What's sprouting; what's not?

As of today, my full list of sprouters - 25 out of 60 containers:

Hosta (4 containers, mixed variety)
Columbine (one lonely sprout!)
Coneflower (2 containers - 'White Swan' and purple)
Pansy (2 varieties)
Poppy (5 varieties)
Sweet William (2 varieties)
Petunia
Bunny Tails
Larkspur
Pincushion Flower
Bachelor's Buttons (2 containers - 2 varieties)
Tomato
Iresine
Morning Glory (white dwarf convolvulus)

I need to get some of these into their permanent pots .... soon!

PV

Is everybody going to save seed from their WS efforts? I can see how WS could start to get really cost effective if we traded in the fall and winter.

I have new germination in
Opal Basil
Sweet Green Basil
Cilantro
Dahlia Stargazer
Cerinthe major 'Blue Kiwi'
Shasta Silver Princess
Delphinium Pacific Giants - don't know what they like - not good germination on these
Sweet peas

I even have a tiny white pine that appears to have germinated out of the pine boughs that were covering up a bunch of pots of hellebores. Somewhere in there was a seed.

Good idea on the seed from wintersowing! So far, I am so sold on this process!!!

This was my first time ever trying winter sowing, and this morning I found my very first sprouts! I'm zone 4 and have the tiniest sprouts of baby's breath and poppies. I've only got 10 milk cartons for my first time out, but am getting excited to see what else actually sprouts. My family won't think that I'm nuts anymore!

Marie

Marie: Congratulations on your first sprouts! It is exciting; you'll be checking several times a day now to look for new ones!

Karen

Karen.......how did you know? Have you been peeking into my yard. LOL

Marie

We all do it Marie. Our first year we're obsessed!

Karen

Way to go! Congrats! So far, I would say I have 90% germination rates. I am curious to see how they do once planted.

Congrats Marie on your first sprouts! I have been doing this for a few years and I still get excited over seeing my first seed sprout!

Michelle

It's my second year.... and I'm still obsessive about checking containers for new sprouts!

I have sprouts (just a couple in some, tons in others) in 7 of 8 containers of poppies, 13 of 18 containers of columbines, and a bunch of others! Some (including the columbines) are still sooo tiny... Peach-leaf Campanula sprouted at least a month ago, but I'm still just seeing 2 tiny cotyledons on each sprout. Some of the poppies, fennel, bachelor buttons, have started getting true leaves... I've got a couple of shallow containers that I should probably plant out (HOS method) soon, but I'm going to wait on transplanting the poppies and others in deeper containers (4 inches of potting mix) until the roots have reached the bottom of the container.

I think most of my WS seeds came from trades.... definitely a fun & economical way to go! Thanks to all who have shared with me! :-)

Hi! I remember you. Use those critter containers, did ya? ;^)
Dave

LOL... Happy Easter, Dave!

Same to you Critter!

Lobelia cardinalis sown Jan 19 germinated today! It was about 75F in the shade.
Every thing I planted has germinated. No more checking twice a day...

way to go. I still have a few containers that are slow. I took some pictures this morning and I'll try to post them later on tonight to share with you all

This is so interesting! I still only have a few containers that have germinated so I don't know if I did something wrong (maybe planted too deep?) or my temperatures haven't gotten high enough yet. We've had a few days in the sixties and may reach seventy Sunday but otherwise forecast is firmly in the fifties.

I want to do this again next winter so if I'm doing something wrong I don't want to repeat it.

I wouldn't assume that you are doing anything wrong - give it a little bit more time. Then we can look and see what did or did not work.

Hi, everybody--

Now this is weird, I think.

I planted hesperis seeds (Dame's Rocket) then found out they are on just about everyone's "Invasive and Noxious Plant" list and have been feeling guilty for several weeks.

BUT they seem to be about the only seeds that haven't germinated!? Are they really slow to germinate?

I have sprouts in just about every other container...I am surprised though at the poor germination rate (for instance Cosmos and Cleome) in some of them.

