Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #21

Oh, just indoor seedlings. I do almost nothing to WS seedlings...gotta love that!

gotcha.... and sorta what i thought.

There is product and it is a bit expensive but it is called root shield. I have done research on alot fo the products out on the market from miracle grow to messenger and all the other ones that claim beautifu plants.

Usint root shield with your babies, is an excellent product. It helps provent alot of the fungal disease s in the ground and in your pots. I tested it with bagged pottign soil and garden soil. A tiyn amoutn goes alogn way. Foudn it works the best if ya take tiny amount and mix it in warm water and make a drench of it. Take your seeds fold up in coffe filter and soak the seeds for five minute s in it then open up coffee filter and plant. I us eit for innoculation and then will come back later when plants a bit bigger and use it as a drench too.

What abotu them Helitrope 'Marina seeds. Is it ok to get them started now and wil they bloom the first year does anybody know?

Star - you soak *every* seed but the small ones? I thought it was only things like peas and canna and such that required that. heck, I'll start soaking if it will increase my odds!!

Edited to add, I don't know anything about the Heliotrope, but would be happy for the answer :-)

This message was edited Jan 3, 2009 10:26 AM

Star, can't help with the Heliotrope either, but the mini blind warning was posted on the WS forum in the sticky help thread.....very last post about containers. I'll paste below:

[I read something today in Organic Gardening magazine that is important for those of you who use mini blinds for plant tags.
"The vinyl deteriorates from exposure to sunlight and heat, forming lead dust on the surface of the blind," according to the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission. So you should not use the mini blinds for labels in your veggie gardens or for anything edible.]

Where's Terese? I don't know how to paste and highlight a section in the blue box. ^_^

Hey gang, saw this link in another thread, though you might find it interesting:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/938143/

Star, around here Heliotrope is grown as an annual, so I'm sure it blooms the first year. I think this would be about the time to start them in your area.

Robin, I started soaking all my seeds sown indoors or direct (not winter sown ones) a few years ago. It seems to speed everything up, and I always feel the faster I get germination the better they do. That may be just because I'm impatient, but it does allow less time for rotting or other complications.

Chele, I guess with so many of us Cottage gardeners growing everything from food to flower interspersed together, the blinds would be a bad idea for most of us.

Thanks Neal - I was reading too fast and thought it was Star :-O

Thanks dryad57. Turns out we are not piggy . . . we are saving the planet!

OK, this is apropos of absolutely nothing here - but Nora is teasing me about my seeds and seed starting and, well, addiction to growing things. She called me into her office to look at a video on YouTube and said it sorta reminded her of what I might say if she told me to cut back a bit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD5sahXoj0U

Dryad. I soak everthing. Every seed you get from somebody's garden contains microscopic germs you cannot see. say for example an aphid lands on yoru plant and decides to have lunch at your expense. That aphid could have visited a plant carryign any number of bacterial, viral and fungal diseases. Now yoru plant may look fine and you may have gotten rid of al the aphids but the germs that bug carried are running in your plants veins. It runs from the roots to the very tip top of your plant and that include s right up into the flower and the pollen and all the other reproduction parts. And since the plant is makign seed from the nutrients runing up and down it, those infected nutrients run up and down too and right into the seeds whiel they are developing.

it gross but fasinating too to see all the bugs we have that cause problems on our flowers and veggies, when they eat th eplants and how they reguritate the fluids from the plants and stuff in and out and how some of them even have special guts so that the diseases don't kill them but will go right backout and infect more plants.

No matter how clean or sterile or weed free you think yoru garden is, it contains bacteria and fungi and even sterilizin wil not rid it of all of some of the fungal diseases. They been their a million years and gonne be for another regadless of what ya too.

If you cna protect your seeds before sproutign you have a better chance of them not ony germinatign but not beign infected.

When you have say a case of dampign off. That plant was already dead with the disease before the radicle root even emerged under the ground and above for you to see.

Very teeny tiny seed, the seed like dust, I put on somethign like a clean potatoe chip can lid and spray them with the hydrogen peroxide and water and just let them dry and then plant.

