Could someone please tell me when I can expect some color in the leaves? They don't have their true leaves yet does anyone know how long that will take? Here are the plants, they are doing well under the flurescent lamp, I would put them in the window but I don't want to burn them. I read somewhere that you should not add any fertilize them until they get their second set of true leave, is that right? Just asking, I am new to growing Coleus and have many questions about them.
What a beautiful bunch of seedlings!
True leaves will start to color up, and the more light they are in the richer the colors, up to a point. In hot summer weather they do better in bright shade or morning sun. A bright window is a good idea.
I would start separating them soon rather than wait much longer. When there is a large enough true leaf for you to handle it that way, separate them.
Thanks Diana, like I said I have never grew these before so any advice would help out. I love my flowers and my three places that I have morning glories at, they all have bloomed and still are doing a great job, I have had people tell me you can't grow and bloom morning glories indoors and also moonflowers, well, I have the pictures to prove them wrong, and also I am very happy, my moonflower vine has 3 moonflower buds and if they bloom my feet won't touch the ground for a week! This is what I grew in the picture window.
Nice! What a rich color!
Well, I had some time to kill, so I thought I would try to separate them while they were small enough to handle, I put 4 in another pot and took a picture, I don't know how many I can put in a pot without them crowding each other out, so I tried only 4. They came out very easily and I handled it by the leaf like they say and no problem. Now here comes the problem, I still have a whole lot of seedlings, no more pots and no more room, what do I do now? Should I just thin the original pots and throw away the extra? I hate to do that but I don't want them to compete with each other for the food, water and nutrients, could someone help me out with suggestions? Here is the 4 that I replanted, let me know if you think that is alright or if maybe I can put a couple more in there.
If you put any more in there you would just over crowd it.
1 of the smallest Coleus can get over a foot high and wide without any problems, and some varieties get 3' or more high and wide, so pot sizes are somewhat variable.
1 plant in a 4" pot is good for grow out. Pinch it as it grows so it gets bushy. When it gets to be a good size, plant it in the garden or a 6" pot. If it is a smaller variety it can stay in the 6" pot. If it keeps on getting bigger it will probably need a larger pot.
Several seedlings in a 6" pot are OK, but they will get somewhat crowded, especially if they are the larger growing variety. I sure would not put any more in there.
One of the Coleus seedlings has some color and several of them have their second set of leaves, I also have Nasturtiums in a cool whip tub(with drainage holes) and basil and the rest, I have the Nasturtiums in a plastic ziplock baggie to lock in the moisture until they germinate, is that a good idea? The Coleus is doing real good, I will show you a picture, the one with color is hard to spot but maybe you can see from the picture.
Nasturtiums are pretty tough, I would just plant them in some moist soil with good drainange. Don't soak them, don't let them sit in standing water.
Sorry, I cannot yet see the Coleus with color. I am sure by the time I write this more color will be showing, though!
Here are some Coleus plants with color, I am pretty sure you can see the color now, I have some color on almost all of them now.
Looking good!
I am going to have to repot a couple of my Coleus plants, the pot they are in is much too small for 3 plants in it. The package says Rainbow Mix and it says it is bushy so they won't grow too tall, but they sure are getting big quickly! There is one that does not have any color and it is growing like a weed, it has lobed leaves and it is really going to town. So went to the Dollar General store and got a couple more pots, they were on sale of course, so tomorrow going to transfer two of the plants in their separate pots, first I have to punch holes in the pots, but that won't be hard to do. They were two pots for $1, that is a pretty good price, will show you why I think it is time to transplant into one plant per pot. Let me know if you agree.
Yup, better to move them before their roots get all tangled up in each other.
That is a very pretty pink one, with a hint of maroon or brown :-)
I repotted the three in their own containers, I think I have to stop now, am running out of containers to put under the pots. And here is what my hubby surprised me with yesterday from the corner nursery, the first pic is the yellow side and the second pic is the purple side all in one pot. I have it in front of the window (with the curtain between the bright light and the plant).
Here are the Coleus plants now, I have 5 plants and they all have some color except one and it is all green. The colors are very vivid and they are growing fast, hopefully what I read is true, if they are in a small container they will stay small, because I don't have room for a big container especially 5 of them, so they will stay in the containers that they are in.
You can pinch them to keep them growing many branches from lower down so they stay dense and full.
You can take cuttings of your favorites, so when they do get over grown and leggy you will have plenty of new ones.
