Basement people, unite!

Wrightie, Yes, I know the photoperiod is important, and the seedlings are supposed to grow faster as the days lengthen, which they wouldn't do under lights running 24 hours a day. I think I mentioned it because it was an anomaly...something I have seen with my own eyes, but defies what we all know to be true. I don't understand it, unless my lighting is actually so poor that they are gasping for as much light as they can get?

Don't blame me on the cigarette smoke -- google 'Impatiens' and 'TMV' and maybe 'greenhouse' and it comes up in many, many different languages including Dutch and French -- they aren't on the PC bandwagon as far as I know. Of course if it's written in Dutch of French, how the heck do I know what it's saying, right? LOL! I'm stickin' to my guns on handwashing before pinching seedlings...it's only common sense to try to keep an open would as clean as possible until it callouses over.

I don't sterilize my soilless mix (out of the bag) either, and in fact, I don't do a lot of things everybody else does, so I am keeping those bad habits to myself. :))

Do most of you use warm water to water the very small seedlings? I've read that more than a few times.

Suzy

AS far as warm water goes, I use warm water for everything in my house all the time.
If we get in trouble about the smoke talk, there will surely be a lot of us in trouble *lol*. I always think I am the only fool still smoking yet I meet many a smoker where ever I go.

I have never heard of washing hands before pinching seedlings, but let's face it; we who garden wash our hands all day long just working with plants.

okay then, i'm not gonna sterilize either ... lol

I use warm water to water my seedlings, I have a gas stove and keep four gal. jugs on top in the middle where the warmth is just to get the chill out of the water sometimes like when everything is growing downstairs I have 6 gal. jugs of water on top of my stove I don't think I'll ever have an electric stove just because of my seedlings lol When I soak seeds with H202 I keep them on the top of the back of my stove staying warm until I'm ready to plant them too. You know that they say cold water messes with the roots so just can’t bring myself to water with cold water, sometimes when I don’t have enough warm water I put a Rubbermaid plastic dish on top of the lights to warm the water up lol So far, knock on wood, it hasn’t spilled on me lol I use warm water to soak my seed trays with before I plant them too, they soak up water faster that way.

On the damping off part, I keep my seedlings on the dry side and never have sterilized my potting soil I use the big bags from the nursery like the pro mix comes in it's a soil less mix. If I get the fungus nats, once in a great while, I use H202 to water, it seems to help and I remember someone on here suggesting that and then when I think I have watered one 6 pack too much I wait until the next day and water with H202 to get some oxygen to the roots.

I am a smoker and I always wash my hands before I mess with my seedlings and my seeds, I drive my dad nuts at night when I'm planting them because I will stop and smoke a cig. then go into the kitchen and wash my hands before I start another batch, wakes him up every time lol I don't take any chances. Even when I'm washing seed trays and I lay them out to dry I put a towel over them because that is the only place dad is allowed to smoke is in the kitchen lol He drops cigs. all of the time!

I love this thread very interesting, I can always learn something new in these threads :)
Lea

I just learned something new. When I overwater, it has never occurred to me to water next time with some peroxide in the water. I don't know why that wouldn't work when overwatering AFrican violets or a plant as well as seedlings.

So, how much peroxide are you using?

Pagancat, If you are asking me I'm sorry had a Trojen virus so have been off of here :)

They had a whole thread on peroxide at one time but can't seem to find it, I always forget how much peroxide to use so I just put two tsp. in a half gal. that's what I use to water my plants with and use to soak my seeds in, I may be going overboard with that much in a half gal. but I don't think it hurts the seeds or the plants.

If you do a search on H202 or peroxide on here I'm sure you will come across a few threads talking about how much to use.

That sounds like about what I use too. If you find the threads, there are some people who use it all the way up to full strength (of the stuff you buy at the drugstore that's got 3% hydrogen peroxide in it) so I don't think you have to be that careful about the amount.

Sorry about the Trojan, LeBug - grrrr!

Great, thanks for the info. So, you're using the peroxide all the time to water your plants or just your seed-starting plants?

I just use it on seedlings to help prevent damping off, but it's not going to hurt your plants so if you want to use it on them I can't think of any reason not to.

