Morning all!
Weather forecast for the weekend is lousy again! Well that gives me time to prick out lots of babies and to sow some more.....
Join Us! Seed Swap Seed Starting & Conversation #6
OOO-a PJ party for planting-that sounds like a blast!!! If I had any friends I would have to steal that one!! You will so have to take pics for us Michaela!!
Nemesia! Y'all just reminded me I forgot to get seed for those, and had every intention of trying them this year. The pics of blue ones people posted last year really got me!
Fairy, Congrats on the babies! Are they inside or wintersown?
I can't wait till the sun comes up to go check for babies! The wintersown jugs are waking up now that we're getting spring weather :-) Whenever I look at the little poppy babies I talk to them in the voice of the witch from Wizard of Oz.."poppies...poppies will make them sleeeeep".....LOL.
Gemini,
Keep talking to them! It's not a fairy tale: they love the CO2 in your breath......
They were inside-I will probably have WS ones coming up soon to-need to keep an eye on em!!
Wind, I forgot to mention yes a dry, sunny place would be good for the orlaya, they are drought tollerant.
Indynannyof8, I didn't have the black pearl ornamental pepper seeds I had some that were either shu or just variegated and if you haven't transplanted them yet transplant them pretty close to the top of their leaves, they can make roots on the sides of the stems like tomato plants so they will be alright, strange that they are like that. I planted some black pearl from the swap and all of them came up I only planted 5 seeds of each cause I had a few that were variegated ornamental peppers.
I did 21 jugs yesterday to stick outside in the rain this weekend to get wet, need to do more but have too much going on today. I only have about 30 planted so far really behind in my jugs :) I have a big ole bag yet to sow lol
My hot water heater hasn't been working right since we got it and had someone come look at it yesterday and they think they have to take a wall out in the basement to fix something with the pipes I have a full cistern of water down there just wondering if that is going to have to be emptied :( It has been such a big deal to get a hot water heater in this house! I've been having to go to the neighbors to get a shower haven't had a shower here for about three weeks now! There is no spout for it outside just in the basement so I have no idea how we are going to empty it if we need too.
How funny Lea, thought of you when I saw a pic of black pearl' today and I guess it's because I know you love your ornamental peppers! So funny to see you here and talking about them! I need to get seeds and ty them . I LOVE anything purple. We STILL have many feet of snow!
I have plenty of a pepper seed that I grew Kath, I'll send you some today, I just think they are pretty but I love anything that is variegated! The one I have is the one that is so green it's almost black then there is white in the leaf too but they are still hot so becareful when you touch the peppers!
No hot water!? Ack! I'd be yelling something fierce to have them out to fix that puppy.
I got new babies too! Ain't this exciting? I've got to move the laptop to where the seedlings are so I can update the Journal. I learned from a certain Illustrious One that if you put handy things on the sticks (like the RID# or your personal listing #) then all you need to do is use that to refer to the list for updates.
The ones I set outside to enjoy the sun yesterday are doing just fine this morning. And the ones that wimped out after all of 10 minutes revived just fine (poppies, go figure). I'm so excited - I finally got my act together and got more potting/seed soil, so I can actually do all the repotting that needs to be done. I've not had enough to do everything so my decision was to do nothing until I could do it all right (BIG procrastination tip!), so today is seedling replanting day. And, this one was just for fun, some of the things I'm transplanting are rutabagas :) I plan to use the more mature rutabagas (and some other similar veggies) to mark the edges of edible crop areas in the cottage gardens I'm doing - the mature marker plants will be allowed to bolt, and as the veggies are used up we'll just replace them with annuals.
Poor Illoquin. She stopped by yesterday to give me some little nemesia babies for transplanting and took a look at my "start of a lasagna bed". Start, to me, means a small patch. Small patch, to me, means - oh, 5x10'. I clearly let down my Illustrious Leader :( I think small patch to her may mean something like 1/2 an acre.... She did tell me where to score some great horse manure though...I tell ya, she's a never-ending source of information:) (She was also gracious enough to not point out to me that some of my bulbs were covered and look a bit puny :> )
OK, I'm off to find the aquilegia to spread outside, and then off to transplant some nemesia and a few other things, start up a new tray of seeds, and then do my Mom's taxes. (Seeds are a great incentive...)
