Starting Seeds in Sponges Experiment

Great~ Thanks!

Sure, here you go. I only chose the cellulose as opposed to vinyl because they are supposedly made out of "natural plant material" which may breakdown more quickly than vinyl when planted in the ground. I just wrapped cellophane around the container until I can get a giant zip-lock bag tomorrow.

Kaufmann,
it looks like a big pan of cornbread! LOL yummy.
I started with the saran wrap too, but once the condensation started I could not keep it stretched tight enough to keep it off the top of the sponges. So I switched to a plastic lid.
What did you plant in yours? We need a list!

I had that thought myself (when I saw the picture), but I'm from the south and we make cornbread in a round cast iron skillet LOL Here's my list of seeds planted in the sponges (its also above a few entries back in the forum):

3 Double Purple Datura
2 Papaya
2 Coral Vine
4 Pride of Barbados
3 Datura Tatula
3 Tree Senna
3 Texas Hibiscus
1 Gold Esperanza

I'm really hopeful on the Daturas as they seem to be the most difficut to get started for me.

hey kaufman, that does look like cornbread. one way to keep your seedlings warm and cozy is to save those cake boxes with the black bottoms and the clear plastic tops that you can get at the grocery store(after you gorge on the cake, of course.) they make wonderful little greenhouses and it's a good way to recycle the plastic.

I have a baby! A cassia alata sprouted! Yippiee!!!!

Way to go, PM!

PM, A lovely plant indeed. If only I had room for another potted tropical.Lucky You !

OK, I'm convinced....must get sponges...must get sponges....must get sponges....

No activity yet, but mine were only planted yesterday. Today I DID finally order rock wool. I'm just a little worried about all the roots finding their way through the sponge. Time will tell, I guess :)

Gretchen, I kind of look at it like: the roots of plants find their way through our terrible clay here, Im sure they can handle sponge. :o)

Well I didn't make it back last night to post all of my results to date. I also took some more photos. I will look at them again and decide if they are enough different to post.
Things done Saturday
6 Moonflower Seeds
All 6 seeds germinated rapidly and started to develop leaves, kept popping out of sponges so I potted them up.
12 Scarlett Runner Bean Seeds
All 12 germinated with large roots, also had to pot because they were popping out.
4 Acer Palmatum 'Disectum ornatum' Seeds
Nothing Yet
6 Love-in-a-Puff Seeds
5 out of 6 of these germinated and 3 had the beginning of leaves. I broke one trying to get it moved. The last one now has roots on it. So these are also 6 for 6
6 Seeds Butterfly Pea Vine
I had not originally nicked these and regretted it, so Tuesday night I nicked 3 to see what would happen. Tonight I can see roots popping through on 2 of them.
3 Seeds in 1 Cube of Ligularia
Nothing so far
3 seeds Datura Tatula
1 out of 8 has just started to pop
3 Seeds Datura Raspberry Swirl
2 seeds are just beginning to show roots
6 seeds Ornamental Cotton
4 out of 6 have decent sized roots other two are just starting.
4 Seeds Red Passiflora
Nothing so far
6 Seeds Cardinal Vine
Nothing
4 Seeds Crotolaria
Nothing

My experience so far is that the roots are pushing themselves right out of the little holes when they start to get very much growth on them. On a lot of them I have just stretched the hole larger to allow them to have the moisture around them.
I had one love-in-a-puff seed that actually attached to the sponge and that one I just cut down all the way around and left a piece on it that was probably less than 1/4 inch in diameter.
Out of the things I have put into pots, I was able to re-use all but 3 of the sponges.
I am more concerned now about how everything will do as I put them into pots. That seems to be the place where I can get into trouble in a hurry.
Most of the things that I have potted so far, I put into pop bottles and left on the heating pads, my thoughts are that they need the bottom heat until they develop some leaves. Please let me know if that makes sense of if I should be doing something else.
I have used chick grit on the top of the soil and am hoping this will help with the dampening off problem. I did read something about Chamimolle (spelling) tea and am wondering how to use that.
I started 11 more kinds of seeds on Monday night and am happy to report that 5 out of the 11 kinds have all ready started to sprout.
I am really jealous of all of your brug seeds that you have to start. I am thrilled with the ones that I do have, as this will be a first for me.
The 4 cuttings that I received from poppysue are all doing very well, I am pleased that I have been able to keep them growing and apparently thriving. I have been trimming them back a little at a time, and they are getting nice and bushy.
So I will have 7 all together if my 3 kinds of seeds grow. I think that is wonderful for a person who didn't even have one before now.
Brugie I did 6 of the red moonflowers you had sent me and they had roots on them within 24 hours also. I will need to pot them tomorrow they are all ready showing leaf growth.
I am so blessed by all of you!!!
Gretchen after watching mine for the last few days I don't think the roots will be a problem.
Pudge YEAH YEAH Congratulations, isn't it great to be able to see what is happening.
I wish my rockwool would get here, I really want to try a couple side by side experiments and see if the results are about the same or different.
I also did 6 more grandpa otts morning glories on Monday night, and I nicked 3 of the seeds, the three I nicked are all ready starting to show roots.
Enough for tonight, my little mind has been going overtime all day.
I bought some more light fixtures for the breezeway and spent a couple hours getting those up, and things moved around and straightened up out there. It was beginning to look a little more like a potting shed than I thought it should.
Have a great rest of the evening everyone, and I will check in on everyone's experiments tomorrow!!!

