seed sowing the Deno way

Morph, your summer is visiting here, we aren't used to being this warm this early!!

I'm glad someone is able to enjoy our normal summer :)

Mark, I may try this method with some of the precious hardy Geranium seed Psilo sent me. I didn't want to sow them in the greenhouse at this time of year,,,it gets 120F in there, even with a shade cloth.

they dont have to be in the greehouse. once they sprout pot them up into 4 inch pots and set them at the base west or east facing wall. They will sprout in days. trust me!

Can anyone help me, I'm new at this and I really want to learn to propagate a cedar tree of 69 years old, hydrangea bushes, and dogwood tree's? Anyone got any wisdom out there for me????? The Dogwood has the red berries on it, it's white when in bloom. Leaves are starting to turn now. Help???

Oh, and thanks for the great idea's with the Deno method. I am dying to try this out. The sponge idea rocks!!!! And Im impressed with your idea MORPH!!!!!!! You got skillz ;-)

Dogwoods are done by cuttings in late spring

Cedars are propagated by seeds from mature cones or grafting from late summer to late winter. The seeds need to be kept cold for 3 weeks before sowing at 58F

Hydrangea can be done by softwood cuttings in late spring to mid summer, semi ripe cuttings in late summer, hard wood cuttings in late winter or layering in spring

Great Mark!!!! Just experimenting on some cuttings on the Dogwood...took just a few and put rooton on them and set them out...so far so good...for now anyway LOL...I'm just learning. That's why I joined DG to learn. Thanks for the advice. :-)

anytime

On the sponge method - I tired this once w/ fresh lettuce seeds and NOTHING germinated - and so I assumed there must be something chemical in the sponge to inhibit germination. Obviously, from this thread, my assumption was incorrect - and so I shall return to this method, as it intellectually seemed like a great way to go. Do you prewash the sponges - those pastel cellulose things that you buy in the grocery store - or should I go w/ the cheaper plastic types?

Thanks for any help rendered!

Vicki

Wanna, I got some cheap sponge to experiment with from the dollar store. I cut them up into squares that fit into an ice tray. Took some scissors and cut across where I put my seeds once I had the sponges wet. Wooooooooooolahhhhhhh, I have some little curlycue tails coming from the seed lol...some had not done that, so I pricked it to see what would happen...it worked too. I now have not only little squiggly tails but a couple have leaves now. LOL I have to put them into a small papercup used for dispensers in a bathroom next :-) Good luck. I like this method and I'll be using the deno method too soon when the hotwater tank cranks up :-)

Thanks, Annabellegabby - that goes then on my list of early spring activities!!!!!!!!

Vicki

lol yw ;-)

Wannadanc did you have the lettuce seed in a cool place? Lettuce won't germinate over 70 degrees so I am told by a very large market farmer.

He plants thousands of plugs and said they are all started in a huge cold storage.

This method works well for things that don't like being transplanted like cucumbers. As soon as the tail appears put into your garden to finish sprouting.

Regards Ernie

Well, there it is!!!!!!!! Here I was blaming the sponge - and it was the indoor gardener!!!!!! Thank you SO much for letting me know that - because now I will have higher expectations about this sponge cube planting!!!!! I really DO appreciate your letting me know that - thank you again!!!!!

grins Vicki

Ok I have some succulent plants in a papertowel wet, the seeds are so tiny and white they are hard to see. But there is good news. After only 3 days, I see little teeny weeny tails lol...keep ya updated :-)

Oh and I've used the sponge method with my Hardy Hibiscus dinner plates and snipped the little tip off very gently and seeing great results, planted two seeds with tails and one with a leaf already :-)))) Im lovin' this , Good luck everyone. Great fun here!

the kitchen towel needs to be wet but not dripping wet

Yes it is damp and enclosed in a resealable ziplock baggie :-) thanks Mark

After reading this thread, I remembered putting seeds on paper towels back in grade school ('60s) in science class! I guess it still works great, eh? :)

sure does and very well

I remember doing them inside a jar... with the paper towel arranged so it lined the inside of the jar. Then you slide the seeds in so the they were between the glass and the towel. That way you could watch them until they started putting up leaves. I thought that was coolest thing!!

And when you wanted to teach about the influence of gravity - those seeds and wet toweling went into a petri dish - once the root sprouted, you rotated the dish by 90 degrees every so often and it was amazing to see how quickly the geotropism of the roots was expressed by their moving to point "down".

hello everyone.. i have been doing the papertowel method all summer.. then read somewhere isntead of using the a papertowel , use instead a coffee filter. that way the new sprouts wont get stuck thru the papertowel.. it works great.. not only does it not get stuck but u can see the seedlings easily when held up to light, to see if they sprouted that way u dont have to open up the papertowel to check on them.. AND the filters dont fall apart ..(: i tried it and it worked great.. i used the brown natural filters.. which made it that much easier to see the seedlings.. also i just stuck my baggie by a bright window... and they sprouted great.. within days.. (:, the only ones that took a while was gladiola seeds... those must have been in that baggie two weeks before they sprouted...(: LOVE the sponge idea... i will have to try that myself!!! thanx!!.. another baggie method for lilys and scale type bulbs, we will use lily as an example since it worked for me.. u put a small amount of peat in a baggie wet it down enough that it is moist, then lay the lily scale in the peat, (any ole way worked for me) , blow some air in the baggie, zip it shut, and store in a dark cool place... in a few weeks u will have baby bulbs growing on the scales...mine have been in the cool cubboard for i would say since the very begining of december, i dont know how long it took before they started to appear because i just now checked them yesterday...the pic below shows the results... (:
chrissy

for chipping and scaling you should use Vermiculite

well the book suggested either one.. and i used peat, and it worked!!!! so i am happy...(:
chrissy

Check out http://www.rps.psu.edu/mar96/seed.html for a nice article on Norm Deno.

I know I really do sound dumb but new to all this and so wanting to learn. Does this method work with all seeds..I have soaked poppy seeds and placed them in a dark closet and have them sprout but never really know how long to wait until planting them and the ones I did try to sprout haven't had them really come up yet, they are so very tiny it's hard to see them for me anyway. I have not really had much luck starting plants from seed so I appreciate all y'all help.

update to link mentioned in first post

http://www.frogswell.com/WebPages_HTML/SowingTheDenoWay.html

All I can say is WOW!!!!!!!!!!!This forum will change the way I do propagation of seeds. Looked all over Google trying to find some info on seed starting and I finally found this right in my own back yard. I will be forever grateful. Thanx guys and gals.