Anybody know?

Thanks, Aotearoa! (That lovely name should be sung to music...)

Everything I wrote in 'Self Reliance' is true. I did truly sprout wheatgrass (and worse) in my airing cupboard, in those halcyon days. Lacking a garden then, I would also sneak out at night, and plonk jerusalem artichoke tubers (sunchokes) into my adjacent historic Richmond Park.

And next year, I would sneak out again - and dig them up!

You can't kill sunchokes.

Just two years ago, I went back and found that - 20 years after planting - my sunchokes were still there. Much eaten by deer. But still thriving...

Hot water heaters? No, they _don't_ live in the basement. Nobody in this celestial post-Thatcherite United Kingdom has a basement any more. So please, please don't frustrate us with advice on storing tubers - in root cellars.

But should you want some free sunchokes, and you're visiting the UK, give me a call... and I'll give you the Map!

Sorry, CountryGardens... you asked:

'Will it work for petunias?'

Don't know. My wife's the eccentric one in the family. She grows flowers. Can you believe that?

I do know that nasturtiums germinate in three days, when I soak them overnight, then nick their seed coat, and plonk them in a damp perlite tub.

So I guess it would work for petunias. Fast.

I only do it because I eat nasturtiums... but can you eat petunias?

A note to all ~~~

Buy John's book. It's terrific. He swears that he spends all proceeds at his local pub. As a small~is~beautiful believer, I heartily approve of him supporting local businesses.

As for the UK, it's reputation as a land of great books and bad food did not need the latest revelation: that the engineer of Stonehenge may well have been a Swiss. It's enough to make one "choke."

Adam.

Well thanks John! I am going to try your method. I would think a rubbermaid clear plastic storage box would work as well as a butter tub......do you think? So you keep them airtight unitl they sprout?
thanks so much

Thanks, Adam (I can't reliably spell your other name any more, having just been to the local pub)...

You can get my book Self Reliance, by John Yeoman, from Amazon.

And, I promise, every trivial pence I gain from your purchase will be spent - in supporting my local businesses.

Incidentally, Stonehenge was built by an engineer - who faithfully followed a UN directive. That's why it lets the rain in.

Kell

Yes, it's okay to put soaked seed in an airtight tub until they sprout. It has enough oxygen (and carbon dioxide) for a few days. But the moment the seeds show that little crooked neck - take the lid off and put the tub on a sunny window sill!

MaVie, where do you find all your links? It is amazing.

Petunia seed is quite minute. I'm not sure it would mix successfully with the perlite to sprout. I generally surface sow mine in sterile starter medium, I shake the seed up with a bit of sterilized sand to get an even cover.

An idiomatic quirk not covered in MaVie's helpful link:

In the UK, a jumper is what you put on when the weather turns a bit nippy.

Here in NYC, he's a guy on a ledge being urged on by a crowd in the street below.

Adam.

LOL! So what is a sweater in the UK?

A "sweater" is a tourist in the cheap seats at a Manchester United / Liverpool football match.

Adam.

Weezingreens, I have successfully started onion and leek seed in damp, sealed perlite pots. And that seed is also very small.

As soon as it showed sign of life, I took off the lid and put it in the light. When the shoots were around 2 inches high, I tossed them out onto newspaper - and teased them out one by one (not easy, the roots get tangled). Then I sank them into flats, in holes dibbered in the compost.

I got a good crop of both that way, last year.

I reckon the idea should work, for the smallest seed. Though I haven't tried every one :-)

LOL! Aotearoa.

Lenjo,

i used google search engine. when the right key word is plug in... results are always good. from there, it is a matter of finding the right link to post on the thread. nothing fancy, make the search as simple as possible.

Hello John

Thanks for the information on Perlite.

I'm going to try it with some"Portulaca"

I sure will check out your book
Wish I had known I just placed an order

Thanks about the 'airing cupboard'. But since our furnace runs on natural gas, pilotless, I put my pots on top of the water heater in the basement (heated, not a cellar). The bottom heat provided that way makes my seeds/bulbs sprout in a few days, too. I wish I had a much bigger area to do this, maybe I can convince my big brother to build an airing cupboard this summer??? His wife and daughter will be away in France for a few weeks, so it might be the perfect thing to keep him out of trouble. Unless you want to come over to build one for me? I mean, seeing as how you know what they are??? LOL

Yay, any excuse to come over to somewhere _warm_ right now, would be nice!

But you folk only register around 50o-60oF in April, don't you?

Thanks but, methinks I'll hunker down - in my airing cupboard...

Brrrrrrr

I have no airing cupboard............ no place warm in my whole house! I even felt the top of my refrig, my computer and my TVs......... not warm!! I wonder if my DH would kill me if I bought a portable heater to put next to my seeds.

