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Accessible Gardening: cool plant stories , 4 by duescher22

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Subject: cool plant stories

Forum: Accessible Gardening

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duescher22 wrote:
Anyone willing to share your fun to read plant growing stories? Here's mine, 1-1-16 i received my 100 ginkgo seeds, 60 bislecone pine seeds in the mail. Also i had a bunch of Norway spruce seeds i collected in the fall. I went out an bought 4 20 gallon totes and drilled holes in the bottom for drainage. I also bought a lot of bargain top soil from the hardware store. I planted all the seeds in that and put it my unheated attic. 35 to 45°f on average. Hoping the cool temps would keep the seeds from sprouting. Every few days i would check the seeds. In about 2 weeks all the seeds but the ginkgos were starting to grow. So off to the hardware store i went to pick up a large cheap grow light. After some time the spruce and the bislecones were well on there way. But still nothing from the ginkgos. Being inpatient i got concerned and stressed that they wouldn't grow. But since i live in Wisconsin and it wasn't warm enough to put them outside yet so maybe it was a good thing. After 3 mo. Of waiting impatiently the first ginkgo popped its head out for the first time. Hope was back!!! At this time the average temp in my attic was around 60°f after that first one popped up the rest of the 60 in total started coming up like sunflowers. Soon it was warm enough to put them outside. Not long after putting outdoors like the dummy i am i forgot to water the trees. And they started curl there leaves and some of the edges of the leafs turned brown. Hoping i didn't kill the little guy's i gave them a good watering. The next day i went to check the ginkgos surprisingly they sprung back and seemed to yell thank you! I feel dumb but this happened a couple more times before i figured out a good watering schedule. After the rough start and a summer of dry spells i only lost 1 ginkgo. There all 8 to 10" tall and getting ready for there winter rest. The spruce and the bislecones didn't do as good under my stupidness. But next year is a new year.

This message was edited Oct 24, 2016 4:20 AM