A lot of big seed or seed that looks questionable, I may not only use hydrogen peroxide, but also give them a cloorox bath. Use a mix of 9 parts water to one part clorox and soak for 10 seconds and then rinse with clear water good.

Dryad. yep that is so true. there so many companies that are all under the same kind aliek head company and there are only so many growers. there several seed companies that have gone out of business and other folks have taken over and have their label on them now and ya have no idea durign the transition whethe rthat seed was stil stored properly or not.

Cheles... Thanks for finding that article. I use mini blinds for all my labeling, when startign the seeds out, but one seedlings transplanted then dont need them anymore. I usually go through if the wind and hurricanes hasn't blown them all away put new tags out evry year, but that really good abotu the veggies , especially.

Most of the time, I buy bulk of the regular plastic tags for pots that ned a permanent tag.

Pull Tab... Ya have seen folks use pop cans to make labels too . They hold up good, just don't rememebr what they did to cover the sharp edges.

hope somebody know s how to do these Helitrope. Forget who talke dme into them cuz they said they smelled like vanilla. I am easily influenced. heheheheh

Thanks for the ideas for the snaps and sweetpeas everyone. When I grew snapdragons the first time, I planted them in a very dry spot, I wonder if it was too dry? They didn't grow a whole lot, where straggly and only one got a few blooms before frost got them. I think I tried sweet peas before but they were the none vine type, and biennial. Well I started them at my old place and moved the winyer before I got to see if they came back to bloom.
Dryad that link was very interesting, all that kind of stuff makes me nervous. I think somehow all the changes in plants is part of the honeybees problem. Maybe I'm crazy but it just seems like the more humans mess with the natural order of things the more natural things in our world are affected negatively. : (

Alrighty then, you don't have to tell me twice! I'll be using more H2O2 this year!!

Start the heliotrope now... I've got to get mine underway sooner this year also... last year, I was late starting (March maybe), and I don't know if I ever got blooms!

dryad - very interesting article indeed. I had an idea that many of them were owned by one company, but had not ever looked into it. Made me stop and go hmmmmm..... I joined Seed Savers this past summer, the same time I joined DG - can't wait to get my first yearbook! I had already decided that most my veggies will be heirlooms - except my hybrid peppers. I love the idea that I will be getting the seeds from other people who have grown and collected them - like all my piggy friends - and not from a corporation.

Neal, I think using mini blinds is a personal preference. I read many responses that appeared not to care that there could be lead dust floating around as they don't grow veggies. I personally garden with my 3 little girls and will never use mini blinds given the hazard warning. I started growing in the "cottage" style without knowing it. I loved the idea of planting flowers with my veggies and throwing veggies in with the flowers. I mix everything up. I also like the idea of recycling the plastic containers, cut up for labels

I think it's only some mini blinds that have the lead issue -- maybe the painted metal ones?

Oh dear, start heliotrope now - i bet there are other things in my box I've gotta pull out and start as well. OK, guess I won't be cross-stitching nearly as much today as I had thought - LOL!

Edited for: any plastic blinds not made in the US are prone to having lead in them. It's when they start decomposing that the lead comes out. Not sure if the painted metal ones have lead in the paint....

This message was edited Jan 3, 2009 11:14 AM

Aaakkkk!!!...Robin, that makes me cringe! How scary is that?!!! I've been advocating heirlooms for a long time, but I'm going to be downright military about it now!

This site says Heliotrope can take a month to germinate, and to start them 12 weeks before your last frost, so I guess that would be about now even this far north!

unfortunately lead is everywhere ..it used to be just mainly in oil based paints now they are in ceramics ( glazing ) and plastics, and yes in children's toys from major toy brands. if your home is an older home..lead is unavoidable
im sure theres something in milk jugs too
just use whatever you are comfortable with. and be aware that sharpies are not the best medium for writing on labels as they fade.

pam sue

..guess I could have posted the link, LOL

http://www.seedsofknowledge.com/heliotrope.html

You all have me ROFL this morning! I can just picture the group of us wearing military uniforms going to rehab.

hahahahahhahahahahahahaha : )

Oh anybody heard anythign from Gen2026. Sent her a dmail, btu stil haven't heard from her about her envie arriving. Not sure fi she stil in that bad weather area or not.

if don't hear somethign by the time I ready to rool everybody out will have her send to ya individually anythign ya may be gettign from her so as not to hold all thes eother boxes up. If nobody minds.

