Streptocarpus seedling progress

This has been a fascinating thread - you inspire me to try crossing my new streps when they bloom!

WOW Keyring great growing ! I am always amazed how fast Streps progate and bloom with ease by leaf even. By seedlings WOW Super :))

great shots! I find it so interesting

I figured I better get with the program Key and transplant my babies (does this make them your grandchildren or nieces and nephews?)

So here is the mini-terrarium pre-transplanting. Why do you suppose they all grew in the same direction?

WOW cuties ! I'd say they were reaching for the light but didn't you have them under lights ?

And here they are in their new dixie cups.

I was able to fill six dixies with the strongest of the group. And they were always about 8" from the lights. Pretty close. But these seeds start with one BIG leaf and then there's a second baby leaf at the base the size of a pin head.

edited because I can't count

This message was edited Mar 16, 2006 7:25 PM

Here's the littlest ones, they got left in the baby crib to grow a bit longer. Once they size up, they'll get transplanted themselves.

After comparing, mine looked to be the same size after 2 and a half months as Key's were at 4 weeks. I must not be so great at this. Or maybe that replant every 2 weeks has merit!

I'll keep my eye on these guys now more closely. I did lift a lot of the little ones and replant in the container just to 'stir' them up a bit. But they were soooo tiny that I didn't want to move them up just yet.

Key some of yours have two large leaves and mine are ALL one leaved with a tiny itsy-bitsy pin head leaf at the base of the big one. What's that about?

Very interesting. And your bave ! I'm always afraid to
move them hen their so small.

I know they were so teeny tiny. But I teased the roots apart with a bamboo skewer and it seemed to work fine.
It wasn't too bad.
But that's one of the reasons I've been putting it off.

They went into a CostCo fresh spinach container with holes (a bigger terrarium) so they will still have the humidity they are used to.

Great growing !

woohoo!!! *clapping hands*

I know, they're sooooo tiny, it seems impossible, but Dale the Hybridizing Guru Extraordinaire (btw, I've never met her and she doesn't even know I exist) says pick 'em up and put 'em down. With a toothpick if you have to.

If you look above at the pic of mine when they are laid out on a white trash bag before potting up (at 1:49 am on Jan 25), you'll see that the smallest ones are one leaf+nub. In the next pic, the bottom right pot has the small ones.

Feb 11, 7:51 photo has that same small pot.

Some still have only one leaf + nub. There may be a unifoliate somewhere in the background of one of the parents.

the first flower opened today (about 4 months from sowing). This looks exactly like mom !!!!!! So I can't tell if I have mom x self, or mom x purple........

The plant is much more vigorous than mom, though, and instead of 1-2 flowers per peduncle, the first flower spike on this one has 3 buds. The look like they might bloom successively.....

Beautiful!

This has been a fascinating thread.

oh my, mine aren't even close. they look the same as they did on the 16th. I guess i better lift them up and re-pot, it's been 2 weeks.
Great growing Key!

Oh wow beautiful. I really like the flower Keyring ! Super growing. Thanks for sharing. Yes this has been a fun fascinating thread.!

well, they are basically coming out white or blueish purple, with varying degrees of frill. Some are one flower per stem, one had three, and most seem to have two that are sequentially blooming. Here's another white one. Like mom, but more vigorous and a bit better substance in the flower (thicker petals).

here's a blue/purple - shape like mom, color from dad. Flower size a bit bigger than mom.

and here's a frillier white - frills from dad, color from mom. Leaves are big like dad, but long and relatively narrow like mom. Flower shape might improve as it gets older.

Beautiful Key! Sooo cool!

Well done, Key! Wonderful flowers!

This is so neat, to see the blooms, and they are all gorgeous!

Well done! Truely beautiful blooms.

Yes ! For sure Well Done ! Your awesome Keyring !
Stunning each one of your new flowers ! I enjoy them so much. Thanks for sharing . Allison

This has been a wonderful thread.I enjoyed the pictures ,watching them grow.I guess I'm not very good at seed sowing I didn't even get one seedling.LOL.

Laurie how about up-dated pictures on your Strep babies please !

Rightee-o, funny you should ask, I just repotted them all yesterday. I really needed to pick up the Dale Martens 'Every two week' schedule! I had gotten too busy/lazy to repot, hang on ... I'll get a photo.

Growth since March 16, roughly 6 weeks ago. Boy, they aren't performing much are they? Really need to 'lift' them more. Perhaps some VF11, but they've been in the cookie box terrarium and haven't even dried out. Should I leave the lid off - allow them to dry more thoroughly and fertilize?

I had them in the clear box so they wouln't dry too fast before I could get to them again. But perhaps they want a little 'stress' to encourage them to grow?

hmm that's weird not much growth sense your "Mar 16, 2006
10:24 PM picture " Or is this enough ?
Does Keyring cover her's I forget ? I don't like to cover so they can get air circulation and need food. If they don't grow and not thirsty and need no food how will they grow properky is what I wonder ?
Maybe it's time to uncover and get them under lights !
How are all you cute pink babies ! And new pictures pretty please !

well they still look healthy, even if they haven't grown much.

