Show us your babies!!!
Suzy
Stoke's Seed Swa-Op Babies!
ummmm . . . gotta get the camera . . . back in a while :-)
eeek. I'm way behind, but at least I'm back on my feet now and starting to sow seeds!
I have a question about the geranium seeds... do you see any reason they won't stay viable until next year? I just sowed 5 seeds, and if I get even 2 or 3 plants from that, I'm happy for this year and would rather repeat the process next year. But if they have to be sowed fresh, I'll sow the rest of them and glory in an excess of burgundy cascades! LOL
No, I don't know! Maybe somebody else does.
I wondered if they SET seed so I can collect it for next year. LOL!
Suzy
I think they're hybrids... but that doesn't mean they're sterile. My "wave" petunias set seed that comes up looking pretty close to the original, although the habit isn't quite as nice (less trailing, it seems to me).
I'm behind, too. just got my heat mat. so now I can get going on those kind of things. I did sow my first 24 'containers' of wintersowing yesterday, though. so I feel like I'm finally making some progress.
unrelated to this thread, but kinda fun...I have a pic of lettuce babies in my Aerogarden that I got for Xmas. they sprouted in 1 day and are supposed to be ready to eat in 3-4 weeks. there are 7 different varieties. the only thing I don't like is that they don't tell what varieties they are in case you want to buy more seed to grow outside.
Suzy, I don't know much about geraniums but have you ever tried to collect seed from them before? The ones I had a couple of years ago just the reg. red ones I kept watching for seed with no luck but then I didn't sart them as early as I should have since you said to start them this early, but when the blooms fell off I saw no seed form. They may have later on when I got too busy to check them all of the time. The fall is the busiest time besides the spring for transplanting and planting.
Also, critter I've saved part packs to sow for the next year and they germinated but not as well as fresh seed. Maybe if you soak them a bit in H202? I soak most of my seeds in H202 the ones that are big enough to get back out of it anyway lol You should see the back of my gas stove in the winter I have 1oz. plastic shot glasses lined up all along the back, 6 gal. jugs of water sitting on the top where the pilot light is and shot galsses in between them, quite a site I also have them on top of my cable box in flat baking dishes lol When I tried the part packs of geraniums before that was before I discovered H202 for soaking :)
I need to get caught up on my seed planting this weekend! I think I'll take the phone off the hook so no one will want me to do any running for them LOL
grampapa, nice set up you have there!
Gee, Gram, It looks very high tech -- do the lettuces need their own phone? Spoiled brats! LOL!
No, I haven't grown geraniums in years and years,,,,and I never even thought about seeds -- I just knew they took a really long time from seed, but you could buy a 4" pot for a couple dollars. The difference is the ivy geraniums aren't sold (here) in the little pots. They only come in$15.00+ baskets.
I guess we'll see!
Suzy
they have to share that phone with the rest of the houseplants lol
it is high tech...I'm that geek techie that everybody tries to avoid ;0)...it tells you when to add water, when to add nutrients, when they are ready to pick. pretty much goof proof (I'm the goof) they have one for seed starting. not sure if it's the same machine with just different inserts and you add your own seeds, or it's a different machine. but what earthly good is 7 seedlings, I ask you?
Does that make it a party line?
Um, 7 seeds -- can I interest you in some burgundy ivy geraniums? LOL!!!!!!
Good grief . . . well, I wanted to present my little violet pansies at their best, so I decided to put them into individual plugs before I took their picture. OMG - it was like their roots were trying to reach to China!
I thought I was too early, 'cause I understood you weren't supposed to pot them up until seedlings had 2 sets of proper leaves. Some of them had roots almost 3 inches long! Alas - some of the little roots were damaged because they were already inter- twining. When do you pot up your violas/pansies?
Okay, going downstairs to take the pictures.
LOL! A class picture! Seandor, you're fine...trim those roots if you want, or leave them long, doesn't matter. You usually transplant at the 2-leaf stage, but I dont think it's critical as long as they aren't in the hot spring (or summer) sun.
Suzy
Okay - trailing geranium Sorry picture is a bit fuzzy - anyway, I have three that are thriving.
Here are two runts - trailing geraniums. I hope they will eventually thrive
here are the violet picotee violas/pansies
Here is a rather fuzzy close up of some of them.
Here is another baby . . . . ooops . . . . how did he get in the pictures????
Great pictures Sendor! Did you use any special plant food to get that nice color in the last picture he he he
So I'm guessing that all of your seeds germinated from the geraniums? I can't wait to get mine going, I'm starting them today!
I don't know - I was soooo excited, I never counted how many seeds there were! I suspect there are one or two that haven't germinated - but that's probably 'cause I haven't got a clue what I am doing and I am learning as I go.
As for the thing "planted" on the couch, Nick the Cat only eats dry cat food and ice cream when he can get it (never from me!)
Seandor, great little plants! nice start. I like the color combo with the gray/pink LOL
LOL! Does everybody have a cat? Sure seems like it! Those Pansies are awesome! Good job!
Everybody got either 7 or 8 geranium seeds.
Suzy
who got 8...I want to know who your favorites are? LOL
I only got 7. :))
I put all the seed envies in a master envelope separated by variety, then when it was time to pass them out, I passed them out -- I have no idea who got what.
I did find out that I was using a bad seedling mix and that was why my seeds rotted (I did an autopsy -- the shells were there on top of the soil, but when you squeezed them the innards came out in a little rotted mess.)
I had changed from a moisture control soilless mix (last year's) to Pro Mix BF or BX I forget now, but I bought a gigantic bale of it. Wellll, I lost those geraniums and it was bugging me, so I went to their website where they have about 30 different mixes, all sold in bales. I looked mine up and it is for container plants! (Not little itty bitty seedlings -- that's a different series completely.)
