This is a continuation of seed starting and how things are going. Show off your babies.
Picture of my allspice bush
This message was edited Apr 12, 2008 10:52 AM
Seed starting 2008 part 2
Lady, that's one of the cutest little seedlings I've seen yet! I love those shiny cotyledons!
I potted up some of my tomatoes last night... 1 flat for me, 1 flat of "extras"... why do I think I have to sow so many "backup" seeds? and why don't I have the hardheartedness to just compost the ones I don't want?
Then again, I'm having trouble with some little mouse or insect or something (haven't caught him) munching the tops off pepper seedlings... if that starts happening with the tomatoes, I'll be glad I kept the backup singers!
I don't know how long it will that that seedling to grow into a bush but I though it would be fun to try. I planted 6 seeds but only 2 are doing anything, but I really don't need 6 of them.
Hope you find the bugger who is nibbling your peppers.
NICE day today!!!!!
Took my seedlings out for a "field trip"! LOVE that expression---whoever said it here!
Seems my Tomatoes grew another inch just being outside today! I swear!!!! When i brought them back inside, they no longer fit under the lights. They are doing SO well!!!!
AND--I have at least 4 more weeks to go till I can plant them outside......:o(
I think I will be spending the rest of the month taking them outside and then bringing them back in--unless the night temps. stay warmish....say--50* and above.
Here are the Tomatoes. Three types----Cherokee Purple--Sun Golds--Mortgage Lifters
Gita, Those look great! Mine have a lot of catching up to do, to look like yours, but I can't plant mine till the end of May unless I use my wall-o'-waters.
Seems like plants get a growth spurt when you take them outside. Nothing better then the fresh air of the great outdoors. ☺
Cant find the "So--What's blooming in YOUR garden" Thread any more!!!! Did it all go to seed?????
I wanted to share with you all what I took pictures of today! Such a nice day and such pleasure to be outside!
Here is a drift of my mini Daffodils (aka Johny Jump ups).....
Here is one of my perennial Ferns unfurling it's new fronds for this Season.
Here is some Siberian Scilla and some Grape Hyacynths....
And--a mini tulip saying "hello!"......
Sorry to "high jack" this Thread........Could not find the other one--went all the way back to January. I must be "blind"-----just wanted to show you all what is making my days happy at this time....
Given the cloudy skies and mild temp's in the extended forecast, I intend to move my plants out from under the lights and get them acclimated to the Great Outdoors. Last week's field trip for half of my trays turned into a week long Camp Out and they are looking wonderful.
Yee Hah, the last frost date is drawing near (or may well have already passed)!
Speaking of getting acclimated to the Great Outdoors... there's an article today on hardening off. :-)
I don't plant out most things until Memorial Day... tomatoes maybe 2 weeks earlier... peppers might not freeze if they go out sooner, but until the soil really warms up, they just sulk.
Wow, I couldn't possibly wait until Memorial Day to start planting!
well, it's a little warmer where you are... your garden beds probably heat up sooner! I do some containers sooner than that, since they warm up better than the ground. :-)
Been in the basement, checking on things, watering, moving seedlings around and taking pictures to add to my journal and to Plant Files.
Swan river daisy 28 days old.
Impatiens Peach Butterfly, time to water these!
Pam's Choice Foxglove. Note the fuzzy leaves.
This is Milk Chocolate Foxgloves, there leaves are smooth. Both foxgloves were sown on March 5, but Milk Chocolate is smaller. Don't you just love diversity in nature!
Coleus showing more color.
And for Jill, another pic of the Carolina allspice. Still hanging on to their shiny cotyledons.
I love the different textures on those foxgloves, too!
I have these blooming today. I am so proud of myself. :0). I have never been able to grow anything from seed before. Thanks to Critter's great instructions I finally have success! These survived the aphid attack, but the zinnias bit the dust. Have squash and tomatoes and other veggies that look OK, but not as good as these. Thanks again Jill!
Juanita
WOW -- look at your gorgeous pink babies!!
