2014 Seed Starting, Part 3

Thanks Celene :~)

I'm doing the La Fleur lilac this year. I like them in pots as accents. Our best sun is not near the house, so, sadly, we don't get to appreciate the fragrance, but they are still spectacular.

My Sweet Peas are annuals, Lathyrus odoratus. I have 4 kinds this year, yummy!

Blomma, I first learned about Deno from you... I use it for almost all perennials and many annuals, except for the smallest seeds. No more empty cells. It works great for Platys, which I had not been able to get started otherwise. Lupines and Datura, too. So many, many thanks!

Hmm, I replied to this thread. I thought! I wonder who is wondering at my total non sequitur of a post. I think, though, that I need to get to a real computer to download. No reading for me tonight. Maybe there'll be some actual sleeping, woohoo.

Pfg, I Copied that info onto my microsoft memory. I remember some of those . Some I had not seen before . good info , is always great .
That was similar to when we would sprout seeds in bean sprouters when I was much younger , I always enjoy the info here though ,,

This message was edited Mar 9, 2015 10:03 AM

They are all gorgeous! I had several packets of the white from different places, but the one I used was a dud. I got such good germination from the lilac, I decided that was enough for this year. I must say, that Purple Ballerina is spectacular. Maybe next year!

Pfg its amazing how great your plants are doing by the window , especially the platycodons astra blue and pink. I will like to have some seeds for next year if you can spare them.I am having great luck with annual vincas I got 9 out of 12 that I sowed, and my zinnias are doing well too.All these seeds were saved from my garden last year.I can share vincas with you if you need some.

I'll be happy to send you seeds in the fall. Please remind me then by dmail. I have several varieties, all lovely.

Isn't it great when seeds do what we want, lol? I do looooove success!

Wow last year I had a packet of datura seeds, sprouted them for the fun of it, and gave the whole flat of them to my gardener buddy since I heard they are poisonous. Since then, I've learned just how many plants are poisonous, and that doesn't scare me anymore. Might have to try them again, I had no idea there were so many different colors! And fragrant? Whaa? I had no idea, I'd only seen the standard angels trumpet..

I like those flowers , don't see them often here ,
I got to look at my little flowers a while ago , cold temperatures outside last night , and a few nights yet to happen , Is that I am pushing the limits ,
Seems most hot loving weather flowers , if they get three or four nice days and nights day 60's -70's nights upper 40's low 50's , ,
They take last nights 39 to 41 degrees ,but that is as low as they will tolerate ,
Some I don't have to worry about , poppies , lupine , onion types , all will take 20 degrees easily if a little hardened off , The why of) started outside with these later is always preferred .
Only talking a litt about re-learning and as I learn a few things , (real basic for most of you here , or to you ) Lots of experienced in these kind of threads .
Basil gets difficult to placing sometimes (for me) I know their an age old easy , but that to has a lot to do with who you are ... it counts ,,
I started a bunch of purple ruffles but their all green ,, so I take that they do not seed true (i've heard that a few times)..lol ? Dark opals are nice dark purple , sometimes I even get a giant leaf Basil from my seeds of these ,, I like it ...

Congrats on all the babies, Juhur! Basil SHOULD be easy, but I left mine outside in their tray, waiting to be potted up and the wind flipped them right over and killed all but two :(

My fault, I'm a bad mommy! Lol

Lol there ??? (Becky) Does that match , yes easy ,, As to who you are ? Every time Those one of those things happens ...
If I had the plants still growing , that every time the One of Those things Happened . The Amazon Rain Forest , comes to mind !!
It is though seriously , practice familiarity with a certain plant , that makes a lot of difference about growing .
Like peppers, I remember learning about from practice that they like more water and better earth than I was told to believe .. Although they do tolerate drought nicely , they like being watered ,

And , At least you won't be tried for being a bad parent about that !!! Except maybe from yourself , as to ,"" Why did I allow that to happen"" A thought , wit , that has run through me , far too , too , many times !!!
^_^
This year I seem to be having trouble getting tomatoes going (that is bad , very bad ) Last season I had fifteen plants and a tomato to eat before the last frost date happened here , this season , I will be lucky to see a tomato from the garden before July

Couple of the Pepper plants , should be deep red on the leaves , couple of them will when it is hotter , the green one on the right I won't let seed , to green .. Two that grew with dark red stems are my save the seeds ,
Background pot is a white pepper and purslane .

D'you grow the purslane for eatin?

13 Turtles ; Yep !!! Natural Omega 3 for this old fudd when I can get enough of it . Takes huge amounts to make good salad , I'm a gettin there though ..

Yeah, I can imagine it must take loads! And then you'll prolly want aNOTHer salad.....