So I ordered more geranium seeds and they are doing great! (Somehow it was making me mad that my children weren't doing as well as the other kids in school -- do ya think I might be a teeny bit competitive? LOL!)
does anyone have the info for the geranium seeds? the pkt says see insert? I forget where that info got posted and I'm ready to plant mine but don't know what to do. thanks! :)
Diana, Here -- I forgot to insert it after typing it all up, printing it out, and cutting it to size! DUMB!
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=4294127
Dumb?? YOU??? NEVER!!! Simply overwhelmed at the moment.....
Well I'll be durned. I just popped on to tell a little geranium story and here you all are already doing just that.
I am in total dismay. You might remember from the old thread that mine were slower than most to germinate. It took until the 7th day before the first lil guy popped his head up, then another day for the 2nd, then 5 days later a 3rd appeared. Only 3 seedlings in all, and slow-pokes at that, so I knew I had to be very careful with them.
Are you ready for this? This past Thursday a 4th one popped up. That was 25 days after I planted it! Oh ho my little chillen it gets even better. Yesterday a 5th one germinated and today number 6 made it's appearance! Twenty seven days and they're still coming up. I wonder if there'll be more. (And I wonder if it will be 7 or 8.) LOL!
that is great lala!!!!! I hope I get such success :)))) do you have a fan blowing.....I'm afraid if mine take that long I'll get mold on the surface of the soil. I had that happen last season with lisianthus seedlings.
No fan Wind, but I've probably not been keeping the soil as damp as I should be. In fact I would bet that's why they've been so slow to germinate. I planted some petunias in the same tray that I'd used to start the geraniums and watered the seed in pretty well. When I saw green a few days later I assumed it was the pets coming up, but low and behold they were my proverbial late bloomers.
Illoquin, I use Pro Mix for my seedlings as well as containers, and I love it... Sometimes straight out of the bale for seedling trays, but more usually I cut it with a little additional perlite, and I also add a bit of small-sized moisture crystals. (watersorb stopped making the smaller size, because people kept ordering the wrong ones for making "cool ties" no matter how many places they posted which size to use, so I'm bummed... I'm nearly out, and I'll have to start grinding the regular stuff in my coffee grinder to get smaller crystals for my seedling trays!)
LeBug, thanks for the info on lower germination of leftover geranium seeds... I think I'll be profligate and sow them all! :-)
Critter, Pro Mix, yes, but they make 30 different kinds, each with a different set of letters they use as designation for its purpose -- what are the letters on your bale?
Suzy
beginner question:
today is the first day I'm turning on the lights for my seedlings :)))))))
What time does everyone like to turn their lights on and off?
I put mine on a timer for 16 hours each day . . . :-)
I have a timer and I used it the first year but now, lights stay on pretty much until I get my last seed planted and up which is a long time, I never turn my lights off at night until the last seed is planted and up and transplanted, I know someone else will tell you that you should probably leave them on for 12 hrs. and off for 12 hrs. But when I start getting into those time for geraniums, petunias and so forth they are different times so I just leave them on :) too confusing lol
wouldn't 16 hours be 'not normal'? I thought I read somewhere that critter does 16 hrs too. I was thinking 8 hours would be more like the time the sun would normally be shining.
so you would click the lights on say at 8:00am and not turn them off until midnight? and do you keep it at 16hrs even after they germinate? thanks so much for your help :)
has anyone posted a list of the swa-op seeds they have already sown?
Well "normal" sunshine depends on where you live. The further north you go, the more hours of sunlight during the summer; places like Alaska and the Yukon easily have days with 16 hours of sunlight - and the local flowers take advantage of those extra sunlight.
I've tried different things, but I'd recommend at least 12 hours, and I usually end up doing more like 16. I figure during the summer, plants only get about 8 hours of dark around here. You could probably leave the lights on 24 hours (I'm not sure seedlings care too much about "dark period photosynthesis" etc), but I'm not sure it would make a measurable difference, and DH likes the idea of using timers and not "wasting" electricity... If I turn them off for 1/3 the day, I figure I can have 9 light shelves and not just 6. :-)
I have a timer on mine, but didn't have it set right, so for the first week they were getting light 24/7. When I realized that I fixed it to about 16 hours, and they immediately started doing better. Now then, I'm NOT gonna post pics yet, as I was all giggly and started poppies (oh..maybe because I've got A LOT of them :> ) and some tansy. The tansy sprouted within 2 days, and within 2 days of me switching the light to 16 hours they happily started responding with their first set of true leaves. That's the sum total of my experience :) FWIW
Now then, what about heat mats - leave them on after seeds have sprouted? I left mine on the heat mat as they're in the basement and I wanted to keep the temp a bit more even and a bit warmer than 62*
hi dryad, no heat mats here yet
I realized after I read seandors post that my 'normal' daylight is diff than your 'normal'!!! well sheesh, I was selfishly thinking everyone was in zone 6b!!!
We don't have a timer yet. That sounds like a good idea.
I'm now wondering too, if maybe in my zone, I should have waited until March to start the petunias? oh well, too late now, they are planted!
so people on the east coast and zone 6b or near me, what do you have started so far from the swa-op?
did I forget anything? or make a mistake? my plans are to plant now: INSIDE: petunia, viola, browallia, summer showers geranium
OUTSIDE WS: dianthus, anchusa blue angel, cupid's dart, bergenia, delphinium
I plan to start the violas, pansies and geraniums today, hadn't thought about the petunias, but that makes sense. And I'm thinking I'll follow your list for WS! With the weather as wild as it is, I don't want to take a chance that I may be too late on some of these, so I may end up doing a second round of WS in a couple weeks.