I will need to take a pic tomorrow-they were $1 each and would house a couple roses and some babys breath and stuff-they are LONG and can make the dirt a couple " high and they will have a couple " to grow before I take the top off....
Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #26
Fairy that's a wonderful idea!!
Heya, Tiger! Haven't seen you posting for a while... stop by the Mid-Atlantic forum and check out the thread for the Feb. 21 seed party... hope to see you there!
Ella, I've already got Vinca germinating!!! Little hairy white roots emerging from the seeds! Of course I have to keep lifting the covering and look at them. Starting seeds indoors at this time of year is so rewarding for me. Its such fun to take off my glasses and focus on those tiny bits of new life! ...and up close in a way you just can't see in the garden.
Oh, and I'm happy to report to any of you who got mixed Snapdragon from me, that they are germinating well! I was a little concerned, as I've never harvested snap seeds before, and the first crop of seeds were devastated by some kind of bug.
The Pansies and Violas are sending out roots too, should I take the covers of those and the Vincas now, or wait till the cotyledons pop out?
Wait til ya see the cotyledons up . Yoru little roots ned the time to grow and bury themselves back down i nthe groudn good before they start ptting up their leaves.
Very good. That's what kinda "felt" right, but I wanted to be sure :-)
If by "covers" you mean keeping the pansies in the dark, you can give them light as soon as you see germination, I think.
Yeah, the covers for darkness is what I meant. Only about 10-20% of the Pansies and Violas are sending out radicals, should I wait till half or so are sprouting?
What I did for pansys and violet was put them in a folders can-workerd like a charm-put em in, waited about 4 days, checked, then took out the ones that germinate and left the others-I think about 6 out of 7 germinated....
I'm trying 2 methods with the Pansies and Violas. Some are covered with saucers, and some are just covered with potting mix. Last year I sowed according to the directions on Parks seed packs, which just said to cover completely with a thin layer of soil, and no mention of the darkness requirement. I started those in pots outside in late summer for fall planting, but I'm curious if one way or the other will produce better results.
Fairy, that's a really good idea with the coffee can!
Neal if you wait until the others sprout the ones that have already sprouted will get leggy really quick so go ahead and pluck them and plant :)
I use the newer plastic ones that are red with the black lid-I also lined them w/ foil for extra light shut out-it was super easy!!
Also, I knew they would get leggy, so I did them in peat pods and then just plopped the whole pod into a container are they grew for a couple weeks-worked really good:)
Regarding Pansies and Violas,
I've read that they don't really NEED Dark to germinate, it's just that they don't need Light to germinate. Opinions???
Everyone on here last year said they needed dark to germ, so I just followed their instructions-no clue really, just know I had good seuccess with my method...
Hi everyone, I found some germinated pineapple sage this morning! These are my first sprouts so I am excited! I want to ask everyone's opinion on something. My light set up is in my garage and I am a little worried to start putting stuff out there because my DH smokes in there during the very cold weather. What do you all think? Is it not safe to put anything out there?
What will the smoke do to them??
I shamefully admit, I smoke around my seedlings. No problems have arisen.
I'm in the same quandry with pansies and violas - once some sprout what do you do with the ones that haven't....I'm going to pull the ones that haven't and put them back in the dark to see if they'll sprout. I use the pellets to sprout odd seeds like that so I can move them around without having to dig anything out of a tray, etc.
Before I asked I googled it and this was the most informative one I found. http://www.stemnet.nf.ca/d6vsatf2000/s6/p3/
However I have grown seedlings in the garage before and they were exposed to smoke and they all seemed fine. I think the only thing noticeable was the leave color was lighter. However it wasn't this early in the season, it was probably a month from now. My dh gets laid off every winter and that equals to him smoking in there more often because he is home all day. By March he is usually working, so it's only evenings. I think all the tests talked about were possibly exposed to a lot more smoke than one person could create. I just thought I'd ask because I figured others would be smokers and could tell me how they handle it. It's a releif that Geminis had no problems : )
The sites I'm finding are about equally divided, either saying Pansies/Violas need darkness to germinate, or to cover seed with 1/4" of growing medium. I bet a flaky growing medium, like finely mulched leaf mold, would be perfect for them- close to what nature would provide.
If you've been smoking, just don't touch your plants without washing your hands. I've heard it's way too easy to transmit TMV (tobacco mosaic virus) to seedlings, orchids, tomato plants, etc.
Thanks Critter!!
