Winter 2010-2011: Growing plants under lights indoors! Pt 3

Kai no Kasumi

The sticto has been a steady bloomer for the past month. Not a lot of blooms, but a couple a week. :-) No seed pods even with hand-pollinating. :-(

This message was edited Apr 11, 2011 11:22 PM

And here is a bloom on the other Blue Speckles F2 vine. These two vines look very, very similar.

A close-up of the bloom taken late in the day. The blue speckles turn purple as the blooms fade.

Beautiful show, Becky. They are looking good, and like you, I plan on keeping a few plants inside under lights, no bugs no heat.. ;)

Nice blooms Becky. Wish I had room to try a few inside, tired of fighting bugs.

Debra - I'm with ya on that idea! :-) Grow them inside and outside both! :-)

Jackie - Sterile environment seems to be the key to success here. I never bring a pot in from outside into my grow room. The seeds start in the room, never leave the room, and die in that room. So there is only a slim chance of bugs invading my plants or infiltrating the room. I feel like my indoor gardening is in a laboratory or something! LOL!

This message was edited Apr 12, 2011 9:16 PM

Becky, so true.. warning: do not buy bagged potting soil that has been outside if any rips or tears in it.. also, just use the miracle grow, it is locked up tight usually.. Bugs were very minimal this year even with the huge amount of plants I grew , started, and kept going.. mistake was bringing in pots with soil from outside.

Debra - I agree totally with you about soil from outside pots and open soil bags. Ugh!

I started more seeds indoors under lights and counted 19 of 40 that sprouted already. Some are from the seed swap. I am growing 1 seed from each participant. Not everything in those 40 cups are MGs, though. I am growing gigantic milkweed bush and some other odds and ends, too. I love trying new plants I've never seen or grown here. :-)

Becky, I forgot to mention that I had started some veges in the 8 oz foam cups and they look pretty good. I moved them to the green house for more sun than they could get here in the house. Did you start vege sds too?
My mg's are germinating..
I want to stant some luffah vines and Dolichos, the pretty bean vine.
Excited about some special bean sds from A too.

Becky, what is the zone for the stictocardia vine? I have one I kept in my greenhouse and I'm not sure it survived. It has not put out yet. Do you think it may still start to grow and put out green or think it just died. Is there any way to tell for sure? (Without jerking it out of the pot)?

mekos, it is prolly just dormant, sit it out in the sun for awhile. JaCKIE, i just planted all my tomatoes and peppers from last years seeds i started in styro cups as well as the chinese bean and other kinds of stuff. I have blooms already on the dolichos.
Getting everything outside before I start more seeds inside. voodoo lily two days ago, i brought it in, and this am my hubby comes outside to tell me he just had to spray the house cuz it smelled of dead rat.. it bloomed..

here is the flower

the bloom from the mg in a glass vase was a blue one..

LOL Debra that is awesome! I cannot wait for all mine to start blooming! Got lots of room spray ready! LOL
I'll go ahead and bring it out and sit it in the sun and hope for the best. I really love that plant and I wanted it to survive. Should have kept it inside but it was soooo big I just didn't have room inside close to a good window for light.

I kept mine in the closet under its own light, chopped it up trying to make cuttings, now it is all over the closet again, it goes outside wenesday.. baby woodrose is outside now..it is hanging with the cerus and lonicera and wisteria and vining vinca and stuff.. LOL
the neighbors got forclosed and the area is cleaned and for sale.. no junk to cover up now, but I am gonna cover this area anyway. Sweet autumn clematis will take over soon//

I'm not sure my wood rose and baby wood rose made it either. They are in the back of the greenhouse where I cannot get to yet it is sooooo full of stuff. I hope freeze and frosts are gone now for good. I brought a few things out today to sit in the sun but taking it slow as we may still get a late frost yet. IF my stictocardia vine does not make it through, can I buy or trade you out of one if you have an extra one? Next winter I'll know to keep it inside during winter. My red magnolia vine is out there as well and I still don't see any green on it either. SAD smiley here today!

