My seedlings are about 4 inches tall-----how tall/ how many leaves do they need before i can begin to fertilize? Also some of them are bowed really bad? Arched? They are hybrid seeds, --please dont tell me they are doomed,---the leaves are very green and they look healthy enough, but they arent growing anything close to straight. I want them to get some height on them fairly soon as the other plants will crowd them for light, on the other hand--its been pretty windy here and the other plants give them a wind break. I dont have a bed dedicated to brugs, so they have to have neighbors this year.
how big?
try staking them to stand straight. it has been working for me. also you can start feeding them now, i'm sure they will enjoy that.
I use twist ties and bamboo skewers on my tiny and/or thin ones. :) Best of luck to you.
thanks :)
You know, I forgot to say, mine don't get a special bed either. They have to mix right in with the rest of my flowering children and fend for themselves. :)
Are they already out in the garden soil Play? They must be trying to find the sun. All my seedlings are growing straight up.
Badseed, I had to laugh when I thought of all these little plants with bamboo skewers and twist ties holding them straight. they must look like miniatures. You are so clever.
Kell, you laugh in my general direction?? Well I never! LOL Hey, I know what I like! giggle. Seriously, I have looked at so many pictures, I grow double pinks in my sleep! I do think the alley trees look so much nicer than the shrubby ones. :) So, I start them when they are young. Now if it just worked on the kids.....
With you Badseed, never at you! I agree, I love alley trees the best.......but then I looked at John's frosty and thought WOW if only I had enough room for a bunch of those! LOL
Giggle! And I always think if I had ACCESS to all of those! LOL That was one heck of a blooming monster huh? I can only stand in envy. Zone 6, no greenhouse. Sigh. When I grow up, I am moving to a warmer zone!
Plays, I'm sure your babies are just not standing straight because they are young and not strong yet. I usually keep my babies inside until they are a foot tall and then I harden them off for a few days before they go into larger pots or the ground. If you could set some coffee cans with both ends cut out over them until they get taller, that would help to protect them from the winds. I don't think I would give them much, if any fertilizer for a while. You don't want them to spurt up before they make a strong stem. If they are right in the ground, they will get some nutrients from the soil. This is just how I do it and others may do it differently. Good luck however you go with them.
I am in zone 9 and I usually move my brug. seedlings right out into the cold greenhouse right after transplanting. I very seldom lose one.
Patricia