I looked at the pictures that I had taken yesterday and none of them are very clear. I will attach a pic of one of the moonflowers before I put it in soil

aknapp,

This is so much fun just reading what you are accomplishing. I haven't started any of my seeds yet, but will start shortly. Since I am in zone 10, I can still play in my gardens on occasion, so I don't need to play inside like you are doing. lol

I would really love to see a picture of your breezeway with all your plantings and lights. Maybe it will give me some ideas on how to start mine. Please....pretty please.

Keep all this great info coming.

Donna

Hello all

I am new to this forum and am watching these experiments with great interest. Just want to mention about pots. I go to the garden centre here and asked if they had any pots they didn't want, and left with loads. Apparently they are glad to get rid of them.

I can't wait for the next installment on the sponges - it's fascinating!

Sue

Socal I just updated a post under greenhouses about my breezeway, thank you for the nice compliments.
My zone envy is showing again!!!! I can't even imagine the kind of trouble I could get into if I could play outside year round!!!
Prudence, have been watching your post congratulations again on your success.
Have a great day everybody.
Link to Breezeway photos
http://davesgarden.com/t/408655/

I just peeked in on mine and all but the esperanza have germinated!!! I would take a picture, but since its a yellow sponge, its hard enough for me to see it with my naked eyes. Know you would'nt be able to tell in a photo, yet.

Gretchen I am so excited for you, I am doing a happy dance!!!!

I am looking forward to photos!!!

I may have missed up there somewhere-a whole lotta reading! LOL But, if push comes to shove and you don't want to, or can't afford to buy a bunch of pots, go to one of those discount or dollar stores and buy styrofoam cups or plastic cups. They are usually deeper than four inch pots and take up less space. Steer clear of the wax coated paper unless you won't be using them long. They tend to come apart at seems and mold. Or start eating a lot of yogurt in little plastic cups. :)

So Alice, I've not got time to read all of this but am wondering if the roots are rooting into the sponges or just pushing up and out?

I use the yougart cups also. I eat one a day of the small yougarts and have to justify saving those cups someway. LOL! I have a realllll Dr. Pepper habit so I have plenty of cold drink bottles, more than I care to admit actually. I make little greenhouses out of them and also just use the cut off ones as pots. The only time I ever buy post is when I want a decorative one or two or three.... well, you get the idea.

Brugie
I am having more trouble keeping roots in than worrying about them getting enbedded.
I know there is a lot here, but the last long post I made is about the most recent findings and also mentions the root problem that everyone was so concerned about.
When I did the Datura seeds Saturday night I had not nicked them at all. I went back I think Monday night and nicked part of them.
Last night I could see roots starting to form on the out of the three raspberry swirl and 1 out of the datura tatulas. Which makes it approximately 6 days. I have no idea whether thats good or bad because I haven't gotten back to read all of the rockwool posts. I am on my way there though, because I finally got my rockwool in the mail today that I had bought on Ebay. I also got a catalogue from a place by the name of Wormsway and they have 3 different types of cubes that all look like the rockwool but made out of different ingredients that are supposed to be more earth friendly. I have not checked closely yet but would really like to try some of the coir bricks and alternatives to see if they also give good results.
I am really happy with the sponges on small seeds they seem to be doing very well and germination is going well.
The moonflower seeds and other large seeds that I put in the sponges, I have had trouble keeping them in as long as I would have liked and been forced to pot them up before I really wanted to.
I haven't checked today but I can see leaves on the red moonflowers through the plastic, so I know I will have to pot those today. (thanks again for those)

Heheheh ! ! !

Poor Alice soon will need a nap
From all her experiments she feels the zap
Groggy from snoozing, seedlings kept on her lap
Glancing in the mirror, is she Dr.Alice or Ms.Aknapp?
§

You just had to get me here to!!!! Maybe its not safe to look at any other posts, my pic may be everywhere!!!haha
Hugs
Alice

sorry the other one was misplaced =(

Not to worry!!!
I figure I will be famous soon!!!
Or maybe thats infamous!!!
Its such a fine line between sanity and crazy and I push it pretty hard most of the time.

