Looked at the threads about handling these seeds - soaked them in oj for 3 or 4 days. Then planted covered in dome and on heat mat. Two days later looks like germination but not any kind I've seen before. There are little mounds of fuzzball stuff sticking through the soiless mix. Is this normal?
passion vine seeds
ASK LIZ.............
No, don't ask me. I haven't grown them from seed, only cuttings. Plus, I left all of mine out to freeze this winter. I had to make a choice and the Ears got to come inside instead. Sorry.
Hi Jajonjune,
I started some passion vine a month ago from seed. The best way to do it is to put the seeds on damp paper towel in a ziplock baggie and place on a heating pad set on low. Check every few days and pot them up as they germinate. The fuzz sounds like mold. hope this helps. Can post picture of seedlings (small vines now) if you like. trailingon
This little guy is about 4 weeks old
I've been reading that many people, in the Brug forum, pour boiling water over their starting mix and let it sit in the hot water for five minutes. Brug seeds are susceptible to mold and they find this helps. The also soak the seeds in a 10% bleach/H20 solution for 10 minutes. Many also soak the seeds for a couple of days in a 10% peroxide/H20 solution as well. Many that have had problems germinating slow to germinate seeds find this method helps.
The peroxide that many are using is what we would find at a pharmacy....the 3% solution.
There is also one person JLD, I think, that waters his plants with the above peroxide/H20 solution. He says that the peroxide surrounds the roots with oxygen and helps protect them from root rot. I have watered my plants a few times using this and they certainly aren't suffering any ill effects.
This message was edited Apr 21, 2004 11:53 AM
I boil my soil, it keeps the fungus gnats at bay among other things.
Liz did your passions vines come back? I've read some of them can take some freezing temps.
I think incarnata is ok but the rest are Kaput which was the intent. We had 4 nights of extremely cold temps (for us, -13c) that took down an incredible number of plants in the city. I lost Big phormiums that I had for years. I lost rhodos and hardy fuchsias, not sure if the cannas and the hedychiums in the ground survived.
After I posted I remembered that Vancouver had a much colder winter than normal...hope you have a few surprises that pop up.
I think I'm going to have a lot of surprises that aren't going to pop up. I just noticed this afternoon that I lost 2 Island Sunset hardy fuchsias. I better stock up on annuals to plug in the gaps.
How do you boil soil????
Put your start mix in a towel lined collander. You want to do this in the sink. Put the collander into a bowl. Pour boiling water over the start mix. Let sit for a few minutes, drain and let cool. Trust me, this came from Monika and it works.
Son of a gun...........I have never heard of this method before! Gosh........I used the oven to bake the soil before, but not this! Interesting????? E.
I included a number of methods that I noticed in the Brug forum but I thought that, after soaking the passion flower vines in orange juice and rinsing them, the 10 minute soak in bleach might lessen the chance of the orange juice causing mold to form on the seed coat. I have some passion seeds and was thinking of doing the oj soak, rinse, then the bleach dip and maybe the peroxide soak for 24-36 hours. Then maybe the dino method?!? Worth a try.
Cooking the soil is smelly. Pouring boiling water over is quick and odorless Elaine.
I don't think the OJ soak will do any good if you then use the Clorox or Hydrogen Peroxide soak after it. I started two kinds of passiflora seeds this spring and didn't do anything except the soil sterilizing. I certainly had more come up that I thought would and will be giving them away at the Roundup on May 1st. Good luck.
Gosh Liz, that was really very cold for you guys. A couple of years ago, the coldest we got was 0 and you weren't far from that.
A lot of the things I have in the garden are only hardy to zone 8 and for those 4 nights the temps were zone 6a. I can't remember it ever being that cold here. I also had a struggle keeping the gh at 50F because it is 2 levels above the ground so the cold was coming up from below. I had to move all the big brugs off the floor and the small bugs had to be brought inside the house.
But that is the past, it's gorgeous right now, even the plumeria is out in the sun.
Brugie you didn't do the oj soak? After reading jagonjune's thread I thought it might have been some of the juice left on the seed coat that had caused the mold. Were the seeds that you started fresh? The ones we are talking about are packaged.
I should have let you know earlier that I did have one germinate and it is growing well in the GH; only received 8 seeds and they were for 4 or 5 different varieties so maybe I just have bad germination luck/technique.
Now to highjack my own thread. I saved 3 seed pods from my black currant swirl datura last year. One I planted the normal way; put on bottom heat and have nothing after 2 months. The second and third I and my planting buddy each did in the wet paper towel thing. Both of us had the seeds sprout a root within 48 hours. We both planted all of these seeds (with beginning root). Nothing has happened after 2 weeks. Any advice?
I am laughing so hard at a memory from when I used to cater large dances. It involves "cooking" soil...in this case it was sand......from the shores of smelly ol Lake Ontario. I had this powerful vision of building a lrg sandcastle for the start of the food table. Where to get sand in the middle of February in Ontario? The beach of course !! Frozen, soggy, wet wet sand. How to dry it to attach it to a sandcaste made of paper mache??? In the oven of course !! Trays and trays of it!!
The sand castle came out beautifully, massively huge, with turrrets et al. Some of the men in the food line were comparing the toilet paper towers to "phalax symbols" . hahah!!! It was fun and I kept that silly sandcastle in the garage until I moved to my new home and then it went in the trash............sigh..........
What an ambitious project..
Must have been for a very special occasion.
You must have a great imagination and a fun loving attitude. I like the idea of a dream castle.
Good to have you with us Aprilhillside.
I have been enjoying your posts.
Cheers,
Carol
Thanks Carol Glad to meet you and I appreciate the warm welcome. Happy blooming !