When to sow spreadsheet!

CindyI have never worried about paper towels being unbleached or not. Neither did all my sprouted seeds. I really don't see why it should make a difference. I don't use distilled water either. I use tap water and never had a problem. My plants and I both drink it. I think that some things you read in books are overrated.

Blomma - you're probably right about over-emphasis on procedure. Just read a tip on breadmaking - never use chlorinated tap water when starting out the yeast. DH is the bread maker so I don't know if that tip is accurate or not.

california poppies are warm weather poppies and do not need any cold none of the annual poppies need cold just spread seed on fine soil and spritz use dome or bell so bird dont get the seeds for lunch that is the biggest problem with poppies most people think they did something wrong its just a finch or a dove had a meal on your money
and it will only take about three day for the seeds to start to come up as soon as they are about an inch or two tall take the bell or dome off and they will as annuals bloom the first year and if it is good since patch without mulch will reseed itself for many years to come so enjoy

Here's a link to the site I found that sells Smoke paper, they call it CAPE, I think. Thanks for the link to Hudson's, I hadn't seen them before - very interesting. And I can't find whatever it was I read about putting some seed in the freezer, but with all the searches I've been doing recently, looking for bonsai seed and information on germinating said bonsai seeds, pretty much everything I've read on breaking dormancy agrees with what Blomma said. The URL I mentioned is as follows.. http://www.seedman.com

And, for what it's worth, about chlorinated water and yeast ? I made my own bread for decades and always used tap water. Ours is chlorinated enough so that in summer you can sometimes smell it as water runs from the tap, even though the city swears it's long gone by the time it reaches a tap. But it never caused a problem with yeast. Bread yeast is much more sensitive to salt and temperature. Temps too hot kill it, too cold slows it down dramatically and direct contact with salt can kill it too. Salt in bread is not there only for flavor, it also helps to control the yeast action. I do filter my drinking water so it will taste and smell better. I only use distilled water for my CPAP machine, because minerals build up in the humidifier tank where it's impossible to safely clean.

As my father, who was a chemical engineer, explained to me once, chlorine is 'volatile'. Essentially, that means that once it contacts air it turns into a gas and goes into the air. Before they came up with modern dechlorinating chemical tablets, aquarium keepers always had to 'age' tap water before it could be used for a fish tank. Aging simply allowed the chlorine in the tap water to gas off into the atmosphere. That's why we had the huge evacuation in my home town when the train derailed with tanker cars full of chlorine..[ google Mississauga Train Disaster if you're interested]. Too much chlorine in air will kill us, and not much of it in water kills fish, who are extremely sensitive to it, as are some plants, for that matter. I kept fish for years and drove Mom nuts with big buckets of water left out to age. Now you buy tablets at aquarium stores and get chlorine free water in no time. Therefore, no need to worry about chlorine in bleached paper because by the time it's dried at the manufacturers, the chlorine's gone. Which is no reason not to switch to unbleached paper anyway, because the chlorine effluent from the pulp/paper plants does so much environmental damage, particularly to aquatic life. If you want your water without chlorine for watering plants, you can get it by aging it a few days, just like I used to do for the fish water.

I dont need to google it I lived it was at a friends house very close to the accident they came to the door and told us to leave the area

it was kind of scary

We get a chlorine odor to our city water in the summer. Our water comes from Lake Michigan. In the Nashville area, the chlorine odor is very strong due to their water source. So strong that I was looking for alternative beverages. As for the bread, a lot of cooks must have their trade secrets whether factual or not.
Had some CA poppies once, bought as plants. I don't think they liked the one and only sunny bed they were in since I had to water it fairly frequently for some of the other plants in the same bed. I think they died out by the second year.

I grew up with chlorinated tap water and never minded it. I still prefer it since unchlorinated water tastes "flat" to me even 30 years later.

I am curious. what would be John Innes seed compost? I assume it is a brand of compost from England, but what are the ingredients? Peat & perlite?