(sorry about the zinnias... aphids are pesky! I'll take your aphids though if you'll take my seedling chomping mouse... grrrrr)
Good growing!
:-)
Juanita, Those are really pretty Impatiens, good job!
As they grow bigger you can start cuttings in moist soil if you need more plants. They root fairly easy.
Jill....Memorial Day?!? OMG....that'll make me crazy...ok, crazier!!!
enjoying the pictures and reading your posts! Nice growing on the impatiens. I have a lot of diverse seedlings this season. Today I noticed eryngium yuccifolium, cucumber pearl hybrid, and escarole natacha are coming up :)
I've also been able to put many of the seedling trays out on the porch for air and sun because it has been warm. Was around 70 deg here, tomorrow is supposed to be 20 deg. cooler so I'll keep them under the lights.
critter, is your rumex invasive for you? I have that coming up too and have to decide where to plant it.
Jill,
I'll take your mouse any day. There are ways to solve that problem. :0).
Juanita
Wind, I'm doing cucumber pearl too! Haven't started them yet. I was thinking of direct sowing and using my Wall o' Waters to start them in the garden. Is this your first time trying them?
Juanita, twice now the mouse has licked every bit of peanut butter off the bait pedal without setting off the trap... and this trap is so hair-triggered that I can barely manage to set it on the floor without having it snap shut (took several tries). I'm going to go to HD and get a glue trap... I don't usually use them, but since I'll be down there often to check it the mouse won't have to be stuck very long before he is dispatched (hey, it's not worse than using poison, and it's more pet-safe).
Is 'Pearl' cucumber the one we got free from, hmm was it TGS or somebody else? I know I have some too, and I think it was a freebie packet! I like your idea of starting them in a WOW...
Jill, best of luck on the glue traps. I tried them one year and I couldn't get the little critters unstuck. Ended up having to dispatch them manually and that just about killed me. I happen to love mice. Don't tell anyone. Have had a soft spot for them since I was a child. The other traps at least work quickly. I only use them when they get in my pantry in the garage and make a huge mess. Good luck with it. I'd loan you my cat, but he has proved worthless at this recently. he is 20 years old after all so i am going to cut him some slack. :))
Somebody please say it is going warm up now after the next few days. I have to get this stuff out of this house and the garage. I have squash plants that are so ready to bloom.
Juanita
Jill, I got my free Pearl seeds from Parks.
The Walls worked great to get them going and when they started to fill the circle and the weather got warm, I removed the Walls and put down layers of newspaper and strung a soaker hose then mulch over everything. Cut down on weeds and keep the soil moist.
Parks! That was it.
Juanita, I know what you mean.. they're cute.. but I'm afraid I have little hesitation about killing them if they're in the house (sorry). Glue traps are just nastier than snap traps if you don't check them regularly... I know dead is dead, but it seems more humane to me to knock them on the head than to let them die slowly of thirst while stuck to a trap. That's also why I can't use the final solution for groundhogs that a local farmer suggested to me... letting them get stuck in a tangle of baling wire and die of thirst is just more than I can do.
Speaking of which, I set the groundhog trap yesterday... and this morning I've caught a very large bunny! We're about to take him/her for a ride in the country. I used to think "ride in the country" was my Grandfather's euphemism for "drive around the corner and knock 'em on the head," but I later discovered that he really did drive about 15 miles, past the city limits, to a nice little field by a stream to let them go. I do the same. I don't try to relocate every bunny, but when I can see a dozen or more by simply walking around my house, I know it's time to get out Grandpa's trap.
Help!!! I am running out of room! Sowed another flat of mixed seeds today. Potted up 5 Avalanche Cherry Petunias, they needed to go deeper into a pot, they only put 6 seeds in a pack and they are more expensive then other seeds I buy so I am keeping a close eye on these.
It looks like my Salvia Artemis that I grew last year over wintered, I thought they were annuals. So I might just have enough to finish my borders with the ones I started this year.
I sowed some more Poached Egg seeds and Delph. Centurion Rose as the germiniation rate was not very good on the first sowing.
