I thought this would be a good thread to tell some of the ways we all mess up trading seeds, germinating , etc; Will make some of us newer ones know that we'll get better.
So think back to when you just got started or something happened today. I think it would be good for us to know that no one else is perfect either
Here's my newest thing!! I had two trays of the Jiffy pellets going. Some in each tray had already germingated, so didn't know what to do about dome and lights and stuff.
So I sat and put all the ones that hadn't come up yet in one tray and the ones that had germinated into another. Well, guess what, I have no idea what is in those trays, didn't label or anything as I changed trays. At least I'll have a surprise or two
That's just one, I'll save the other 12,.000 for a later time.
Come on, let's here it, you know you did something wrong sometime
Have you done something stupid?
i'm not much of a propagator, but i did manage to pull out about half my baby gazanias last year because i thought they were weeds. oops.
amy
*
I was doing that one day and my daughter in law came up and said "Why are you throwing out those____ can't remember what it was, but I thought it was weeds too. Tried to replant the;m, but they were already mad cause I thought they were weeds so they didn't come up
I have had my share too of oppsies. My worst was I had a bunch of anemone bulbs and didn't know that there was a certain way to plant them. I waited and waited and waited and then waited again some more, before I finally learned what the problem was, by that time i had rotted most of them cuz i thought mayeb i wasn't giving them enough water to germinate.
Plant and learn. best knowledge there is.
My DH had an "oops" last year. I had some apple gourd vines just started in a rocky area . . . DH thought they were weeds, so sprayed them along with most other things.
I used one of those jiffy trays and use tape at the end of each row to know what each row was. The ink came off the tape because of the humidity. End result, useless. Better yet I had 5 different hardy hibiscus so I had to wait for them to flower to know what they were.
Better question...What HAVEN'T I done :)
This message was edited Mar 1, 2008 9:59 PM
LOL... That cute! : )
I love it about the tray, because I did almost the same thing. I put different things in it, then on the plastic top, I wrote what was in that spot. Of course I took the lid off and when I put it back, I had no idea which end was which. Didn't think about taking the lid off and of course there's no way I'd take my time and think about it. After things started coming up I could kind of guess what they were.
I always forget how big plants become. And always end up with a border with the big ones in front and the small ones in the back.....
You go Tuink, cause I do the same thing. I always plant them too close too, then have to try and move them as they get bigger. Even though directions say what to do, guess I can't read
Lorraine,
I always plant them too close too, then have to try and move them as they get bigger.
I use some old kitchen forks (gingerly) & the chopsticks or in a pinch - toothpicks. I also use some old table & tea spoons for spooning the soil lightly into the little seed tray cells.
With my Jiffy pellets, I use aluminum foil that's been cut with scissors & folded by me (4 times); in a shape so I can write the name of the seeds' on them that I've planted. This I jab into 'The watered Jiffy pellets' by making a small slice near the edges with a pair scissors first; when planting the seeds. I no longer have a camera ---- but I hope you get the idea of it.
PS: I make these ahead of time, knowing which seeds I'm planning to plant. They are always 6 inches long by a half an inch to three quarters of an inch wide. So I can have enough space to write the botanical name & planting date on them too. Even if the ink fades; the impression of the ball-point pen stays & has been very helpful to me.
~* Robin
How cool is that. I can't even begin to tell you how many of those little pellets are in my trays that are mixed up. I'll probably have to wait until they are up to know. I'm going to try that. I thought about it the other day, how that wouldn't happen if I labeled them all. Lots of work, but not as much as trying to find a picture of the seedling.
Another thing I do is try and carry too many containers outside to WS at the same time. 8 out of 10 times when I do that, I drop them and who knows where the seeds are. I leave them in there just hoping some are close enough to the top to still grow.
You'd think I'd learn, but no. Someone told me one time the word "stubborn" was just another word for Lorraine.
I thought I was being very clever and used little pieces of colored yarn stuck into my jiffy pellets to mark the varieties of tomatoes (a piece goes in each envelope too so I can remember which is which). When it was time to plant I forgot to mark them with tags as I planted so at the end I realized all of my yarn was buried with the bottoms of the plants. Oops.
That is too funny, you must be my long lost sister!!!
Lorraine,
Maybe you should try looking here:
The Seed Site: http://theseedsite.co.uk/index.html
A place in the UK that contains: webpages about seeds - collecting seeds, storing seeds, sowing seeds, germinating seeds and exchanging seeds, with pictures of seeds, seedpods and seedlings.
They don't have blasting or streaming videos. It taught me what to look for.
~* Robin
Thanks for all the info Nature! But now you've gotta confess to something - if not stupid, at least silly - that you've done so the rest of us don't feel too bad!
amy
*
This is true, she's trying to get away without telling us!!!
Ok yaw'll, ☻☻☻
It was those strawberry plants I bought from bloomingbulb,com.
The directions said, "When the first set of flowers appear, nip them off so your plants will produce more flower buds for more fruit sets."
Well, being a newbie; I mistakenly nipped off the crowns!!!
Whoooooooooooooo.... Noooooooo!!!!!! •☺☻♥♦♣♠•
~* Robin
Ouch!!