The small ones definitely need to stay humid, but the larger ones could probably move to a semi-enclosed set-up... but if they were mine, I would still keep them all covered until they have a fairly decent-sized second leaf.

A super-weak solution of fert would probably be good.

Sometimes they are just SLOW.....

Another thing that may be contributing is our weather. We literally had two full months of rain with only a few days of sunshine. Just the last 8 days or so have been sunny. My bedroom where these have been growing says rather cool even though it has the best light in the house. So night temps in the 40's and day temps in the 50's to 60's could likely be the culprit. Many of the AV's have tight centers and are only just now starting to normalize. It's not the ideal environment, but it is the best I have short of putting in central air and heat (not likely to happen in my lifetime LOL)

Yesterday after moving them up, I brought them out to my playhouse which I keep heated with a space heater. It stays at least 68º an higher and I have one of those mini indoor greenhouses that I could use, but I am trying to keep it as an 'isolation' place for new AV's and gessies.

I'll keep it covered for a few more days and then take the lid off slowly, allow them to acclimate and then start with some weak fertilizer.
I forgot to mention that the ones with the red asterisk were just taken out of the rectangle tray and put into cups, the others were the one's from 3/16

thanks for the advise gals! Looks like I had about 100% take on the seeds I sure hope they get big and flower so I can pass them along to the gessie junkies in this forum!

ok, back to the garden... have to fix the irrigation lines that Miss Sophia chewed last fall! Grrrr.

bumping up this thread - I think this has the most seed-growing info. Mostly the same drill for the other gessies too.

Oh good!
I found the small packets of seeds....Vampires Kiss ( red)and Inky fingers ( nice purple)it was such a good grower for me too....
Let me go email Amy...

MsC

Thanks for finding this, Ki. I looked for a few minutes last night, but didn't have time to continue the search til I found it. I'll point Lin this way so she doesn't miss it. Think I'll read back through it to refresh my pitiful memory as well.

I believe these are the same seeds you sent me, are they not? White x K(something, something) purple? I have had one to bloom. It looked almost identical to Midas, I think it was. And several have buds on them now. Looks like one is going to be white. They'd have bloomed ages ago if I'd repotted and kept them watered like I should. I'm embarrassed to tell you that several are still growing all together in the same pot they were sown in. I promise to do better in the future... LOL And by future, I mean starting in a few minutes...here's a picture and as you can see, they need to be watered (and we won't even discuss repotting). I'll do that first thing today. :oP After looking at them when I took the picture, I think they all have buds. What do you do with the ones you don't care so much for? Trash them, give them away... You may have already mentioned that in this thread, but I haven't reread it yet. Now that they're this far along, I think I'll see how they bloom before I repot. But notice, the ones all crammed together are larger than the ones potted individually. How'd that happen? They were all sown the same day.

Look who decided to open up today! Looks like it's going to be very similar to the white one you posted above. Two buds on the stem, the second should be a few days behind this one in opening up. I'll get a shot when it's fully open, but I love to take progressive pics. :o)

yes, this thread needs to stay bumped up....I have never grown streps from seed............now I want to....maybe better luck than trying to multiply using leaves...

I'm still quite new at hybridizing, so I certainly don't understand all the ins and outs, but the thing is, when you put down a leaf of, for instance, 'Cherry Pie', the plants that grow from it will be 'Cherry Pie', same genetic material as the mother plant you took the leaf from. When you plant seeds of 'Cherry Pie' x self (meaning it was pollinated with pollen from itself), then you will get a variety of blooms, leaf sizes and textures, etc. If you're trying to grow a specific cultivar of Strep, then you can only do that by division or leaf. You'll get lots of plants from seeds, but they won't be identical to the mother plant.

Now, those of you who know way more about this than me, if any part of that is incorrect in any way, please jump in, slap my hand, and correct me! LOL

hey Amy, you know you're right!

and right as well on the whitexKRB seeds - they are probably the same as the ones I sent you. I kept one that was white, but with better characteristics than the white parent - bigger flowers, more than one open at a time, and it grew faster. I've since lost the plant though - I think I may have actually culled it. I've done a couple of major overhauls of plant inventory since....

I also find that the seedlings potted together in compots grow faster than the ones put in individual pots. It's not just that they bloom faster but the foliage also grows faster. I pot every type of seedling into compots. The first ones to move out are the non-micro sinningias as the tubers need clear room to grow, and it's just difficult to keep them evenly spaced in compots after a while. Everything else stays in compot form for as long as I can get away with it.....

Oh good! I sure was hoping I was telling Gail correctly. I think part of the fun of growing from seed is that you never know what you'll get.

I really like this white one and will probably keep it. The bold, contrasting stripes in the throat are very pleasing to my eye. I know I won't keep them all, due to space limitations, but I won't cull any til I've seen them all bloom and decide what I like and what I don't. Since you've given your blessing on compots, there they'll stay til I have picked my favorites. Now I don't feel nearly so bad about it! LOL Would you like to see the rest as they continue to bloom? I really need to start a Flickr account one day...