MG TIPs... please add yours here

This is what I came up with while eating at Applebees... good place..lol

I got a straw from the bar area while waiting for my giftcertificate..

Well, as I was thinking, what a good thick an wide straw, if I cut this up into pieces, I can band my MGs. Well, it looks like it will work. They can be out in the rain and not get messed up, they won't fade, and you can get any color you need. You have to make some kind of Table of Contents for your straws of each color so you know which is which color. But, I am assuming that you can also write on the band if it is white and then you don't need any table. The only thing though, we would have to worry about it fading.

They band hummers with metal bands.

Cut the straw the long way, I did it with scissors, to make the slit. Then cut circles and you already have the slit. You can then slip them on very easily.

I had seen this question asked, but did not see a response regarding the tags for the MGs. So, here is my version and I hope it helps.

Here it is guys.. I really like it... no mess..

Need pots for your Dwarfs... well, this is another idea if you are running short on pots.. Save the big pots for the bigger/taller MGs..

Use the plastic coffee cans (the metal rust), plus, these have a handle, you can even write on the handle with a sharpie, but since I plan to reuse them, I didn't write on them.

Drill at least five holes on the bottom before use for good drainage..

Coffee anyone?

That straw idea is great! I might get the neon color ones . . .

Great idea with the straws! The discount store near here had a party-pack of a few hundred plastic straws, in various assorted colors, for one dollar. Of course, if you're going to be getting a drink with your lunch anyway, might as well save the straw and use that at no additional cost. You can eat at different places, and pick up different colored straws, depending on which varieties you plant.

Plus, it makes it easier to track them when they migrate. ;^)


-- Seamus

My Tip is Dont Get Addicted To Mgs

I like your coffee can planters. That looks cute.

I have been growing each variety by themselves in their own spot. I let them bloom,take pictures and use a green yarn to carefully mark each vine at the bottom as passing for the variety it is supposed to be. If I get any I don`t desire I either pull the offending plant when it is still young or discard the lot of vines depending on the situation.

Then I put bags on the approved flowers about to open in the evening. The next morning I check to make sure the pollen is getting where it needs to be,tie a green yarn under the bud and put the bag back on. After all is said and done I know only the buds with a green yarn were the ones that got hand pollinated. When collecting seed I just hunt for the yarns. The rest get deadheaded before they ever get made or they go into open pollinated mixes.

When I do crosses I use a thin flexible white tag cut into a small rectangle with a hole punched in it o one end. I cut a slit with the scissors from the outside to the hole and snap it on the stem. I don`t use my bags on them to avoid contamination but roll them up like a burrito and tie winding the yarn around them from top to bottom. That way if a tag falls off it will not go into a hand pollinated batch because it has no yarn...if the tag is lost then it goes into a more appropriate open pollinated batch in case I do keep any of the pods without a yarn on them.

Just sharing a little bit about the way I do things. :)

Love the straw idea...

Thanks, yes, I already am using some of the bands..lol.

Paul,
It's way too late for me, wish I had known your tip 7 years ago.lol, now 200 + pots later..lol.

I have a great track record so far, several that I have planted are not what they are supposed to be lol. .

Thanks Karen, for the bagging info. I'm still not at that point yet, but will try it soon.
A.

Oh... just got another Idea...

Save the bread plastic ties, (not the wire, use the wire to tie vines to trellis), but the plastic ones that have space to write on.. those would work also, they already have the hole and slit.

A

Wow I thought I drank a lot of cawfee! LOL

Great idea on tagging your flowers, Antoinette!

Joseph

Joseph,
LOL, some of the cans are from DH's work.. but I love coffee, they sell one called Pinon here in NM.. it smells like heaven.

I am already using the straw bands, another flower bloomed in that same pot that I banded yesterday with the Cornell MG.

The flourescent colored idea is really good, you will be able to spot a certain seed pod/plant a mile away.. also you can band them by groupings, all I. nils one color, all purpureas one color..etc.,

I think if we write down what is in the pot on the (mini-blind label), you can use the back and front to write all the info you want regarding both band colors.. this is especially helpful when two or even three different vines are growing in one container, you don't have to untangle the vines, yet you are simply putting bands on the flower and that band will not slip off over the seedpods either. Now I have to go find different colors, just remember to try to get the wider straws..

Karen,
Using the bag method is great also. I think if/when I try pollinating, that will be something to try for me. Thank you for that info.

You put the bag on the evening before when they are just about to open. The next day you check to see the pollen is where it needs to be, mark the flower at the base and you put it back on. By that evening you can move the bag to another about to open flower. If you want those pink flowers to come back pink and not some of them blue then I`d be sure to cover some of them.

I always tie the bud to another stem on the purpureas to avoid losing yarns when the maturing pods turn upside down. I have also snapped the white tag on the base of the bud and to a stem close to it and that worked.

If what you are doing is working then you got it going on! Every individual gets out there in the garden and learns new things through trial and error every day. I think having a garden every year makes you smarter every year no kidding! :)



This message was edited May 24, 2007 11:35 AM

After trying popsicle sticks with various ink and clear spray paint and Mini blind bits only to have them fade out to nothingness, i bought myself some heavy duty aluminum foil and make foil plant tags. They emboss beautifully and the ones I am using have been buried, rained on, stepped on, fertilized, hit with insecticide and fungicide, squashed, sat in the blazing sun, squirrel chewed and utterly abused and still unerringly without fading of any sort hold their own. I now use them not only for plants but also for spray bottles of garden concoctions since permanent marker fades on the plastic as well. They are easy to make and really do work and don't look half bad.

You can go here for the instructions if interested:

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/703648/

X

Great tips Karen and X..

Keep them coming.. I know I certainly need all the help I can get.

Anyone have a good system for storing seeds?

Gourd, there's a couple of posts from Ron and Atenkley on storing MG seeds in such a way that guards against the possibility of any piggyback weevils migrating to neighboring seed - weevils can be present in some phases of their lives without being evident -

Ron: http://davesgarden.com/forums/p.php?pid=2997690

Atenkley: http://davesgarden.com/members/atenkley/

If I hadn't seen their thread, I never would have recognized weevils in one batch of MGs I received in trade. The rest of the thread goes into the biology of weevils and pros and cons of various methods of weevil control - very useful.

I store mine in plastic portion cups in a small chest of drawers I got at family dollar.

X

X. those are pretty neat foil tags. I'll have to try them out.

X, ditto to Gourd on those foil tags - I've been looking all over for that reference.

Thanks .. I love them! I am amazed at how well they work!

X

Am bumping this thread, because a light bulb just went off in what is passing for my head these days, and am also wondering if anyone else has more ideas to add here?

I grow MGs in partial shade, and I have noticed this summer that the ones whose vines grew over arbors flowered more generously than those that grew on the ground or tumbled down walls. Sooooo - it just occurred to me that an extension of the idea of elevating your plants when coping with shade could be to fly helium balloons into the sky from your garden and let the vines climb up those. Now, imagine what you could do with those balloons! Having a tiff with neighbors? - what a way to get the last word in - lol

anyone else learn anything new this summer?

Morning glories can be an effective way to shield your apartment balcony from annoying neighbors, and lower your air conditioning bill, by shading large windows that receive direct afternoon sunlight.

@bluespiral...The helium balloon (or weather balloon) thing is an interesting idea...at least here where we don't have much wind.
@gourd...I like your tip and did use the straw idea this fall to identify seed pods that were growing in a mixed situation.

Thanks for sharing.