Whew!
Don't you feel better for sharing that with us Robin?
(i know i feel better...)
; )
amy
*
Now you can be at peace. I know that was tearing you apart and you probably weren't sleeping well!!!!
I've held that back for the last 5 years!!
It made me sick till I got them replaced the next year.
I made a promise to myself (& the poor seeds & plants); to find out all that I needed to know about the plants I wanted to grow, and how to do it the proper way.
(at least I keep on trying .... practice, ....practice, .....practice ;) !!!!
~* Robin
This is true, I don't know anyone who would put their hand on the bible and swear they hadn't messed up a few things. But it IS good to get it out so you can sleep at night
Hey Robin why did you put
Binghamton, Twilight, NY
I lived in Endwell for a while BTW.
Rod Serling's bond with Binghamton: http://www.danville.lib.il.us/Pathfinder/rodbin.html
"Everybody has to have a hometown"
http://www.rodserling.com/
~* Robin
Oh okay. I know about Rod Serling. To bad you guys lost the BC open, I think Broome County is where the BC comics writer came from.
Yes; Johnny Hart was from Broome County, in the Town of Vestal.
Broome County Mourns Johnny Hart: http://www.gobroomecounty.com/press/20070413.php
Farm Friendly Broome County: http://www.farmbroome.com/
Broome County New York Genealogy:
http://www.kindredtrails.com/NY_Broome.html
~* Robin
There's a town called Vestal? i can just imagine the teenage jokes...
Vestal is actually the richest community in Broom county I believe. Never really thought about Vestal jokes but now that I think about it. LOL.
I bought baby Martha Washington gerranium one spring. I waited for it to bloom...and waited...and waited. Lots of beautiful healthy leaves, but no flowers.
Finally, at the end of the summer, in a fit of insane rage, I threw it in the trash for not blooming.
You guessed it. It was a fall bloomer. It was probably just getting ready to bloom now that it was a grown-up.
If only I'd been more patient!
I thought I would get a head start for this Spring by planting all my brugmansia seeds in the summer. Not too smart being my greenhouse is only 10 x 12. I have at least 80 seedlings growing in gallon cans in there and many are now 3-4 ft. tall. I had put a 3ft. tall shelve around the perimeter of the greenhouse thinking I could put them under and on top of the shelves, but they have grown to the tops of the shelves and roof already. I am at the point now of pulling them out of the greenhouse, I just hope and pray we don't get anymore frost or I am going to be in big trouble.
That's like the nuts taking over the insane asylum, only with flowers and a greenhouse. Will you be able to plant them. That is an idea thou' to plant that early. Would have big plants to plant
You shouldn't have too much cold weather left, do you. I lived down around San Diego so it was never cold, but I know up north it gets cold, I thought.
I love Ca. I loved just driving down hwy 101. Some of my best memories are from when I lived there
The majority of my blunders have had something to do with pot size. This really nice person on the Container Growing forum just posted this in case anyone here can use it. Everybody have a good day.
Generally, what is sold as a 1 gallon container, is about 6 to 6 1/2 inches across. This is called a "trade gallon". If you calculate the cubic inches of this container, you will find that it is not really a full gallon, but this is what's sold in the trade as 1 gallon. ( A gallon is approx. 231 cubic inches.) What is sold as 2 gallon is about 8 inches across. 3 gal. is 10 inches. 5 gal. is about 12 inches. 7 gal. is 14 inches
1 gallon = 6-6½ “
2 gallon = 8”
3 gallon = 10”
5 gallon = 12”
7 gallon = 14”
10 gallon = 20”
Well, you didn't say it had to be about seeds...
When I got married, I didn't know how to cook (19 years)... so when DH asked for scrambled eggs and said to put milk in the eggs, I did just that...
I scrambled the eggs, and thought, I sure don't know why he wants milk on them, but here goes... a bowl with scrambled eggs with milk, just like he asked. He laughed so hard I thought he was going to have a heart attack.
P.S. that was just ONE of the stupid things I've done, there are many more..
Ok, Gourd, that made my day!!! I remember those days too, but I can't remember anything as funny as what you just told.
Guess we'll just have to change this thread to just "Stupid stuff we've done"
Well, actually, the first time I tried sowing cosmos and other flower seeds, I scattered all the flower seeds I had, then when they started to grow, I pulled out almost all of them thinking they were weeds, then we started having these things growing like round red balls in the soil... well what do you know, I had beets all over the place instead of flowers. lol.. that was the only thing I didn't pull out and I didn't even know there were veggies in those seeds. This was not that long ago either, about 6 years ago.
Gourd, Gourd, Gourd! You are making my day, too! Good thing I put down that water before I read your posts:-))))
Bev
Ok, that's all I can take. I can just see the beets everywhere. Bet you thought you were in the twilight zone.!!
Closest I got to that was buying a pkg. of wildflower seeds, putting them in a bed, being really proud and watching over them like babies. When they started coming up, I realized they were the same things I had pulled up all over the yard and woods thinking they were weeds. I got so mad I went out and pulled them up too.
Now everytime I pull up a "weed", I think I'm probably killing some rare flower!!