This is my first time to grow brugs from seeds, and I have four different crosses. I started each kind in a different community pot, and when the seedlings had all sprouted and started growing, separated them into individual pots. I labeled each one with the parents names and numbered the seedlings starting with the biggest one down to the smallest one. I also colored coded them with a colored dot on each pot, and a matching dot on my empty seed packages. Is there anything else I should be doing? I've noticed that some of them are being chewed by bugs when the plant next to it isn't touched, and some are growing faster than the ones next to it in number. Do you guys keep written records of what is doing what? Or do you just wait to see what (if anything) is worth keeping? I'm going to have a hard time culling babies that I've grown from seed, but I know that it has to be done.
Seedling questions
Good luck! We are all going through this! Just hoping to see some good ones, and not all white ones.
Some will keep track of which is a faster grower and which seedlings the insects don't like(or which they love). Very important is to keep the hybridizers name(if you know it) with the seedlings because if you happen to get a real winner they would love to know.
Three of them came from Crestedchik, and the other one is from a guy in California that I've traded with a couple of times. I will definitely let them know if something good comes up, and send them a cutting. Since #1 was the biggest when they were separated and #9 the smallest, I can tell who's growing at what rate. It's probably too soon to know if the ones that have insect damage are really bug food or if they just happened to be the closest to a hungry bug, but I'll watch the ones that are showing damage to see if it continues. I lost one that was cut off right at the soil line. I looked for a cutworm but couldn't find one, only roly-poly bugs in the pot. Do they do that? I've been squishing every one that I see, just in case.
they do eat plant material. could have been probably slugs, too.
Thanks Tig, it was the smallest one, only a couple of inches tall with four leaves and a small stem, and I saw several roly-poly bugs in the pot, so it was probably them. I'll keep squishing!
I've had problems with slugs before eating my brug seedlings, they seem to have a predilection for them and do most damage at night. I've changed the location of the seedlings, and now they seem to have left them alone :)
I've noticed that some seedlings definitly attract many more insects than others and some seem to almost repel them. Definitly something worth breeding for, but one must always remember that an insecticide is definitly worth putting on a hybrid that is knock dead gorgeous. I use them religiously myself.