what is your last frost date? i dont know how far south you are....
OH, that is roughly the Dallas area, right? the town sounds familiar.
Gardening: Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #30
I actually live quite south of Dallas between Austin and San Antonio, but closer to SA. In fact I drive in to SA to work every day. We are about 20 miles or so north of SA. I believe our last expected frost date is around Mar. 15th, but our winter has been so mild with only about 3 or 4 frosts at the most that I bet we are finished. New Braunfels is a german town home to Schlitterbahn, a pretty famous waterpark. We also have a couple of rivers running through town and a sizable lake 16 miles away, so it draws a lot of summer visitors.
gotcha.
I always thought TX would be too hot and humid for me.... i dont tolerate it well.
but I certainly have zone envy about now.
indian blanket flower is a reseeding annual gallardia
its very pretty and blooms most of the summer into the fall
Whoever told me to use the Q-tip to pollinate my ever frustrating Abutilon... THANK YOU!!
It looks like I finally have 2 pods growing from the 2 flowers that I had. I guess I was able to mix the pollen up so much better because all that pollen clung to the tiny fibers and by the time I was done it looked like I had a bad case of ear wax lol!
editing stupid spelling
This message was edited Feb 27, 2009 10:24 PM
that is the idea it has to mix well since the bees walk all over them from one to the other
it is hard to believe the mighty work the little bees do for us humans
mygypsyrose, I'm not sure if I'm the one who gave you the Q-tip advice, but I know I mentioned it to someone a while back. lol It's how I pollinate my dayliles. I'm so excited for you and your pods!
Since your talking about Gallardia, I tried growing them twice from traded seeds ... nothing. Then last year I got some Oranges and Lemons seeds from a trade, got a few plants from that one. also I bought some commercial seeds for Burgandy gallardia, and they grew great. Both types bloomed the first year. I knew the oranges and lemons wouldn't come true to seed, but they were pretty, just a little redder than the parent. I love the burgandy.
Lala, did I miss something, what is up with the spots?
I'm finally going through my tomato seeds this morning, going to plant them, yea! I got so many great tomato seeds from Trudi this year, it's going to be hard to decide which ones to plant.
toofew
sciccerella-actually that isn't true about gaillardias-the goblins are usually the perennials. The Gaillardia X Grandifolas are usually the perennials, and the others like pulchella are usually the annuals:)
Just a little info is all:)
Toofew, Star and I were talking about our Cerinth seedlings earlier in the thread and she said hers were getting 'spots' on them. At the time I didn't notice any on mine, but by golly I've got them now too.
Good morning everyone, I have new sprouts this morning! Yay! I found something a little amusing so I want to share - I started some monarda citriodora 6 days ago and two days ago I put it in my unheated room with everything else that needs a cold period. Well I'll be darned that I just brought something out there, and of course I can not resist checking for sprouts- and they were sprouted! lol So much for needing 3 weeks cold like the directions said! We had a very warm day yesterday, it was 59 degrees - It Was Awesome!! I brought the girls to the butterfly place - that was such a spirit lifter.It is 80 degrees in there and of course the butterflies are so beautiful flying around and landing on us. : ) My space bar is on the fritz - really getting on my nerves! I have to go back and put spaces between stuff whenever I type! Ugh
Meredith, I tried to clean under my space bar lol I found out you can't take the keys off on a lap top and every since I finally got it back on it still doesn't sit right so I have to take spaces out all of the time, it's very agravating isn't it LOL
In checking all of my hoods out for my stands I'm finding that too many went out, Why don't these darn hoods work! Does anyone else have this problem, I try and bend the little metal thing that holds the lights in to see if that helps but it doesn't :( I can't afford to go out and buy a bunch of hoods for this year it gets too expensive to buy these all at one time! Most of the time when I do buy hoods they only last one year I'm lucky to get them to work for two years! Anyone have any ideas? I hate to pitch all of these hoods!
See if you can find new starters for them... that's that metal thing that's a little wider and a little stubbier than a wine cork, probably located at one end of the fixture.
Hooray for sprouts -- and butterflies!
Is it inside the hood critter? I don't see anything like that on the outside :) Thanks! It's worth a shot, I'll take one apart and check. Have you ever bought starters for yours and where would I find them at HD? You can never find anyone around there to ask questions you know lol
Le Bug I'll bet Critter is correct .Its silver in color ..A little twist & pull.& you got it
99 % of the time that is what is wrong..You can see it when bulbs are removed,Sticks out appro. 1/2"
.Good luck
Tubby
This message was edited Feb 28, 2009 10:08 AM
Thanks, I'll have to take one apart and see if I can find it :)
Good luck lea I hope you get them working!I have found that some are a lot more tempermental than others.