On the Delphinum the seeds came up but the seed coat would not release I managed to help one along, but the others were to tight to get off. I wonder if I didn't keep the seeds in the frig long enough. Any thoughts on this?
And last night I ordered 2 lily bulbs, Candy Club and African Queen. I just love the move African Queen with Bogart and Hepburn. Now there's a reason for growing a plant!
This message was edited Apr 14, 2008 7:53 AM
Must be nice re the Delphinum - I killed them not once but twice last summer...and these were fully rooted little plants...very sad...oh well more room in that little bed for more Nicotianas....ahhhhh
It is the first time I'm trying the Pearl cucumber. I got the seeds from Parks as a freebee too :)
The seedlings are quite large in comparison to the other seeds I have growing inside! I guess cucumber seedlings are fairly large. I've never really tried cucumbers before from seed.
I have some fava bean plants in a winter sow container outside that I started from seed ~ they were pretty huge too, but the seeds were massive! I'll have to take a photo of the fava seedlings, they are so large they look like lily sprouts!
Here are a few of my ws containers getting some air. I found the fence behind them works great to hold open the jug lids :)
re ythe glue trap--stick the whole thing trap plus mouse in a plastic bag and freeze it.
That's a good suggestion for dispatching the critter, Sally... thanks. The first night I put the glue traps down, no action. So I added a dollop of "Cheeze Whiz" in the middle. Yesterday morning, one of the traps was gone. No trap, no mouse, nothing. We searched. We searched some more. ???!? Wondering if it's safe to put my pepper seedlings (newly transplanted and no longer under cover) back downstairs... Well, nobody wandered into the other trap last night, anyway...
Well, I've gone and done it now. Planted my MG that is. I've been holding off didn't want to end up with hundreds of tiny tendrils to untangle. I have plants everywhere no more room under the lights and I have so many more to seeds to start and bulbs to pot up. I went and bought a few pansies to put in pots that hang on the wall at my entryway. Hated to do it but my tinny tiny Pansies will never get there. Next year I'm starting them at Christmas, I don't care how much time and space I have. I'm also going to try and grow some for fall this year.
My Cape honeysuckle looks good no idea what I will do with 20 plants?
Plenty of Double Yellow Dats and quite a few of the Purple. Some of the Lantana seeds that I collected germinated I up potted those only five but I was happy that they did anything and I seeded more today. Here is the Cape Honeysuckle in the front and the tinny tiny Pansies in the back. I wonder if I kept them in the house in a cool room under lites and pinched the H*!! out of them if I could keep them till fall.
Here is a picture of my set up, I really don't like it but its what I have right now. It was built years ago by a friend when he stopped using it he gave it to another friend. Last year she gave it on to me. It was in pretty rough shape and Ric put some time and effort into painting the metal frame and relamping and rewiring it. There are 3 sets of lights I only have 2 of them working. The lights sit up high in the box frame to raise or lower the space between the shelves you move the whole thing up and down on the legs by turning screws, it takes two people to do it. So I just stack up anything I can find to sit under the flats. The plants are never really as close to the lights as I think they should be. Also I won't be buying anymore of those green seeding starters I got from Parks. Really don't like them either. But hey it's better than having them sit all over my floor like I did year before last.
These are sitting on the floor. I overwintered them under the seedling table. Just started pouring water on them a few weeks ago. The White Christmas is growing fine but I haven't seen any sign of the Florida Sweethearts that are also in the pot. Hopefully they will start soon. If not I ordered more from the Caladium Co-op.
The caladiums have a mind of their own, I swear! This is the first time I kept osme overwinter. Started watering and warming them weeks ago. Then one day this big ol sprout comes up like Hello, here I am . What do you mean, worried about me? I'm fine! All thrre in first pot sprouted within days of each other, now pot 2 is satrting. pot 3 have renewed hopes since 1 and 2 are doing it! Pretty coll, cinsidering I wasn't even sure if I nad the bulbs--litlle crusty dry things in crusty hard dry peat moss
% ^
Boy do I type carppy sometimes
This message was edited Apr 16, 2008 7:38 PM