Little Fuzz

Well here it is Thursday and I got my chair and climbed up to look on top of the fridge and what did I see??? One, and I mean only one!! tiny little seedling. How I even saw it is a miracle. LOL So I have hope I'll come home to more of them but we shall see.

I took this picture and you'll have to take my word for it that these is a seedling in the middle of the picture. My camera is so lousy at close ups!!!!

~Brenda

go Brenda go!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I see it, Brenda!! Yay!!! I bet you'll have several more up when you get home! :o) Congratulations!

I can see it too!!! I've been peering at mine every evening now... turning the container this way and that, looking for any sign of "green".

You go girls!!! I'm still watchin' and waitin'!

Karen

I arrived home yesterday evening after the best part of 5 days away and there are at least half a dozen little Fuzz seedlings up with a few more bumps in the soil that could be more coming!! Yippee!

I also have two of the original strep leaves I put down sending up a whole bunch of babies (even after I pulled them out of the dirt to see what was happening with them a couple weeks ago LOL) and a couple of the others trying to make some more babies. And a couple of others that are just rotting away. But as I had said originally, if I got one baby out of this box I would be so tickled and here I'm going to get at least a dozen between just two leaves if all keeps going well!!!

After being gone it's going to take me several days to catch up around here but I'm looking forward to it!!

~Brenda

Hi Brenda! phew~~!! glad to see you got some sprouts!

Somebody please save one of these fuzz babies for a trade later on when there bigger.Pretty please with sugar on top.

jannich I'd love to trade with you on the off chance that I actually raise these babies up to a size that can be shared :0)) From what I've read you have a flare with those little sinniginas (I doubt I spelled that right) and I'd like to give one a try someday.

I've had a couple more pop through and the original one is getting the teeny tiniest second set of leaves on it but I've got a long ways to go.......

Rain on the other had probably is ready to take a weed whacker to hers just to thin them out a bit. :))))

~Brenda

Jan, out of all of us, I'm sure someone will end up with several to trade! :o)

Brenda, you give me too much credit! ;o) Not ready for the weed whacker just yet, but they are growing nicely. I'm so glad some of yours finally popped their little heads up. More probably will along and along.

Ki, is it time to start jostling them with a toothpick yet? I can't quite remember when to start that and don't want to do it too soon.

Here's a picture of all of them.

And here's a closeup of the largest ones.

Rain, I am sooooooooo impressed!!!!!!!!!!! good going and you will have to share your secrets with us.........
gail

Thanks Gail, but there's no secret. It's sheer dumb luck. LOL I just sow them and they grow.

Ki, you know I was just itching to plant something in that neat clear container. LOL I'll jostle them this morning. Can't wait to see them all fuzzy! I do the same squeeze-thing when they're in cups. It's much easier. ;o)

I only ended up with four little fuzz seedlings growing out of all the seeds I planted. I'm glad I saved some so I can try again with a real grow light in place from the beginning next time.

But in the mean time here are my four little guys as of yesterday morning. Not rapid growers, at least not for me.

~Brenda

This message was edited Jul 18, 2007 2:46 PM

Good for you Brenda! I can already see fuzz on the one to the left! Wow!!! Great job!

I am still waiting (not!) patiently for my first sign of sprouting... nothing yet! 8^(

Haven't given up yet though!

Karen

Hi Brenda,
I wouldn't say they are fast growers. They take their time developing a tuber, so the growth above ground isn't exciting to watch (for that, you need to try an annual like Chirita lavandulacea).

There are two choices with young Sinningia seedlings when they are ready to be potted up. You can either pot them at the same depth (which is what I tend to do), or you can bury them deeper. If you do the latter, it will be a sturdier stem, and it will generally develop a second tuber at its preferred depth.

They look great, Brenda! I can see fuzz on that one, too. :o)

Karen, just keep waiting. Hopefully they'll pop up for you. I'll keep my fingers crossed for ya!

Here are mine. They're a darker green than they appear in this picture. A couple have a little bit of fuzz, but I can't get the camera to focus so it will show.

don't you just love the way these thumbprint photos are showing up now??????? This is wonderful!!!!!!! yea Dave!!!!!!

I looked for photos of seedlings of leucotricha but couldn't find any. These are seedlings of Sinn piresiana that are probably a few months old.... I forgot to date the pots.... You can see that juvenile leaves tend to be greener with less fuzz.

Again, part of my seed mix experiment. I think the one on the left is lightened (with perlite) AV mix topped with a layer of vermiculite. The one on the right is probably lightened AV mix topped with long fibre sphag.

Both pots seriously need to be potted up. I just opened the ziploc bag they were in for the first time since I sowed the seed. whoops. (Ok, I won't dissemble. I do that all the time.)

I will probably pot the ones on the left deep, as they are skinny. The ones on the right, I will probably try to pot at the same depth.

Have to harden them off the room humidity first....

We're a little antsy about the fuzz, Ki! LOL

Isn't it funny how completely different the young plants look from the more mature ones? Quite interesting...