I'm not a Botanist, Biologist, Pharmacologist, or any of the other "ists", but I think we're making a mountain out of a mole hill here with this sterilization thing. There are far more helpful (to plants) than harmful bacteria/microorganisms in naturally occuring soil/soil substitutes. Sterilizing soil kills all of them---the good guys and the bad guys. I think the "total wipeout" via sterilization approach actually gives the upper hand to the bad guys in the long run, because they're usually quicker to adapt. So I quit trying to outsmart Mother Nature years ago and don't sterilize my soil anymore; and havent looked back since. Haven't regretted it either. Can't remember the last time I've encountered damping off (but I HAVE experienced it---it wasn't the soil, it was the growing environment).
Now for all you "evil" cigarette smoking plant lovers out there, let me lighten your load; you never actually come in physical contact with the evil weed. You guys never touch tobacco. I do. Every time I fill my pipe, I have to physically touch the tobacco to get it in that thing. You guys don't have to do that. It's all done for you at the factory. It never even occurred to me to wash my hands after filling my pipe, and in 50+ years of gardening-while-smoking, and all that direct contact, I have NEVER encountered any incident of TMV. Those are just inconvenient facts for the PC people, but they're real life for me. I'm much more comfortable dealing with facts than hypotheticals/ histrionics...

Pagancat,
I use the H202 to water my seedlings with once in a while if I think they got too wet to try and put some oxygen down to the roots but I wait until the next day and let them dry a bit which doesn't take long because of a fan going in there. After I do transplanting I don't really use it, I very seldom over water them. I try not to over water at all :) I have been known to water my gal. pots outside when they have been wet for a while with a good dose of H202 can't tell if it helps but it hasn't hurt them.

Yes, I had to back up all of my files and scan them such a pain I never back up was just getting ready too, I should know that feeling and just back up right away after I get it lol But the good news is I went wirleless :)

Basement dweller here! Three fixtures each with two 40 watt fluorescent tubes. I've used my basement four years now to overwinter my tender tropicals. Haven't lost any yet (knock on wood.) I'll be starting seeds this spring, so very helpful thread! Thank you!

-Joe

Another lurking basment grower here. I didn't know the distance to the light rule. I sowed Tibouchina urvilleana 12/11, which is now germinated. I'm going to have to do some adjusting on the sprouts so that they are closer to the light. I have a light cart in the basement as I grow cuttings of my basil and rosemary as well as some other cuttings. I use to propagate AV leaves down there too. I have a shelf setup too and that might allow me to raise the seedlings closer to the light. That will also be cooler than in the light cart which is under a plastic tent - like a mini green house -it's about 6' tall.

Anita,

I just use some scrap 2 x 4s, or an overturned pot to raise my seedlings. That's why you won't ever see a pitcture of my set up -- it looks like the set of 'Sanford and Son'.

The lights are too hard to fiddle with in my confinded space, so I raise the seedlings. Once having said that, the lights over the heat mat are down low all the time, so the seedlings get a lot of light as soon as they germinate. I think that's the secret to nice stocky seedlings.

Suzy

Great thread! I just started growing seeds in my attached garage, which is at basement level. Does that count? :-) For those of you using the Bio Domes I have a question. Do you keep the plants in the Bio Domes until it's time to put them in the garden or do you move them to larger pots after several weeks?

Last year was my first year using the biodomes, and unfortunately I had started my seeds a bit too early *and* didn't repot them... some did great, but a few did a little too well, got leggy and required a lot of time adjusting to the real world... special needs plants, they were.

From what I've learned on the forums, if you are familiar with your germinating times and can get the majority of your plants to sprout at roughly the same times, getting the lid off pretty soon afterwards and getting good air circulation for your sprouts is helpful for preventing mold or fungus and also producing stronger seedlings. But I would only pot them up if they were getting too big and it was still to chilly to transplant them.

Others might have different (better?) experiences!

Here's my rogue's gallery. From left to right: foreground, night blooming cereus; middle, spider plant; background, jasminum nitidum, angel wings jasmine; sabal "McCurtain"; bougainvillea " Raspberry Ice; hedychium coronarium, butterfly ginger; and jasminum officinale, poet's jasmine.

I use 160 watts of standard shop fluorescents. The temperature stays in the low 60's.

-Joe

This message was edited Mar 8, 2008 10:47 PM