Can't you just see it, all of us in our camos carrying our shovels and pitchforks, LOL. Onward garden soldiers!

Lol!
Is anyone else feeling a bit overwhelmed with how many seeds they plan on starting? I was going through my seeds and starting spreadsheets, and so far I have at least 70 seeds I wanted to start and that isn't even counting what I'll get from our swap!

Oh yes, my spreadsheet is well over 300 kinds of seeds....it's a darn good thing some of them require WSing!!

OMG that is a lot! So much for me trying to keep things to a minimum - lol!

Now you know why I ain't goin' to rehab - LOL!

Holy Cow... i leave for a few hrs - go grocery shopping and looky all what i missed.

LOL chele....

do to a "quote" [ blue box ]

you have to use the [ quote ] paste text [ /quote ] **take out the spaces **

now i have to go back and read all that i missed

It's been a while since i checked my spread sheet... but i'm at or above 200...

Star -- regarding the peroxide & water.... do you have a ratio ... and it's just a quick soak, rinse then dry ?

My daily lesson:

Terese!! You the bomb! This old dog is chasing her tail and jumping up and down - I learned a new trick!! ^_^

Hi Y'all. I confess I'm a mini-blind marker maker. Since I have hundreds of them already precut I will probably continue to use them through at least this season. I have tried other recyclables and have never come up with anything else that is as cheap, easy, and holds up as well as the blinds. By holding up I simply mean the labeling part. I've tried plastic utensils, strips of milk jugs, and various other items that once had previous uses, but nothing holds the writing (in pencil) as well as the mini-blindmarkers. What do you all use on other plastic surfaces? The only thing I found that wouldn't run or fade was paint pen and what a PITA that was!

Despite my good intentions I too am over run with seeds I'm anxious to start. If I didn't get a single thing from Star I would still have too many seeds. Actually let's rephrase that. I don't have too many seeds I have too little room. Doesn't that sound better?

However if I'm not lucky I'll have much more room than intended. I spent the entire night (until 5:00 this morning) spraying and isolating plants after discovering mealies on the coleus last night. I HATE THOSE THINGS!!! The mealies. Not the coleus. LOL. It took me the better part of 6 hours to spray every inch of every leaf on over 200 plants. Please cross your fingers for me that they were contained to the basement. Ugh.

Thanks for the head's up on Lea and her dad. My heart sure does go out to the both of them.

I was just at Dollar Tree and they had multi-colored corrugated plastic craft sticks, 120 for $1. They were made in China, but hopefully they're lead free since they are a kid's toy. However, China doesn't have a good record in that respect so who knows.

Now y'all have got me singing..."they tried to make me go to rehab, I won't go go go" LOL

I've dared not count my seeds I've already got to start, let alone these new ones! I'm afraid I'll feel too overwhelmed if I do. I really need to be working on a data base..uuugg.

Terese, I use 1/2cup peroxide per gallon of water (2 Tablespoons per quart), and soak the seeds over night or up to 24 hours. Thats the same ratio I use for watering seedlings too.

Neal -- i gotta tell ya. My first year winter sowing... there were seeds that said to soak [or even nick and soak] any of the ones I soaked over night... MOLDED. I had all these bean vine things that i really wanted, and every single one of them molded. I also had a bunch of MG's that molded.

I can see a 10 sec soak, like Star mentioned.... but 24 or over night... i just can't risk my seeds molding.

Wow, I've never had any mold. I figure the peroxide prevents it.

Have you soaked for winter sowing, or indoor sowing?

I just soak for indoor or direct sowing. I've always been afraid to soak wintersown seed for fear they would germinate too quickly. They don't really need it anyway with all the freezes and thaws they get- it does the same thing.