Evelyn

There's lots of info about the Innes mixtures online. This URL has good explanations and recipes for all the mixes. http://www.gardeningdata.co.uk/soil/john_innes/john_innes.php

John Innes isn't a company. He was a man who left his estate to further horticultural research, and the John Innes Institute was named after him. They came up with various standardized soil mixes for just about all common growing requirements. A note, if you look this up. The last mix is called 'ericaceous'. It just means it's good for growing members of the heath family, which like acidic soil conditions, like Rhododendrons and azaleas do.

Phfurballs, thanks for the info. I guess all of those who live in the UK are born with green thumbs and have gardens when they are children. I did get to sow some carrot seeds when I was small and gardening with my parents in their veggie garden. (Victory Garden!)

So, it has stuck with me until I had a good place to garden. I did run across a book explaining the different John Innes' soils, but now I am going to look him up as he must have contributed a lot to horticuture. I appreciate the info!

Evelyn

http://tomclothier.hort.net/index.html

here is a web site that gives you all the information

I am planning to winter sow lots of seed outside in February. Does anyone have a list of the best flower seeds to sow this way? Does anyone have a list of which seeds need stratification?

Thanks

Teri

Teri, the Tom Clothier site Scicciarella posted will offer you information concerning which seeds require stratification. Perhaps you should make a list of the seeds you plan to sow and start looking them up on his site. It would be much easier to get help determining which of your seeds need cold treatment than for someone to try to list all the plants that do.

Hi Teri, this may help you, I'm not sure. http://flowergardens.suite101.com/article.cfm/fall_sowing_of_seeds_in_the_flower_garden

I think there might also be a "winter sowing" forum, somewhere here...

when winter sowing I like to use milk jugs but I cut the bottoms off and sink them into the grown where I want the plant to grow that way in spring I just remove the jug top and voila there is the plant and it is a great way of doing poppies without having to transplant them since they do not like it

and perennial poppies are easier to start in august since that is when the seed is ready and is naturally spread and it germinates and stays green under the snow for the winter for flowers the next spring

what is important is that you know your calender for your area first your last frost date then on the calender count back the weeks four, six, eight, ten, twelve and so on then sort your seeds by the number of weeks before last frost do not forget to calculate and include the amount of time to germinate which is usually a week to two weeks some longer, then sort the seeds by how long to germination and size of seed it makes it easier if you are using flats, so annuals small seeds all in one flat, then medium then large, same for perennials so you can use a done to keep in humidity which is more important than temperature if indoors the dome will keep the humidity constant so the seed germination is not dried out which kills more seeds than anything else, start with a moist not wet soil for germination, then use a spray bottle to spritz to keep the right moister, and it will happen

I have grown plants from seed for most of my life and I find it totally amazing every year to start off with these little seeds and end up with the most beautifull flowers

started this lisianthus last january it was a long road since they take a very long time to grow, and the seedling so small that I was not seeing them at first but just one bloom would have been worth the effort but I got eight different colors and lots and lots of blooms

I love your idea of just putting the seeds where I want them then put the jug over them. That would also keep the squirels out of them and let me know exactly what is where.

1 problem for DH will not let me put milk jugs out in the front or back yard all over the places that I want to put the seeds.... He has finally agreed that I could line them up outside in the area that we will be putting up a greenhouse in.

Thanks

Janet

ah but the secret is to do it just before it is going to start snowing and the jugs will be buried all winter so what does it matter if he cant see them hahhahaha and in the spring by the time the snow is all gone the seeds will have sprouted and the jug can be removed since perennials as soon as they have a second set of leaves can take some chilly nights and be just fine

That sounds wonderful scicciarella. What other seeds can I plant outside with the milk jug?

any perennial seed that needs stratafication

so columbines
delphiniums
angelica giga
perennial holy hocks
day lilies
heuchera
astilbe

pretty well anything that is a bi annual or a perennial even some annuals that say they will reseed can be done like that

hidden to keep DH happen I would do the ones that take a long time to germinate and grow big enought to see like heuchera, astilbe those do take longer

if the plant is easy to transplant I use the vegie garden since with the jug they will be up and ready to transplant before the vegies go in its a great place to put them

Thank you so very much for the info. I'll get the hang of it sooner or later. And don't kid yourself. If your husband is like mine, he knows exactly what you have , and where it is. They really don't mind, they just have to act big sometimes. It helps to keep their male ego in tact. Cause you know, we ladies have a way of getting around it constantly. Let's them think they are still in charge. Poor babies. LOL

yup men are interesting creatures, mine actually thinks he is king of his castle but he cleans toilets, and also peels patatoes hahahahah and vaccums

so cute

i would love to see the spread sheet but you have to join google to see it and don't really want to do that.

is there any other way to see it?
Janet

Mona, Do you keep the cap on or off of the jug? Do you put air holes in the jug? Do they heave or blow away?