Jackie - Yes! I did start some veggie seeds. My cherry tomato plant is growing like crazy! I also have a large tomato bush that is also doing really well. Along with the strawberry plant. And bell peppers, cucumber (not looking so good), Pepino bush, watermelon, and eggplant. I started all of them in cups and just transplanted them into larger containers. Everything looks pretty good except the cukes.

Jan - I don't know a lot about the stictocardia because this is the first time I've grown one. I started it from seed on Sept. 6th. I don't believe they are cold hardy at all. I believe they are tropical vines.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/168689/

The Voodoo Lily smells like a dead rat?????

Debra - Love that blue bloomer in the vase! Don't ya just love it when they do that!!! :-)

Jackie - I planted one of your pandy seeds. A freak thing happened. The hypocotyl (stem) split. I only planted one seed, but it looks like two vines growing close together! I doubt it will make it, but I'll leave it be and see what happens. I will start another pandy seed. I also started one of Debra's pandy seeds, but it hasn't germinated yet. Here's a photo of your pandy sprout with split stem.

Becky, mine look like that too.. they are from Kansas, look the same to me..
Jan, you know I will help.. u got my email address, LOL..

Becky, yes that's the way the pandy germinates. Two stems coming out of one spot. Pretty neat looking.
Debra, pretty blue m. glory bloom
Funny story about the voodoo lilly. I brought mine in the house one time after it opened.
In a couple of hours I was so sick. Finally figured out it was the voodoo lilly and
took it back outside, learned my lesson. Becky, these smell like rotting flesh or anything equally as horrid. lol

Hahaha, yes there are only a couple out of dozens of different ones of the voo-doo lilies that do not stink while in bloom but the flower makes up for the smell. Yes and use lots of air freshner. LOL The stink attracts the right kind of flies to pollinate them. All of mine are still dormant right now, but the Aresaemas are starting to wake up, so soon mine should be looking out from the night sleep. I can't wait! Since the bad storms, we are having wonderful sunny weather.

Pipevine blooms stink, too! Also like something rotting. Very putrude smelling. Didn't know that about the voodoo lily. I guess plants will try anything or any fragrance to attract pollinators to the blooms! LOL!

Today was hot outside during recess. That was before lunch. It's even hotter now... Can you say "Sweating my weight off!" LOL!

Mekos, yes an intriguing sp? group of plants. I think they are fascinating. I've lost my voodoo bulbs, think they got spilled out of their pots while dormant. A nursery owner here
told me about 20 yrs ago that she thinks these are hardy here. Dying down in the cold but
returning every late spring.

Patootie, they do. I have several different kinds getting a collection and still looking for the white flowered elephant foot yam. That one is always sold out everywhere I find it. But I have most of the others that interest me. They are called Amorphophallus lilies. (voo-doo lilies)common name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amorphophallus_paeoniifolius
This is the white one I would give an arm and leg for.

Oh the white one is a beauty, very special. I wonder if the website owned by a lady
named Tatiana and her hubby Mike? might have it? Can't remember the name of the website but it is
getting to be a huge on-line store.
The website is probably listed here at DG under sources.
I hate it when I can't remember :-(

Forgive me you guys, didn't mean to hijack the thread, sorry.
Now back to MGs. I got sprouts.

I apologize too Becky, didn't mean to get carried away. :-)

Jan - That white flowered elephant foot yam is really cool looking!!! I hope you find one of them soon! :-)

Jackie & Jan - As women ... we are allowed to get off-topic from time to time! LOL!

Debra & Jackie - Ooooh! Thanks for the heads up about the germination of the pandy! I thought it was doing something freaky and wasn't going to make it! So glad to hear otherwise!!! :-) :-)

Becky, in the post above, ending 6600, with the magenta violet flowers.......
the foliage up close looks unusually rugged. What kind of lights are you using?
Frank