Here's a pic of those poppies that started in APS trays on Jan. 12, and spent all of 10 minutes outside yesterday.
Here's a pic of my little asparagus babies. The out-of-focus ones in the front can't be related - the tall one was half that height yesterday and this morning is up against the bulb, the lower one sprouted a week later. The one in the back is the height the tallest one in the front was yesterday. Guess I'm gonna have to move them to a different level! (The little plant to the left is Caraway)
And finally, we have the bergenia that started Jan. 20 in my sis's basement.
Man!!! That Bergenia is wonderful! Congratulations! I think mine was wintersowe, but I can see i missed the boat by not starting it inside. The asparagus is hilarious -- it looks just like, well, Asparagus!! LOL!
Now I didn't say one thing about your lasagne bed, but you did mention earlier up in the thread how Nora was going to come home to a front yard that was totally gone (lasagned), and somehow the little strip was not what I was expecting, is all. The bulbs looked great,. 3 days and they go from yellow to green.
The rain barrels were wonderful - I need those here!!!
Gotta run and look up Stachys coccinea in Plant Files -- mine is turning yellow.
Suzy
Edited to change the name of the plant. I didn't see anything in PF that says any thing unusual about this plant. It's indigineous to Texas; do you think the potting soilless mix I am using might have too much peat? Doesn't Texas have more of an alkaline soil? I wonder if I should add some lime? I wonder if I *have* lime! No, that doesn't sound right...our water here has a lot of lime in it and that should take care of it...I need to go to the seed starting forum!
This message was edited Mar 14, 2008 4:37 PM
Robin, everything looks great! I really have to take some pics. Most of mine are teeny-tiny, but they're mine! I have 10 different violas that I did by *who's?* method (shoot me now, I can't remember my own name for 5 min.)...sow them, put them outside overnight, then keep them in the dark until they germ. They are all showing little green 'bumps' today, so I expect seedlings by tomorrow.
Spent today sowing indoor seeds - impatiens(mystic mix - 140 seeds - need about 120 plants0, nemesia, savia (Lady Red, Yvonne's, and some that I snatched from the college last fall - standard red kind), and euphorbia marginata 'Summer Icicle.'
I also potted up 80 dark blue mini petunias, the remaining five annual geraniums, and twenty-three wishbone plants (torenia? or something like that).
Tomorrow, I will sow the rest of the impatiens (need another 100 or so for front garden). And I will consider potting up the rest of the petunias (probably another 75 or so) . My big problem is that even with switching flats of plants every 12 hours, I think I will need more lights! I have canna lilies that need to be potted up. The latana are very slow to germinate - just four so far.
I still have tons of stuff still to sow! God help me, when I have to pot up the snapdragons!
Has anyone successfully winter sowed nicotania? Or should I sow these inside as well?
Suzy - if you find any good info on the stachys coccinea, please share. I have some of those seeds on order and I would also be using a peat based mix to start them. (if that is not the problem)
Seandor,
Nicotiana selfseeds in my garden, so wintersowing should be OK, I guess!
Well, the difficulty is, will there be much time to enjoy the blooms? There is a bit of difference between 8b and 6a. I have the limegreen kind and I really want these. Maybe I will wintersow some, and also start some inside.
Does Lantana come up all at once or in dribs and drabs? I have 4 pots of different kinds and colors and only one plnat in every pot. They sure are NOT remarkable...a very generic seedling. Unless mine are weeds and I'm getting zero germination.
Speaking of which, I have a JUMBO seedling that was supposed to be aristolochia Dutchmen's Pipevine. What a hoot. Today I noticed what appear to be *real* Dutchmen's Pipevine seedlings at the base of the jumbo whopper, so I have no idea what this thing is, except a weed!