I have a dry tray of seeds of the purslane , I started out picking it wild , Too much happens to it , about making sure it is clean enough eat .
Has to be really hot and dry to grow it properly , like cactus here , Starts out it likes it really wet and rather cool, then really dry and hot as it grows ,
I will put most of the seeds mixed with earth on a flat tray that has dried out , then before it rains a few days is when I will do that with the seeds , July August is best weather for them to grow .. Hot weather plant to the extreme ..
Ended last year with three or four plants of this growing in a hanging basket of all things ..

Oh cool,I like the hanging basket image I get.

The way they are it would of looked better with a dozen or so them ,,
For the time being I'm working on getting the Annuals in and the digging gets to me ,
My most frequent idea is putting a couple pvc long handles on branch pruners , as they cut up sod dirt clods pretty good and with other garden stems ,I can throw it all down in front of me and chop it all up with out having to bend to mix and weed and all that ,
Anything I can try to make easier that I am doing by hand , I will LOL ^_^
I can take anything except a backache , even a migraine (the few I have had ) aren't as bad as a backache to me .
And really , there is no reason to ache from gardening , none at all , we have about every device there is , to avoid them aches and pains . To Me there is nothing like a good Digging fork and lots of ideas !lol

Ah yes, the ideas! Would a sand/gravel underlayment tamper help? I'm thinking a 5" disc on several stout handles, long ones. How about something like that with 2" nails protruding? I'm making this up on the spot because I have the opposite needs. I can only do things kneeling --we should ship our tasks back and forth. I'll take the low, you take the high.

Y'all are too funny with the highs and lows and gadgets. LOL amazon rainforest is right!! Familiarity is good advice, I already have a good feel for the salvias now that I've dealt with quite a few, both established and from seed, but this is my first year growing any veggies aside from pole beans. Well I did TRY last year and failed miserably so.. that doesn't count! Hehe

I learned the hard way with peppers, they don't like sitting in peat starter cells too long, they like to be potted up quick and watered often or they get floppy.. See I'm learning! One day I'll have them to a science like you, btw can't wait to start those 'black pearl' seeds you put in the robin!

Purslane is one of those lawn weeds that's just starting to show for me this year, I'll do them like last year.. when they form small rosettes, I'll transfer them to the outside border of my raised bed. Then a coupes times a week, I'll invert the little "cups" of seeds from each faded bloom, into a solo cup and when I'm done collecting, I scatter them right back onto the ground to fill in the blank spots until the whole perimeter of the bed is thick with purslane. You can also break off stems and stick them straight into the dirt to propagate more! Even works in heavy clay! I do seriously love plants this easy, aaaand it's tasty and healthy, can't go wrong :))

Purslane is such a weedy thing here, I wish I liked it. Compost pile loves it.

Cosmos are up already. They started showing the other day and are now full blast and under the lights.. Zinnias and the test are just beginning to come. Nothing yet from the Sweet a Peas, it's too soon, but maybe by the time I get back after the weekend something will happen.

Meanwhile, it's great to hear about what you all are doing. Purslane? Sounds good!

Here's some Mustard , Brassica Nigra , The Cabbage White favorite food .
Hopefully they stay away from my Brussel sprouts, Kale and cabbage .

Well weeds I can still grow ,,, Like see Mom !!!lol ^_^ Kind of like the Dandelion growing ,,lol
First is a day ago
These other two are lunch time today ..
last is seeds in the towel and Baggie

Here's some playing with zinnia , these have taken a night as cold as 36 degrees , sprouts are tough with that three or four day chance to adjust , and it seems they harden off much quicker than the usual potted . ( might have to do with my own seeds from adaptation )
Some of these were set as a sprout others the larger ones were plugged in #4, The difference earth makes is clear ,
The other the fall started Feverfew#5 , from seeds .. Zoom ,, and this might possibly become a yard run down invasive , it's growing ^_^

I should of added , it is great doing seeds and sprouts this way ,, , here is the but , always there right ? lol
Cats , dogs , ground Hogs and various Rodents or the occasional Nightcrawler or Ants that develop a taste for a particular type of sprout or seedling can make this useless ,, in a blink , any of those , and all gone , zoom , !!!