Maybe I just have to wait a while longer, too. What about yours?

Wintersowing is still fun. (-: t.

Your poor hesperis seeds were stifled under the weight of your guilt. :)

Mine came up nicely: white and pink.

I have cosmos coming up in the garden; didn't know it self-seeds.

I like the plastic spoons :)

My rocket sprout too - but only the white.

Don't give up yet! It's still ONLY April! What another month and see if you don't see a difference in the amount of sprouts you have.

Thanks for the encouragement. I will continue to wait but not feel quite so guilty about the noxious hesperis. (-:

I ran out of plastic labels so resorted to plastic spoons. Not such a good idea--the permanent marker didn't stick. LOL Another one of my 'Lessons Learned' and the funny thing was, I had already read on the forums that the marker wouldn't take on the plastic, but I thought "This will work for ME, though." Not so! Of course, now I have many of my seedlings confused. Oh, well.

I gave my seedlings a dose of Miracle Gro 'Bloom Booster' potion today. Hope that was OK. (I sneak over to GW once in a while and read their posts and that's what many of those WSers seem to do.)

Tomorrow will be a sunny day and I am going to plant out some of my parsleys in the hopes of attracting Swallowtails to my garden early on.

Happy gardening. t.

What comes after the sprout?? I got lots of sprouts but they slowly died off. Why is that?
i got blue flax, oriental poppies, shasta daisy, columbines, flox gloves, etc. They're gone...(cried!!)
elaine

maybe they dried out? or too much sun? Texas is pretty hot in June, isn't it?

I kept them all under shade and kept them moist as well. They seems to stand still in the pods and they did not look like they were growing at all. Normally, how long does it take for a sprout to get 3 sets of leaves? Maybe I was impatient. I tried to move them out to the ground too quickly?

Dehart, I too find it tricky to get from sprout to established plant. Some issues I've had:

Do something to prevent "damping off" if starting inside

Start giving them 1/2 strength fertilizer after they sprout

Either have a nursery area in your garden where you can baby them or let them get some size before planting out or both.

Winter sowing takes care of a lot of the above problems.

I'm no expert and anyone else may feel free to correct or add to this.

Dave

Dehart:
Did you use quality potting soil or brand "x"? How many inches of potting soil did you use in your containers? Was the location to sunny? Were you vigilant about keeping them moist?

I used Miracle Grow potting soil specifically for seed starting. My containers were about 3" deep. All my flats geminated beautifully, but that was about it. I even sowed them in peat pots. I've successfully sowed foxgloves and cup/saucers. I kept the seedlings under the fuorescent lights for a few weeks. I tried to keep the flats well moist at all time. I waited and waited and the seedling didn't seem to grow at all or slowly died off; so I moved what were left of them outside under tree shades. Now, it'd been months and they hardly have a second pair of leaves.

I tried sowing poppy seeds 4 time, I still didn't have even one plant with 3 sets of leaves. I'm jus not good at it i guess.

Do we winter sowing poppies?? especially oriental poppies?? Thanks.
ed

Oh one more thing,

As i read from the winter sowing website, is it really true that 'damping off' can be prevented by winter sowing?? Woo hoo!! It breaks my heart watching my 'babies' slowly fell over and die off for no apparent reason.

dehart,

It's true. I was never successful at growing seeds in the house; I lost 95% of them to damping off. This year was my first attempt at WS and I sowed over 80 containers and lost NOT ONE to damping off. I ended up with literally thousands of new flowers, and cheaply. Most are things I never see in nurseries. You can use free containers like milk jugs and 2 L pop bottles. Buy potting soil and seeds on sale (if not familiar with it see valueseeds.com).

One tidbit about poppies: they like cool weather. Mine are in bloom now, and starting to fade from the heat. Yours would bloom earlier, I'm sure. You could get more specific info about growing them in the warmer zones from people here on the forum

Karen

Dehart, if you think damping off got most of your seedlings here is a great article about it at Tom Clothier's site http://tomclothier.hort.net/page13.html
Here's the home page for that same site http://tomclothier.hort.net/ there's a ton of info there on germinating lots of different seeds, and all kinds of other things. If you really want to start your seeds indoors this would be a great site to do some research.