The smoke not gonna hurt yoru plants. No it not the best for them, but it not gona kill them either and to give a plant TMV from smoking is almost a near impossibility. Maybe in the old days it was easier, but not now a days. Tobbacco plants have been grown for many a long years with disease resistant plants.
You have btter chance of gettign TMV form handlign infected plants with tools and not disinfectign them before touchign another plant.
You pull up aninfected plant with your hands or with yoru glove s and microscopic bits of the fluid from the plant gets on yoru hands/gloves and you touch another plant and bingo, you just spread the disease.
The reason yoru plants are lighter leaf colore din the garage is because there not enough light. There is no light bulbs for the hoem gardenr that wil equal sunshine and warmth.
Very interesting. I roll my own cigs (from all natural additive free tobacco), so I'm handling the tobacco frequently. I've never had an issue, but I'm somewhat of a compulsive hand washer anyway. It kinda made me chuckle when I described the tobacco, like some kind of health food, LOL. I figure its bad enough that I smoke, so I want to know exactly what I'm smoking.
This morning I looked at the emerging snapdragon seedlings with a magnifying glass. Just little green stems with seed coat "helmets". This evening I was placing a little fan for them and noticed the cotyledons have burst free of the seed coats! Its such fun to see growth in a single day.
Just a little added input for the smoking poll.
There is smoke in my house and sometimes there is smoke residue on my fingers. It's never been an issue with seeds, seedlings or any of the other greenery in my jungle.
OK... I'd just seen this discussed on another thread, but clearly that info is outdated!
Hi everyone - it's so difficult to keep up with all of you!
Star - the rose seeds arrived - can I winter sow some of these?
Everyone else - I have started wintersowing seeds - I have 42 small containers done. These are put inside large, clear plastic storage boxes with clear lids. DH drilled holes in the tops and bottoms of the containers.
Anyway, the logic is to limit how much I can winter sow. Last year I did 161 containers and I didn't get everything that germinated planted into the gardens.
Also, bluespiral brought it to my attention that the senders of seeds often like to hear from the receipients how things turned out (e.g. successful germination etc.)
Well, last year I was soooo overwhelmed by the number of seeds that when I enter the seeds into my list, I never entered who sent the seeds (silly me!) Of course, when I sowed seeds, I could have recorded the sender if he/she put their names on the packages.
Anyway, I want you to know that I recorded the sender of each seed this time. If I find time, I will try to let you know how I did. I will also try to take more pictures this year
Seandor. Yep I would go ahead and get them started. Remmebr the last time I did rose seeds it took me several weeks to get them up. They need kept on the dry side too once up and make sure ya give ethem a good soaking in some hyrdogen peroxide befor eplanting. Them comign from gardens and who knows what traveled with them.
Great - I do have hydrogen peroxide here - so the seeds will get a little bath! Then I will pot them up and put them somewhere cool where they can germinate. Do the seeds have to be stratified first?
Here are the rose boxes I got for $1 each....I think they will be perfect for WSing
Nope I never have. I just planted and kept under lights and warmth til they popped. : )
Now ya might to be doubly sure ask in the rose forum. I hide there alot drooling. Do't know if any of them start from seed , know alot buy, but never hurts to check.
Cool Fairy.. Them look good for startign lettuce in. Ya say ya go tthem at dollar store or dollar tree?
no-I got them at a craft store in the floral Dept, but I am sure a florist would have them as well...
Thanks Star! Well, you gave me a lot of seeds - so I will try both ways and let you know the results.
Got more if them don't work, just let me know, just don't have them out of the hip. Couldn't find my nutcracker and they a real pain to dig out through a hardened skin.
Thanks Fairy, wil check out the florist supply company and see what I can find.
Fairy -- how deep are those?
Well, I potted up the rose seeds, Star - apparently they germinate best at temperatures between 50 and 60 degrees, grow best at 65 degrees, and seeds should be chilled at 40 degrees - so we will see!
THey are about 3" deep I think with the same dome-I haven't measured yet, but they are just as deep as the plastic cookie containers from the grocery store
Ht a question. from the Sumemrhill seed co-op I got some Nepta Pink Dreams. Am wonderign is this one for kitties too and wil kittie s go crazy when they see it? Thinking of all the wild feral cats that come into the yard huntign for squirrels.
Don't want the cats ripping up pots or sleeping on them or eating and then dancing on top of the other pots. Need to knwo if I need to keep thes eup and out of the way somewhere.