My petunias, the same ones Seandor is potting up, are about the size of a pin. I think I over did the "wait" on those and waited too long.
I've only wintersowed the tall white Nicotiana, N.sylvestris. It did way better when it was just direct sown. But then I had a bunch of seed.
I have to sow some peppers and basil before I leave and teach Mr. Clean how to water since he forgets from one year to the next. We put up 2 extra lights, for one shelf, and before I had a chance to sow more seedlings, the space under the new lights was filled up! I just have sooo many pots, and there are more everywhere I look. I have some soaking, some in the sink, some that need darkness on the floor, and some upstairs where it is warmer, but they need to be all together because he isn't going to walk around the house looking for pots of seeds. LOL!
I am feeling very stressed, and I know I am forgetting some things I really really wanted for this year!
Suzy
What kind of dirt are you using to have so many weeds Suzy? Is it miracle grow moisture control? I had a lot of weeds in that last year when I potted outside with it. My lantana has never come up yet :( I took the molded dirt out and washed the seeds off with H202 and replanted.
Just leave litle maps everywhere for Mr. Clean to follow to your seedlings and leave a treat at the end LOL
Seandor, I WS some nicotania last year in Jan. just to see if it would come up and it did but they don't come up until late I'd rather do mine under lights even when my self sowers come up it's too late for my taste. Even though I hate dealing with those sticky leaves under lights when you go to water them they hang on to the other plants and God forbid get them next to eachother you can't get them apart LOL I'm getting ready to sow some now :)
LOL @ Lea. : ) Leave him a treat at the end. LOL : )
What kind of a treat?? A clean treat or not??-hehehehe
A lollipop hanging from a string, is what I envisioned. LOL
A big ole can of beer is what I was thinking can't be dirty Suzy won't be there unles it would be a video LOL
Well I've got dirt to sterlize, 50 tomatoes and peppers to transplant and about ten more seed trays to do after the dirt gets sterlized I'll be here off and on tonite, you can tell I don't have any life this is the highlight of my weekend and doing more jugs LOL
I just finished a walk outside and all of my hardy geraniums that I planted last year is coming up! My plumonaria is blooming, I have one set of daphs ready to bud just hope I get to see a bloom the rest are only up about 5 inches. I have buds on my pussy willows, and my little shrubs have buds on them I was so worried about them! I dug them out of the ground because when it was freezing and raining I was afraid they were going to die cause they were drowning in water and ice and I planted a tiger sumach and it's starting to bud this was my third one two died in the last couple of years and I planted a sensation lilac and it's budding :) I'm a proud mom!!! Now if my red buds come out I'lll be happy and my black adler, I planted two bare rooted ones and I don't see any signs yet of them coming out or my sand cherry either but my plum tree is budding just hope the late freeze doesn't get the blooms like it did last year their blooming period is so short anyway, nothing on my wisteria yet the freeze got it's blooms last year too and it was the first year for a bunch of blooms.
I wintersowed half the bergenia, and started the other half under lights. I went out and checked my WS containers today and there's not a thing going on in them yet. While I was out there I cleaned last year's perennial leftovers out of a couple of small beds in the back, and spread some mulch, and then swept 50# of play sand in between the bricks of our back walkway. The weather started out overcast and dreary, but the sun came out so of course I had to get out there!
I darn near did more of that lasagna-ing today, just ran out of the mulch and can't make it over to the stables :) It's supposed to rain here tomorrow afternoon, so I figure I can get out there tomorrow morning and put some more stuff out. So, tomorrow morning I'll be running over to Lowes to pick up some mulch to put on top of the cardboard and stuff. I just wish I had save all our coffee grounds in one place so I could have spread those on the grass before I covered it with all the rest of the stuff :)
So, where are the pics from everyone's babies?? Suzy gave me a copy of the Queen Piggie so we can have more threads started while she's vacating - so show us some of them babies!!