If you don't have time to look over the site right now...they do suggest putting about a 1/4" layer of chick grit on top of all germinating mediums (soil/soilless mixes) to help prevent damping off. Chick grit is found at feed stores, it's what is fed to baby chickens. I've done this and it helps a great deal.

Also, cinnamon and chammomile tea are both natural antifungals. Buy some ground cinnamon and sprinkle it on top of the germination medium. Make a weak chammomile tea and use it to water the seeds/seedlings.

Most importantly is air circulation. If you don't have this you will have damping off. Just put a cheap fan in the room with the plants and let it run, but not pointing directly at the seedlings.

I used these methods this year and had great success. In past years I didn't know about these things and had horrible failure.

Hope that helps!
Heather

One more thing...about the peat pots. I hate those things. They are either too wet or too dry. There never seems to be a happy medium w/ them. Mine always dried out on me, but if you were able to keep them moist enough it's easy to see how damp off could set in.

I've also read that some plants (don't know if it's true for all) need to be transplanted before they will show much sign of growth. Transplanting them interrupts their horomone growth...the regular cycle. The way I understood it, it kind of shocks the plant then causes it to grow because of the interruption. Of course, the explanation I read made much more sense than my explanation. Sorry. LOL!

I'm also wondering if under the trees the plants just aren't getting enough light to grow more? Or maybe they are root bound in those little pots and their growth is stunted already?

What if you were to take those peat pots and soak them down good and gently tear the bottoms off, then plant them into your garden beds? That way you're not disturbing the plants or the roots, but will still be essentially getting them out of those pots. I'd still be sure to keep them very well watered in your TX heat. I also wouldn't fertilize them till I saw new growth on them. If you must fertilize them I'd use 1/4 strength solution, just to be safe.

Did I read correctly that you sowed or transplanted to peat pots? That could be part of the problem. They dry out to quickly!

I've wintersowed Poppies for the 1st time this year. They germinate easily and grow quickly.

Try recycling & using clear plastic containers (half gallon or gallon size) that you buy milk, water, juice or soda in. They give you much more depth and your soil will not dry out as quickly. Also, you can add a few polymer crystals that help to keep your soil moist too.

Don't give up! I experienced the same problem one year....you learn from your mistakes. Keep improving on what you have done. You will achieve success!

Thanks for all tips and warnings guys; i'm not giving up yet. I'm so determined to winter sow this year, I'm saving my milk containers hehehee.

Last evening I attempted the unthinkable; I planted my 2 and only 2 poppy babies (each barely got two sets of leaves) into the new flower bed. After sowing 4 times, i got two survived. What an accomplishment. I might regret it later; our Texas heat might cook them; guess I'll find out when I get home today.

Well.....I'm ashamed to say it.....but my winter sowing poppies are still in their milk cartons.....and I've got blossoms. I propped open the tops a few weeks ago and really need to get their permanent spot ready. It really is on the agenda for tomorrow. I need some muscle to dig up a new bed and let's hope he shows up tomorrow.

Some of my things did better than others with the winter sowing, but this was my first year, and I definitely will do this again.

My poppies did incredible - they are a nonstop source of blooms. I planted California poppies and they will always be part of my w/s'ing list.

Marie: Don't feel bad because I have several containers of winter sown plants that are blooming and I won't get them in the garden probably until this Fall! It's too hot now!

Nice to know that I'm not alone. Actually, I have some grasses that have just germinated. I collected some seeds from my DD's house in February. I took pics of the seed pods, but don't know what they are. I just liked the looks of them. I sure hope that they are zone 4 tolerant......she lives in Indiana.

Marie: If you post pictures in the Grass & Bamboo Forum, maybe someone could identify them for you.