There's a photo of piresiana last year in this pic. Move your mouse over the photo to see the labels.
http://flickr.com/photos/ki/136149763/

Me too! So you can imagine how delighted I am that both leuco and piresiana look fuzzier this year and are blooming *fingers crossed*

Looks like that one was starting to turn a bit darker green. The Sinn. leucotricha in back looks to be pretty fuzzy. Love the packed-full shelf! :o)

S. piresiana has some awesome blooms! I can't wait to see pictures of yours when they're open. And I'll admit that I'm just slightly jealous of your year-or-two headstart on me! LOL JK

hehe, every day counts. At least it does for me - if I put off sowing for a day, it usually turns into months if not years......

I am also jealous of people who have been hybridizing for years!

I know, I'm the same way. They do say the road...is paved with good intentions! ;o) LOL

I am such a beginner i don't even dream dreams of hybridizing................that is another world somewhere far away to me...............(I am still trying to take the vein out of a silly strep leaf and grow babies)............this time, I am trying straight vermiculite and see what happens..............same way with leaves.........never lost one in vermiculite so decided to try 1/2 perlite and 1/2 vermiculite with Seaweed Kelp ****hello RainGazer******* and killed a bunch of leave.........don't follow instructions ever.........

I won't live long enough to get where you growers are............(LOL).........and that is true!!!!!!!!!

LOL Gail! I said fish emulsion, not seaweed kelp! ;o) I've never used seaweed kelp, so don't hold me accountable for that one! ;o)

seaweed fert is milder than fish emulsion..... what happened?

Amy... your seedlings look great too!!! And you've got a bunch! Good growing to both you and Brenda!

You know I'm still waitin' and watchin'... just turned the container this evening.

Keyring... as always... you've got some great plants. Knowing that you live in similar housing as me, I would love to see your set-up. Do you grow everything under lights, or do you use natural light too?

A good evening to all...

Karen

I guess that depends on the bottle too.... hold on.. brb...

ok, went to get both out of the fridge.

Saltwater farms SeaCom - PGR. Organic Seaweed Concentrate 0-4-4
Best applied as foliar feed in the morning or late afternoon.

Alaska brand fish fert. 5-1-1
(ahh. This explains why I alternately use the two on seedlings. I'd forgotten why)
It also has 4 of chlorine. (huh?)

I got my fish emulsion..It's ferti-lome brand, 5-1-1 (no chlorine)

I wonder if the chlorine is supposed to be the deodorizer? If it is, it doesn't work!

When I get around to it, I'm going to switch my main fert. to MSU.

I washed my hands after touching the bottle and I still think I smell it! LOL My kids immediately leave the room when I start using it. The first time they asked what that smell was, I told them it was supper! ROFL You should have seen their faces!!

lol. I can just imagine their faces!

Karen, I grow most things on shelves under lights, as I have very little window light. (I have some in the office but no gessies there at the moment.)

They are chrome metal shelves, and most of the lights are your basic shoplight from HD. (Actually, the cheapest one really malfunctions consistently so I quit using that one....)

Some shelves have 2 tubes of T8 lights.
Some have 4 tubes of T8 lights. (bright - too bright for most gessies)
Some have 4 tubes of T12 lights (lowest light).

I also have a shelf of really low light - the type of bathroom fluor tube thing. Those are getting replaced - this light level turned out to be great for some of my lowest light plants, though......but too low for seedlings and almost everything else.

And I had a couple of shelves with two compact fluor lights of 125 W each, but I am takign them out as I don't like to leave them on all day when I'm not home. Those were great for cacti, and for tall plants.....

The fluor tubes are alternating warm and cool but they are your standard tubes from HD or Lowes. (Warm and cool = low and high Kelvin (K) numbers on the package.) I did use full spectrum grow light tubes for a year but didn't notice that much difference and the cost is too much for me.

The shelves are 17-24 inches apart, so the distance from the light tubes to the shelf is 12-18 inches.

Lights stay on 10-16 hrs a day, except when I am traveling.

It's a very utilitarian setup, and if I had the space, I would make better use of spot lights and such to create more visually appealing growing areas.....

It is gail........................I never follow instructions..........it gave me a mix which.....of course I didn't measure.........i was supposed to dip the petiole of the leaf in it before sticking.......so I decided it was such good stuff that i drenched the solo cups of perlite and vermiculite leaving some in the bottom of the clear plastic containers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, i won't blame you, Rain!!!!!!!!!!! just teasing...........

Thanks for the info Key...

I'm hoping that by the time I have to bring everything in for the winter, that I will be able to have some sort of shelving set up, with grow lights and all. Since moving to this apt though, I have alot of natural light, and I'm really happy about that. 8^) In my bedroom, I have two windows 4'x4'... one faces east and one faces south (but has an eave). The rest of the apt has the south-facing windows. Needless to say, I have alot of plants in my bedroom! LOL! Hubby is very understanding!

Very interesting, Ki... So 4 T12 bulbs provide a lower light level than 2 T8 bulbs? The fixtures on my main stand are 2 T12 bulbs and the new fixtures on the other stand are 2 T8 bulbs. No wonder my girlie AV looks sunburned! LOL

Thanks, Gail, cause I really was worried that I had told you something wrong. I mix up the fish emulsion like the bottle says and water the mom leaves or leaf pots with it just like I would with plain water. So far, I've not had any problems with doing it that way.

Karen, I don't really think our husbands have much choice but to be understanding! LOL