I will have to group mine together and get a pic!! Show off my babies (even if they are dinky still!!) Blue-I like the lollipop idea, but my mind was headed the other bad direction-hehehe-more like Lea's idea w/ the video or a picture....
Dryad-to be honest I would like to see apic of your lasadne bed and know waht all you put in it-I would like to try 1 this next fall....
Holy cow there's no such thing as sitting down "for a minute" and to catch up with you guys. Ya miss a day and you need two hours to read through it all....and Lord knows I can't just hit and miss all the posts. :-P
I'm having the same dilema as the rest of you. I'm running out of light space way before I've run out of seeds I want to sow. I wonder if 12 hours of light would be sufficient? I could rotate the flats and have twice as many!
Currently under lights I have:
3 different dahlias,
4 different coleus
wishbone flower
1 of the salvias
2 different cannas
2 flavors of monkey flowers
crape honeysuckle
mask flower (I think....the only tray with no ID which is remarkable for me)
3 different marigolds
2 Gaillardia (which did fine WSing last year, but I got blooms sooo much sooner on the ones I started inside)
Corncockle
5 different petunias
Gold Green
Silver Mist
Laurentia axillaris
3 lonely daturas
3 colors of 4 o'clocks
and the burgundy geraniums
On the mats I have:
3 containers with banana seeds (that I'm about to give up on)
more canna
palo verde trees (just for fun...they germinated in 2 days!)
Anthurium
corkscrew vine
Saxufrage
Helen's Flower
Snaps
Cassia alata
Scarelt Milkweed
2 colors of phlox
and poached eggs.
I will not even start with the winter-sowing.
Michaela, wasn't it you with whom I split the silver mist? Those are the TINIEST babies I've ever tried to care for. A couple of them have their 3rd set of true leaves and are still the size of a pin head!
And what's up with the perlite stuff on the 4 o'clocks y'all? This is my first time growing them and I was so fascinated with that white glob of powder that I decapitated one of the poor souls while fingering it. What IS that stuff?
Here are the dahlias and the green gold
Here are some of the petunias and some of the coleus
Nice pics La! You all have been quite busy and I'm done in! Lea-thanks for the seed offer I would love to try them-my hubby is the pepper man, he cooks almost every day with fresh peppers. I miss fresh produce from my garden! spring is not yet in sight here.
Meredith_ I did start some salvia elegans cuttings for you, but I've been having a bit of an aphid problem, so I'm not sure which direction they will go!
Kath, these are ornamental peppers not sure if they are editible you can look them up when you get them, they are in the mail :)
La, that's quite a list! That's some nice plants too, I don't see why you couldn't do 12 hours on lights some people turn theirs off at night anyway, I don't mine stay on until the last seed is germinated lol Your list is as long as mine was last year this year I haven't been so crazy too many things going on but I'm working on it! Suzy may be able to give you an idea if you have any seedlings that need more than 12 hr. of light.
I found my prize seed the other day and you will probably laugh at me for thinking this is special but I found some purple milkweed seed the other day and bought it, I think I have the plant, time will tell when this one blooms but it will take 2-3 years for it to bloom but I have a chance of identifiying the leaf too to see if it's the one I've been wanting for soo long and tabasco had something to do with me finding it :) This is the prettiest butterfly weed well maybe not as pretty as the orange but it's right up there with it! And it's pretty rare too! It's suppose to be a native here but I haven't seen it, I have a couple of plants but they have never had seeds on them :( See Suzy weeds do make me happy LOL
Lala
You have your snaps on the mat.....I am confused. I took mine off the mat and put them in a window cause I am afraid the mat will be too warm. Have you germinated them on a mat before? This is my first time to do snaps and I want some babies.
Thanks! I've ordered so many plants this year too that I'm really going to be in a space bind in a few weeks. But hey, necessity is the mother of invention eh?