Try planting them in bright shade outdoors when the weather has warmed up. Nice annual for a shade garden!
My hubby got me a timer for my flowers, it comes on at 3:30 a.m. and goes off at 8 p.m. which on Monday-Thursday is what time I go to bed. All my plants are doing fine especially the Coleus, they seem to like the cooler weather, I did some pinching on the biggest ones and going to see if they get bushier and also pinched the top leaves off to keep them at the height that they are, will post the results, also the dumbcane plant is growing new leaves.
This is my Coleus collection, they are all under the flurescent lamp, it was too cold in the picture window, they seem to really like it there, I transplanted one coleus because there was two coleus in a small pot, and after I did that one of them looked wilted, thank goodness it perked back up, I was afraid it was not going to make it, but it is looking quite well.
That was a real nice Coleus story. I think I'll go get a pack of seeds. I love to watch baby coleus start to show colors when they are tiny and are miniature versions of their bigger selves.
Good ideas with using just about anything for pots.
Sometimes I wash out those large, square, peanut butter-filled pretzel bites containers and make holes in the bottoms for plants. Instant large planter!
Then, it is easy enough to insert the makeshift planter into a basket to instantly beautify the plant.
Thanks for the coleus inspiration.
TJ
I took a top off of one of the Coleus plants and replanted it, I also took two of the large leaves off and this is what is left, could you tell me if you would take another set of large leaves off? It also has small leaves on it too, any advice you give me would be appreciated.
If it was mine, I would truncate the main stem just above the first pair of leaves, then pinch out the apical meristem of both sides of what's left. There would then be 2 pairs of leaves left. From each leaf axil, a new branch will form (4 of them), all of which I would pinch again after a new pair of leaves starts to form. This is how you maximize fullness/ramification.
To prepare the cutting that would be left, I would sever the stem with a fresh razor blade immediately below the proximal (bottom) node & prune all the leaves off the area around it and just the large leaves off the top node. If there are no smaller leaves growing from the top node, I would simply reduce the surface area of each of the large top leaves by cutting across leaf venation so about 25% of the surface area of each leaf remains attached to the cutting, then stick it in a damp (but not wet or soggy) medium in open shade.
Al
This message was edited Aug 21, 2015 8:45 PM
Could I just take off all the big leaves and let the small ones get bigger?
When a plant is growing large leaves, they have roots to supply the water that is evaporating out of the leaves.
When you take cuttings you are removing this support system, and the leaves can dehydrate pretty fast.
The ides of removing most of the leaves, especially the large ones, is so the stem of the plant will live while new roots are growing. Small leaves are good, they will continue to photosynthesize without demanding quite so much water or fertilizer.
Another consideration is energy management. If you want your plants to be compact, prune those large leaves at the base of axillary branches off. They are capturing energy from the sun that is being directed toward creating very long internodes and large leaves. Once an axillary branch starts to form, removing the large leaf that forms the crotch in which the branch grows reduces the amount of energy available for extension. Even if I wasn't going to pinch the plant and use the pinched part as a cutting, I would still remove all 4 of the large leaves as a regular part of a plan to keep the plant compact and full.
Al
Thanks for the information, I removed the last two large leaves, it looks kinda scrawny, but there are new leaves growing on it already, maybe I can keep this one at a manageable height. I am not sure what to do with the others in the window, they are going every which way with huge leaves and branches.
Basically, they are large plants, and any attempt to keep them too small won't work.
However, monitoring the growth and pinching early to make them branch out more tends to keep them more uniform. If they are allowed to grow tall, perhaps spindly, then you could try cutting them back. Use the trimmings to start new plants, and keep these pinched and see the difference.
Plants can grow rather rangy if they are in too dim a location, too. Coleus will be richer colored and have shorter stems in bright light.
That they are large plants and trying to keep them small will not work is not necessarily true. Sequoias are considered to be large plants, yet they're regularly kept in small bonsai pots for decades if not longer ........ but my instructions didn't actually involve keeping them small. Rather, proper management of energy can be used to keep the internodes short, leaves smaller, and the plant generally fuller and more compact. Essentially, removing the large leaves that are no longer necessary reduces the amount of energy the plant is able to convert to food, which is a good thing if you're trying to reign in a rangy plant and make it more compact. Combining that strategy with pinching is the best way to maximize ramification (a full plant).
See some normally rangy plants below.
Al
This message was edited Aug 23, 2015 2:20 PM
Another idea would be to get a packet of miniature coleus seeds and see how they do indoors.