Janet, what spreadsheet do you want to see? The seed germination sheet should be viewable by all, no joining necessary, just click on the link in the first post.

I clicked on the link but it doesn't come up unless I join so have never been able to view it.

Janet

Janet, I have the options of downloading it as an HTML doc, a .pdf or a text doc (although it seems like a text doc would really mess up the formatting, dunno). If you care to send me an e-mail addy, I will forward it on to you. I don't think I can do it through D-mail.

I think if you save it as a text doc, it might add commas as the delimiters, then you can import it into excel. Otherwise a PDF is probably the best bet.

I agree. I just tried to send it via D-mail, but looks like they're looking for a .jpg or another image file, so the .pdf didn't go through.

oh yes. you'd need to have a JPG, PNG or GIF for Dave's. And I doubt you want to make oodles of screen captures of that sheet!

PDF is the best way to send any docs these days, it condenses most files to allow them to travel on e-mail without the receiver having too many problems downloading....

Janet

I leave the caps off and I sink them in about four inches and they stay put

Thanks Mona, for the info. I was wondering that myself. Thank you so much.

Debbie

Another quick question, does it have to be milk jugs or can I use the empty 2 liter coke bottles?

Thanks, Mona. We don't get much snow cover. Do you think they'll still be warm enough? It can get down to about 10F here and windy.

I winter sowed last year for the first time. In fact, I had never planted seeds before! It was so easy and fun. I used milk jugs, juice bottles, take out containers, Starbucks cups with the domes, anything that would hold approx 2 inches of MG and have "head room" for the seedlings to grow. I poked holes in the bottom for drainage, holes in the top to let in rain (except for bottles, took the caps off). I set them outside, Feb-April, and did nothing with them until Mother Nature told them to sprout. Only then did I protect them from the occasional freeze by throwing a moving blanket over them. I did over 300-400 containers, and most of them germinated. It was so exciting to see these grow. It was even more rewarding so see them bloom in the garden.

Lynn.....

I was just going to say what in the world did you do with all those plants from the seeds.... don't know if I would have been up to planting all of them..... OMGosh...... you do have energy...send some my way please.

Janet

So Lynn, Mona said that some of the seeds can be planted where I want them to grow. So then from what you are saying about the containers, I can use the 2 liters, right? That would be so cool to do.

I planted some at my mom's. We live on 5 acres, and had no landscaping at all until 1.5 years ago. I was a planting fool!!! Also, some of the containers in that count were the coffee cups and other odd ball plastic containers. I planted in "chunks". I still have about 10 containers that I never did get into the ground.

Here is a picture of part of my plastic garden. DH did not like it, so I put wire closet shelves on top of cinder blocks, and hid them behind a white plastic fence. It wasn't very attractive, but it was so worth it in the end.

I now have lots of seeds to share in the Piggy Swap! Or if you want seeds, just let me know, and I will send you some.

I am going to try Mona's technique this year. The only drawback that I can see, based on my little 1 year experience, is protecting them from a freeze after they have germinated. With all of them huddled together, it was easy to throw a blanket over them, and to make sure they got enough water before I planted them out. Of course, if they were already in the ground, and protected with their plastic container, then they should already be ok and not need the blanket. It sure would save a lot of time, no transplanting.

Lynn, Love that photo. It looks so promising. Yes, I really like the idea of sowing them where they will eventually live. I've winter sowed indoors and also direct sowed in the spring, but have never done the January planting outside. I've been saving milk jugs and am ready!! What seeds do you have?