I just figured that I was the only one having this problem I never hear anyone complaining a b out it lol Most of them I have one light only that will come on :) I found my screwdriver so I'm going in lol
I'm thinking that the really cheap lights don't have ballasts (starters) but I'm not really sure why. Did some one once tell me that? I've got a dead one one in the basement too so I'm going to go check. I could sure use another light, LOL so I'm hoping you guys are right!
The first one I opened up only has a box inside attached to the wires and no way to get into it. I need to get a few things done and hop in the shower then I'll proceed to take the other ones apart to see if I can find a fuse in them I have a couple of different kinds, thanks guys I'll keep my fingers crossed that I find a fuse somewhere :)
Or am I confusing the ballast with the starter and they're two separate animals? I need to go do some digging myself.
I'm not all that up to speed on electrical things, but a little googling got me this, which I will be bookmarking for future reference:
http://www.wikihow.com/Replace-the-Ballast-in-a-Fluorescent-Lighting-Fixture
Lea it could be your bulbs and not your ballasts. I bought most of my bulbs at HD and then I got some at Wally World. I have had problems with keeping the ones from wally world to stay on. And I have even swapped them around to be sure it was the bulbs and not the fixtures. Just thought I should mention it just in case. If you have one that is working - try the bulb that isn't working, in place of one that is, to be sure - before you start trying to be an electrician - lol.
Sorry trying to make sure you will understand what I am trying to get across lol.
This message was edited Feb 28, 2009 12:11 PM
Robin, thanks for the visual :) Visual always works better for me lol
My box just may be bigger than the one shown in the picture the fixture that I opened up had a box that was like four inches long and two inches wide, I think I'll take that off, I'll have to cut the wires and take it to HD and see if I can match it up, I'll have to ask someone for their help so wish me luck you all LOL Can't get there today too much going on but I'll take it Monday hopefully :) It's a start anyway :) Sure hate to replace all of these and really can't do it for now so it's worth a shot! I just hope the box/ballast if I do find them don't cost as much as the hoods :)
Meredith I do have new bulbs, have two whole boxes of them that I bought a couple of years ago of the cool and the warm plus I've managed to buy a few plant light bulbs thru the year to replace some so that isn't the problem :) They are cheap hoods, so many times they even go out a month after use and sometimes they just flicker, just one and one stays on odd huh lol Cheap but they are about $8 a piece when you think of buying all those at one time it gets to be overwhelming! lol
If I don't have any luck changing those boxes I'll just have to make do with three lights on a shelf, I'm using my reflective film upstairs to keep the kittens out of my seed trays anyway so maybe that will make enough light for my plants but some of the hoods aren't working at all like the one I took apart :(
I don't know about ballasts, which I think of as heavy box things that are usually attached a few inches along out on the power cord (my aquarium hood fixtures have these). Starters for shop light type fixtures should be easy to find at the home improvement store.. take one with you from the nonworking light so you can match up the numbers etc.
Well I'm totally confused..I purchased 2 new florescent lights ..On sale at Menards.They don't have a ballast or starter ..I put bulbs in one & it lite up.DUH>I don't know how they work.!!!!
Tubby
Tubby, it was inside the hood, you didn't have to put them together when you bought them? All of mine I've had to put together :)
That's what I'm doing Critter, taking the box/ballast from inside the hood to match up at HD :) I'm wondering how much they will cost too, this is what I get for having so many shelves lol I have 16 sets of lights!!! That's 32 hoods!!! €:-) I'm frazzeled LOL
Need to go get some things done be back later :) They would pick this year to almost all go out on me!!! LOL
I need to check mine soon... probably sooner, LOL, in case any need new starters.
Lea I didn't think you had old bulbs, I just know that the bulbs I got brand new at walmart were hard to get to go on when I put them in the hoods. Then even once I'd get themon after lots of twisting and moving and such, they would end up going out again at some point. Now what I was trying to say is the seemingly better quality bulbs I got at HD would not do that even in the same exacthood. Just thought I'd give it a whirl, youy never know with these types of things. I vowed to never buy bulbs at walmart again. I will just have to deal with paying $10 instaed of $5 per bulb.
The lights were all one piece .Plastic for damp area.,Absolutely no place or room for ballast..And no starter..I never seen any before that didn't have each..I'm stumped..But as long as they work.LOL
Tubby
Meredith, lol I get what you mean now :) I've tried the plant bulbs in the ones that only one will come on and they still won't come on, don't think I've ever seen one for $10 though but maybe my cheap eye just over looked them lol The plant bulbs aren't even $10, and I think those are expensive. I just don't understand why one side works and the other side doesn't. $10 is awful high for four bulbs if you use four for each shelf is that what you do or do you just have one hood on a shelf? I have to use two hoods to reach the end of my plants in the trays so they don't lean so much :) Do they last any longer if you pay $10 for one? I sure would have to cut down on my lights and my plants if I had to pay $10 a piece for each light, 32 hoods makes 64 bulbs YIKES! Well I said I was trying to cut down this year but from my seeds I can't tell anything different lol I'll just have to WS more ;-)
I wonder where Wally World gets their lights at, there have been a few times when I've wondered if they have a few things like Big Lots and just marking their prices up more.