Just a thought on the sponges drying out. I'm doing the paper towels thing with my seedlings (spring fever...in winter) and then moving the little sprouts to the peat moss sponges Parks Seed sells to go with their BioDome seed kits. These are not as cheap as your home made sponges (120 for $10 plus shipping) but they are for sure biodegradable.

Anyway, the method the BioDome uses is to put 1/4" to 1/2" of water in the bottom of the tray. Covered with the plastic lid (you could use plastic wrap), the whole thing stays quite humid, and the sponges soak up just the right amount of water from the bottom of the tray. The roots definitely are growing down. Of course, these sponges are about 2" long, so they aren't soaking in the water.

I'm planting half my seeds directly into the BioDome and laying out half in damp paper towels and so far have had a slightly better response using the paper towels.

Linda -- my sponges are 2-3/4" tall, and I soaked the sponges first in 1 to 10 bleach solution. Rinsed well and squeezed out the excess water. Placed them in the little pan with the seeds in them. I put the whole thing in a 2 gallon zip-lock bag and have misted the top once. Mine all have a little sprout of activity, except for one. Good luck with yours!!! Gretchen

Thanks Alice. Hope you continue to have good luck with the sponges.

Sorry, I hit send before I was ready. Wanted to say that the nice thing about the rockwool for me is that I don't have to worry about them going dry, even after sprouting has occured and they have been removed from the plastic covering or bags. The rockwool does hold the moisture very well.

This message was edited Jan 23, 2004 5:49 PM

nowheat, I bought the biodome refills, and extra sponges. Thanks for the info on how to use them.Looks like a regular flat with no holes would be plenty big enough to float them on. Do you think they would work even if they are not covered?

Well, thought I would update. End of day 2 and nothing else has germinated. I am guessing it is because tree seeds just naturally take longer. I HOPE that is it! I tell you, that old "a watched pot never boils" applies to me & these sponges. LOL

Skyeblu,
I did not know there was another "Stockton" out there. Nice to meet you!

PM: My guess would be that some of your tree seeds might need to be cold stratified? Your cassia should be one of the first to sprout. I had one sprout under a dome in soil in 3 or 4 days last month. Just a thought...

PM,
Surprise!!!!
=)
Stockton.................
AL, AZ, AR, CA, DE, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, MD, MN, MO, NJ, NY, OH, PA, UT, VA and my favorite
Stockton,Wisconsin.

Kaufmann,
I HOPE that is not it! I followed the directions on all of the packages & nothing was mentioned about cold strat! That is really gonna tick me off if that is the case cuz I have already nicked them all! I cant cold strat once I have done that, can I?

And Scooter, my head is spinning! I guess I am too sheltered... {{GUFFAW}}

PM & SB, the only reason Texas isn't on that list is because we thought Stockton was something special!!!
So we built a fort around it!
Fort Stockton, Texas!!! hehehe
:~)

PM...it was just a thought. Hope I was wrong. Just give them time :)

Alice,
I have Koelreuteria (golden rain & chinese flame),
Jacaranda & Yellowhorn tree sprouting. The Cassia alata that had sprouted before worked itself COMPLETELY out of the slot & onto the top of the sponge. I think next time I will cut my slit all the way through so there is a clearly defined path for the root to follow.
I pulled the slot open a bit more & stuck the root into it. Another interesting thing that has happened, even after all the bleaching if the trays, sponges, scissors & hands that I did, I still have white hair growing. Not the fuzzy moldy kind, this looks like long white webs. But I don't have any spiders in there, it is for sure something growing. So I put a few drops of beach in my spray bottle of water & spritzed it & it killed it.
I spent the morning looking up all the seeds I planted to see if they needed cold strat, and I got conflicting answers. I finally just told myself to stop it, that it did not matter now, they were already planted! And now I look & see cracks and the beginnings of sprouts on some that said it DID need cold strat. So either I got lucky or maybe it is not as important as I thought. I guess tree seeds just take longer to germinate.
What is the update on yours? Are you just going to plant them out as they sprout or leave them in until they form some leaves?

PM: I'm so happy for you!!!

This message was edited Jan 24, 2004 7:03 PM

I am in AnnArbor at the moment and dying to get back home so I can check on my babies.
We came up to Eastern Michigan yesterday to watch the women's basketball game. My nephew is an assistant coach and we always try to get here for one game. My sons are at my house with the 2 cats, my dog, and my brother's dog. I am hoping they have all survived.
I had a lot of new sprouts before I left and they were probably greatful to have me leaving them alone for a little while. I will be excited to see what is happening when I get home this afternoon.
I am so thrilled for everyone with their great results. I got my rockwool friday, but before I do my experiments, I am hoping to find some sponges that are the same depth a the rockwool, so that I am comparing apples to apples.

skyeblue, I think they won't work even half as well without being covered, but you could work something out -- put them in a box and cover it with clear plastic wrap, perhaps? The humidity really helps.