Veronica I start almost everything on the mat if I have the room. In the short length of time since I posted last night 2 of them germinated and they were immediately removed and are now on the shelf under lights. Mind you I'm not saying I'm doing it right, LOL, but it seems to work for me. One of the reasons I do it is that my house is so cold in the winter. When the outside temps really dip down low it doesn't get much above 60° in here and I find that a little bottom heat is beneficial to just about all my seeds.
Yes, I agree! If you're off line for a day you really have to spend a lot of time catching up on this thread! A lot happening!
Seandor--did you ask about the Lasagna bed? FYI here's my link from last year with lots of discussion about how I did mine-- I'm getting ready to do another one here for all the seedlings I've got coming up (I hope!)
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/649906/
Everyone has such an interesting variety of seeds under lights! Makes me want to do more!
My Yvonne's Salvia still has not germinated--does anyone know how long it takes for germination? Today will be more than 11 days--all my other salvias have germinated that I planted at the same time...
so tabasco, am I correct in understanding that in the lasagna bed method you do not dig down and turn the dirt to make the bed? you pile newspapers on the grass then do the layering on top of that?
sounds like an interesting technique
LeBug the purple milkweed sounds nice
lala your plantings look very happy :) I didn't know you could start four o'clocks inside?
I'll post photos when mine are bigger, they are nothing like dryads and lalas yet
my second canna indica is poking up, and the basil from my garden is too - was a bit slower in germinating than critters basils and the thai
I didn't have my act together to get my lasagna stuff started in the fall so that it could "cook" during the winter, so it's just gonna have to be happy with spring - LOL! I'm taking pics of the front yard as I'd started a thread here in CG about a pathway material some months ago, and promised that I'd go back and post pics of the before and after - and it will include these beds. They're not the full-blown stuff with manure and everything, at least not yet. Right now just shredded paper, cardboard and mulch. But that's another thread :)
I have to take some seedlings off mats. Are any of y'all starting echinacea? How is that working for you?
LeBug said:
Seandor, I WS some nicotania last year in Jan. just to see if it would come up and it did but they don't come up until late I'd rather do mine under lights even when my self sowers come up it's too late for my taste.
Thanks for the tip - I was wondering how I should handle them
Lala_Jane "Michaela, wasn't it you with whom I split the silver mist? Those are the TINIEST babies I've ever tried to care for. A couple of them have their 3rd set of true leaves and are still the size of a pin head!"
I guess I will be starting these this week; my gosh, how will I manage everything???!!!!
Tabasco:
"Seandor--did you ask about the Lasagna bed? FYI here's my link from last year with lots of discussion about how I did mine-- "
Thanks for the tip and the link. :-) There maybe some lasagna gardens in my future!
Well, I will try swapping plants in and out of lights, and maybe get the mini-greenhouses set up.
How do others manage with sooooo many seedlings? (For instance, I probably have 200 petunias and god knows how many snapdragons!)
Yes, how is the echinacea working?! I planted a few seeds about a week ago and one has germinated out of about 10. Is that about right? I wonder if I should have soaked or stuck it in the fridge? Oh, well... I do have more seeds to try so maybe someone will advise?
200 petunias is a boat load! Good luck! I maybe have 200 seedlings altogether and that's over the top for me!
Seandor I'm courious how many plant stands do you have in the house? I have 3 with three shelves and two with four shelves. Then I have a bunch of little greenhouses from big lots to harden them off with in the spring.
I bet you could put you petunias outside in the greenhouses when you put the snaps out there they like to be cooler too. I don't see anything else on your list that you might put outside, I think I put my petunias out a little earlier last year cause I ran out of room but not this early you could put some jugs of water in your greenhouses and bricks or big rocks that are warmed by the sun to keep them warmer at night plus your covers over them on the really cold nights, I put newspaper on my shelves too when the wind is blowing to keep the cold air from blowing in them the covers reach to the ground but that wind always gets in.
Seandor what in the world are you going to do with 200 seedlings of petunias? LOL that's a lot of seedlings!