught a bit of Olympics this afternoon. Colorful, and the human interest pieces behind some of the athletes..
I'd like to see that movie will probably wait till I can Netflix it. Seems we only go to the movies to see big block busters that we want to watch on a big screen. We did go see The Butler it was really good.
I just finished up working did a few weeks for Foot Locker in their warehouse and a week dipping strawberries for Sharries Berries. Last day they give us dipped berries to bring home I got 2 doz which I drove around and dropped off for V-day to my children and Grands. They sure were good.