Tubby, I 've heard a lot of people talk about this Menards, we don't have one around here must be like a Wal Mart here :) Sounds like you got a good deal, I need one of those lol
LeBug they are like Home-Depot & Lowes.Maybe you have one of these close
Tubby
I bought the ones that said *Plant Light* they even have two like that to pick from. One is even more $$ than the other. I wonder if you just do the regular flourescents? Those I think are only around $3- right? I just got too confused on the whole cool verses warm thing and the plant light has that already figured out for me. I think they have an extra long life as far as bulbs go. Some of them are on their third year of seedling duty and I haven't had to change one. I got the wealmart ones last so I can't say what the life is like in my experience with those. : )
BTW I am glad I finally figured out how to explain that lol! : )
This message was edited Feb 28, 2009 4:44 PM
tubby, I saw on another thread ( perenniallyme's) that you needed instruction to the PVC plant stand I didn't see where you got a reply may have missed it but here it is:
http://www.tsflowers.com/plantstand.html#BLANK
perenniallyme, I WS my candy lilies and tricyrtis and got great germination :) Are you doing any WS for this year? I've never tried them under lights.
LeBug Thanks I got the info.Appreciate your looking
Tubby
And this time I copied & pasted it in my blog..LOL
This message was edited Feb 28, 2009 3:57 PM
Meredith, I messed up and bought two boxes of the cool/warm bulbs, one box of cool and one box of warm but I like the plant lights better than any of them, I use those if I dont have any plant lights and really don't use them in all of my hoods just the ones that are over certain seedlings because they are so expensive I think they are around $7 here can't really remember off hand. I've tried those in the hoods that will only burn one bulb and not the other but they still don't work on that side that doesn't work, it's confusing trying to explain it on here isn't it LOL I'm not that great with words anyway lol
Lea I'm short on lights this year too (or long on seedlings....take your pick) and have the same issue with using one set of lights where 2 would be better. I just cannot afford to buy anymore lights nor can I afford one more jump in the electric bill so I've been rotating the trays. Every day (twice if I think about it) I turn the flats around or shuffle the trays up so that they all get a shot at the light. It's rather inconvenient but so far none of the plants seem to be suffering for it.
I don't pop for expensive "grow light" or "plant lights" for seedlings. In the 6 to 14 weeks that any of them are under lights, they do just as well if not better with cheap, regular old "cool fluorescent" bulbs. I put four 48" bulbs over four 1020 trays of seedlings.
If anybody hasn't read my "Seed Starting 101" articles, you might find some useful info in them. Links to all the others are at the bottom of the one on lights: http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/464/
LeBug, I'm wintersowing some too,(and a bunch of other stuff - about 35 gallon milk jugs worth), but I was hoping to get a head start on lots of stuff- especially things that have a chance of flowering this year instead of next- and things that I really want - like the candy lilies and tricyrtis latiflolia - which I'm trying both ways. The candy lilies and belamcanda are doing well now - so now I know a week or so damp in the fridge will get them going - and some take a lot longer to sprout than others.
For lights I'm using the 6500K daylight spectrum bulbs. Bought a 10 or 12 pack at Lowe's for around $20 if I remember right. So far, so good.
tubby, I keep that link in my favorites so many people around here want them, those are easy as pie to make I love them, I bought shelves from Garden Supply then found those, such a price difference but I still love my GS ones because they are higher, you might want to make your shelves higher for those for when you start like tomatoes if you want them taller before you set them out that was my problem and you really need something stable to sit on the shelves to stabilize them more for the plant trays, I have old paneling on mine ( a couple of pieces on ea. shelf) and it keeps the shelf from sagging in the middle, just thought I would give you a heads up :)
I just measured and my shelves on the PVC are 15" high and the ones on the GS are 20", not sure if the extra height would throw the balance off of the PVC pipes, I've been aiming to change mine but you know once they get made you very seldom make changes to them lol I did add one shelf to one of the PVC stands but that was long before I wanted the extra height.
perenniallyme, my tricyrtis bloomed for me the first year but they were still in the jugs until fall/late summer lol The candy lilies didn't though. This is my third year for my tricyrtis I can't wait to see their show and I didn't collect any seeds from them so I'm hoping they reseeded a lot for me from last year, I really like those!
La, I guess that's what I may have to do too but I'm wondering what I'm going to do if I find a job, with todays economy I may not have to worry about a job :) Guess I'm going to have to start playing the lottery! I know I'm making a not of how Star waters hers too for when I'm not here lol