This message was edited May 2, 2014 3:15 PM

13 Turtles if you have the room to sit , (I don't always ) you could use standard handle size ,
Loppers is what most call the pruners I am referring to ,
They cut up sod clods and cultivate pretty good , when you think it is not what they were made for ,,

Sir..whats wrong with cats in your garden!?!?! lol jk. Long time ago my dad asked me for loppers..I thought I was lookin for a rabbit! bahaha

Anyways, i have more seed going as of yesterday from the seed swap. Iv direct sowed a mess of veg seed and so far my sw corn, radishes, red onions and carrots are coming up. Im a happy camper thus far :D

Lol Badcat , Nothing is wrong with any of those , What they leave BEHIND if anything is the "wrong "....^_^
Man it is cold here ... cold wind , cold air , of course in a few days 80 degrees and too hot , what else ,, lol

Hey, good idea juhur, I hadn't thought of that. I can't actually sit on the ground either, only kneel - which doesn't seem like a fair deal but I wasn't asked for my opinion. I do have a Japanese style knife with which I can dig out sod, but your idea sounds actually relaxing! Maybe I can find or rig up some kind of low stool with a tall handle, for moving it along. I do have a quad cane...

Hey I think I gave a discarded pair of loppers too; alrighty then. Thanks!

Pam I can't wait I see your cosmos, I never grow them but whenever I see them blooming I wonder why I don't! So pretty!

13 Turtles you actually gave me the idea of until I do the handle , there are a couple places I can drag around a chair , and use the loppers as they are .
Amazing sometimes , what I am looking at and not seeing .. thesis and theory studies ? lol?


Indeed Pfg , the cosmos are fun I have not had any in a few years , but some years the tall ones , one year there were a couple of large white blooms , nice flower ! Good hopes to you with yours ..


SWPD (Becky) already beyond us with the Purslane Eh , One of those little goodies you have really been growing for years ,, knew all along and were just now catching up ?

Oh, a chair. : a stool with a handle. Sheesh

Ha Ju, hardly! I got a hanging basket of very colorful portulaca as a Mother's Day gift 2011 and the grasshoppers kept nipping off stems, so I tried sticking the broken pieces in soil, and it worked. They took root very easily. The next year I thought it had reseeded in a few places around the yard, so I started digging it up and putting it around my new raised bed. Turned out to be the wild variety and google told me it was edible. I wonder if maybe the pretty cultivar reverted?

Would I go out of my way to plant it? Nope. That's the beauty of forage food, it finds you! And there's something strangely satisfying about eating food staight from nature. I feel like I'm celebrating my ancestors past when I pick and eat something from the wild the way they had to in order to simply survive. Plus, the little flowers are actually pretty and I like to pull the little seed cups off and spill them over, I'm easily amused.. LOL ok I'm done blabbering!

Edited for grammar.

This message was edited May 2, 2014 11:18 PM

13 Turtles However ^_^.. I just got thru cubing sprouts ,, Some have gotten a little stringy in here , too cold the yesterday and today , Hopefully outside tomorrow , and plant .. otherwise I am stuck with potting up ,, which I do not want to do ,
In case no one guessed I am one lazy (gardener ?) I am not good at dealing with ins and outs of potted up seedlings , I kill dozens that way ..
one day I will get to the Beans ,,, red noodle for ants , green types for me ,, Somewhere the cucumbers are going to have to come into this idea of planting ,
I also have two Giant Squash Pumpkin seeds that have sprouted , that have to be planted ,
I seem to be getting along with most everything this year except my tomato starts , usually it is the other way around .. oh . well
I better quit now before I go on singing about plants and the weather ,,, I get silly , I sure do ,,
^_^

SWPD (Becky) the Crosspost ,, Ancestor's Hmmm Gardening from the Cave ! lol ^_^
We could have a contest about Who's Blabbering !!!
Only I never learned how to tell my hand to be quiet ,, lol It gets that way ,,,

LOL!

I too wondering about my cukes, which are starting on their true leaves. I've got them in half gallon pots. But the red noodles are for the ants? I've never grown them but I've got seeds. Do you move the beans after they sprout?

I have the same feeling Becky. I totally love it.

Beans are not to finicky about temperature (most of them) , I try with success as often as not with planting them as sprouts , usually though , it is safer to keep them in cups or pots until their leaves have fully formed , Everything eats the new sprout leaves here ..
I hear the Red Noodle Beans are a Ant Magnet ,, I have grown a few plants that were ,
Ants like beans Anyway and as I don't know for sure , we will find out together ,
I have grown a lot of Beans , not this particular this type though , That is why the wait , not sure ,

The only comfortable way to get down to weed's level is on my knees that are protected with knee pads. Or, on a foam knee pad.

My DD grows the mixed colored Cosmos. They are so pretty and self sows.

Gotcha on the beans.

Yeah blomma, sometimes I think I've gone and paved my paths with from pads.

My vegetables and flower seedling are ready to be hardened off since the temps will be in the high sixties beginning tomorrow. I will be opening up the winter sowed milk jugs too . I had to put some rocks around my 11lilies today so those buster squirrels will not be able to dig them up because I saw sign of them in the garden beds.