Try the hobo's trick. Put newspaper between your sheets and blankets.

Then wrap them, like a quilt, around you! It works.

Alas, something tells me... this thread is exhausted. Should we start a new one?

kell, warming cables really aren't too expensive (much less expensive than a heating mat.) I got mine years ago from Park Seed and they still work great.

I spread them out in a loop on about 4' of counterspace, tape them down with masking tape (don't let them touch each other or they will melt), and I can place up to four flats on them, if I fiddle with the layout of the cables to maximize the area they cover.

Other options:
Do you have a freezer (upright or chest-type?) Our upright freezer is in our laundry room, and it also makes a nice warm place to germinate two flats of seeds.

Cheaper than a heater would be to rig up an incandescant light (plain old lamp or bare light bulb) under a plant stand (which can be a shelf suspended with cinder blocks, or something more elaborate.)

I'd bet the amount of heat put off from a 40-watt bulb would be sufficient to keep a plant tray or two warm - just be sure the bulb isn't close enough to the plastic to melt it, or to make it too hot. And keep a close eye on the tray, as a warmed tray will dry out much faster than one that isn't being warmed.

'only 50-60F in April'? In our dreams! How about lows in the 30's most nights? Highs in the 40's to 50's, but not always -- some of our worst snowstorms happen in March and April (once even in May). Brrrrrr.

Lupinlover: Your springs sound alot like mine! Our real snowfall usually happens in Feb-Mar, then possibly April. The perennials start to come up in May, generally, and sometimes through the ice and snow! Our season doesn't really get started until June 1 and it's more or less over in September. Of course, our summers are a lot milder than the midwest....no tomatoes (sob, sob)

Does anyone know where to buy "Lady Bugs?"
sandy

Any body know about this book?

The Complete Book Of Plant Propogation
By,
Graham Clarke. Alan TooGood

sandy

I have it. It is good but you can get dizzy with that book.So much information. Originally I was looking for simple ideas for seed starting. I certainly got a lot here and then some.

Before you buy beneficial insects to release outdoors, please read this:

http://ag.udel.edu/extension/information/hyg/hyg-14.htm

Adam.

Thanks Adam:

A very informative site.
Sandy

Hi Lenjo:

I was ordering books on gardening.

I made a mistake and ordered this one.

I have three that are good for me, Easy reading.

I'm learning a lot here at Dave's. Think that I spent money for nothing!
I'm sending this one back.
Sandy

Go_vols....thanks for your ideas. I have decided to try growing them in my car. I fit doesn't work I will try getting heating cables! It gets so toasty warm and gets sun also. I have had a new tropical plant living in the back of my car now for over 2 weeks because I am still afraid it is too cold at night for it. It is flourishing, now blooming! I even have been watering it in there. LOL

Cala has alot of us doing seed germinating experiments........... so I have added to them.........grow them in the front seat of your car! LOL

You are such a nut Kell! So what are you growing in the front seat of your car? I know you're in California so you probably don't have heated car seats. If you do, you already have heater cables installed.

LOL Liz......... now that is an idea..........heated car seats!! Anyway......take 3 guesses and the first 2 do not count!! Something for my pepto garden.........something to make me Queen of Pink forever! And if these germinate, exactly 10 minutes later I will have so many cell packs in there I will have no room for me!

Here is my plant that is living in the back........poor thing I have not been watering it enough, it dries out very quickly!

I think you win the prize for the most unique greenhouse Kell ~ LOL
So you have a brugmobile ~ cool.

LOL Miss Lizzy.......lets hope!!

I don't believe the above!

You guy's have me running to the P.. P..Room.

I just sat and laughed my head off.

Kell, you really don't have plants in your car ..... Do YOU?

Liz, you should start have a post on the "Brugmobile"

Can't imagine all this humor in one place!

Sending this site out to my entire address Book.

No comments Gardenwife?
Sandy

I think we need a vehicular gardening forum!

Be very careful about mentioning plants growing in your car. I did that once, when a bunch of these nuts made a virtual visit to my house to help me. They were going to have my old cars hauled away, until I informed them I was going to grow petunias and other flowers there. So they planted the cars, moved a few rocks around, generally wrought havoc and forced me to ask for someone to bring in a bobcat. Eventually, the bobcat ended up in North Dakota and other points of the USA, even went to Memphis and let Jo pick up Elvis on the sly. That crazy woman from DOWN UNDER commandeered the driver's seat and has been romping all over the land with Bobby ever since. All because I needed a little help clearing out some rocks and building a few beds in unique places. My friends, I caution you, be careful. Oh, yes, I'm planting the cars again this year. And a couple of old fridges, a defunct clothes dryer and one washing machine. All make dandy raised beds.