Ways to Propogate Mass Amounts of Plants!

Hey, yes I'm starting yet another thread, I'm officially addicted to Dave's Garden! I grow both for commercial and hobby reasons. I grow and sell approximately 24,000 tropical plants each year. I love to share my ideas, and get feedback from others on how they propagate. Call me crazy, but propagate all of my plants in a germination chamber inside my living room (my wife HATES it), but temperature and humidity are key, she still doesn't seem to understand this ;) I keep a heater mat under four separate flats. Each flat has between 500-750 seeds, once they germinate I transplant quickly into its own separate cell in trays and throw them in a greenhouse. This concept allows me to turn between 1800-2600 plants a month. I can keep the chamber at a stable 87 degrees for my palms, and 77 degrees for plants like Bird of Paradise. The humidity is very high, between 70-90%. Again, I made this box of PVC and visqueen. I do germinate some plants in greenhouses during Spring and Summer, I will attach pictures of all of these. Please share ideas, I love to fine tune my ways, I learn so much from everyone!

Picture 2

Outside #1

Outside #2

Forgot to mention, I've found 50% Spag Peat Moss & 50% Perlite to be a great prorogation mix!

Fabulous setup! I guess the visqueen material lets light through from the window? That's a good solution to raising the humidity and still allowing some air circulation so you don't get condensation, damping-off, etc.

Yes exactly, its actually likely a miniature inside greenhouse! :)

What a nifty set up!! What mil of visiqueen are you using? I don't need something quite the big, but I can see where this would be very simple to use. Great job, buddy!!!

6 mil, helps hold the heat in

Ok! Thanks, I printed out a copy of the discussion for DH. :) I don't need such a large amount of plants, but I'm thinking a downscaled version of this would be perfect for all the varieties of heirloom tomato and pepper seeds I want to start this year. Thanks

Mustang. How do you get your peat wet. I work with the peat a lot but hate trying to wet it. I was wondering if you have an easier way.
By the way drop in at Midsouth Forum. we have quite a few people from your town. We also have several people that grow lots of plant in row covers and greenhouses. Anyway there are a lot of friendly,helpful caring people at Midsouth. We have alot of get togethers. Would love for you to attend one so we could meet you. There is one in May in your area. Jeri has a fabulous place for the RU in May.
Cindy

Hi, Mustang. Yes, please do drop in to chat with us at Mid-South forum. The folks there will LOVE your propogation techniques. I germinate seeds inside my house in flats strung from my kitchen to my bedroom. My house is a mess!

This is the first year I have had a GH. Tho small, it's the best thing I ever purchased. I over winter my pot plants, and recently moved some of my seedlings there. They seem to be doing fine so far (fingers crossed). Your operation is stunning. I hope you come and chat with us. I'm sure M-S has many questions, although you have already covered a lot of the questions I had.

Below are some seedlings that are not quite ready for the GH. They are not as prolific as yours. They were wildflower seeds sent to me by a DGer, and they are not germinating well. I don't know if it's me or the seeds. The medium is a peat/vermiculite mixture of my own. I think I will try peat/perlite next (as you have done). Do you ever lightly fertilize your seedlings?

Martha

This message was edited Feb 5, 2008 5:52 PM

Hi mustang, I live at the south end of Pete's Hwy and will be needing some tropicals. Send me dmail with info please.

Debbie

mustangman

Here is a link to the Mid-South Gardening Forum http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/region_mids/all/
There are people posting on this forum that you will be proud to call "friend".

Judy

Sorry I haven't been on here in a couple days. Well my recommendation with peat is one make sure it is soaking wet before putting it in place for planting, two, if covered with the plastic film the humidity is going to hold most of that moisture in the soil. I use a spray bottle and usually give it a good spray down every few days, this is a good way to keep the soil moist not saturated. Let me know if this helps.

Mustangman826, sure would like to talk to you more re propagation. We do mostly woody landscape type things under mist in our 'greenhouse' using cuttings. The "mini" greenhouse is a great idea and I have an ideal location in a spare bedroom with southern exposure. Looks like you use 4 10x20 standard nursery flats under your visquene cover. Picking the seedlings and transplanting them to individual cells must be something of a chore but at the same time your system is very efficient. What do you propagate? We do a lot of crapemyrtles, lantanas, japanese red maples, etc. Did you find one mat or do you have several for that area? I can already see tons of applications. Gulf coast muhly and other grasses etc.
Gene
Forgot to add, I am smack in the middle of zone 8, right on the 8a/8b line, 20 miles s. of Austin, TX

This message was edited Feb 5, 2008 9:23 PM

What I was really trying to ask is when you purchase peat in a bale it is usually dryed. I then work like the dickens trying to get moisture in it. I usually use the peat and vermeculite and add Perlite sometimes.
What temp do you keep your greenhouse?
Cindy

This message was edited Feb 5, 2008 11:57 PM

Gene, go ahead and send me a dmail, we can talk prorogation, any questions you have I'd love to answer for you. I primarily grow palms, and tropicals, bird of paradise, crotons, variegated shell ginger, stuff like that. I mainly grow palms though. Yes I use one mat for all standard 1020 trays (it cost about 70 dollars on eBay 21"x48" I think are the dimensions). It is A LOT of work to transplant into individual cells, however in our climate I cannot propagate very good percentages outside in my larger greenhouses. I'll give you an example, I planted some Washingtonia Robusta seeds outside in trays in heated greenhouses (in Nov/Dec). I had only 25% germination in 6 weeks. Not only does this waste 75% of space in my trays and greenhouses, but it an frustrating! When I can control the temp and humidity and keep it stable 24/7 then my germination rate increases to 60-80% in about 3 weeks, so it is worth the transplanting! =)

Riverland, yes it is difficult to get "moist" in larger applications, again I would just dump a bunch of water in it (wheel carrel or whatever you use to mix your soil) and allow it to sit in there for 30 min, much of it will become saturated, then try mixing. Well my inside prorogation chamber is kept at whatever is best for the particular species, for example, I keep Bird of Paradise seeds a constant 77 degrees with high humidity. With palm seeds, they prefer 85-87 degrees with high humidity, so it just depends on the plants you are trying to propagate. For most cuttings 80 degrees seems to be a good temperature. I have a heat mat thermostat to control these numbers to ensure they are stable. The towel on the ground insulates the pad to ensure it is not sitting on the much colder tile floor, this ensures the prorogation chamber stays warmer. My outside greenhouses varry between 110 degrees during warmer sunny days down to 55 degrees on very freezing cold nights (I keep all my greenhouses heated on nights under 40 degrees).

That sounds much like I am doing. plants are propageted inside where I can watch them close .My greenhouse is only heated when the temp drops to 45. So far the daytime temps have been stable. I have ordered an exaust fan with themostat. I have to remember to go out and open the doors when the temps rise. I did have roof vents but the wind is too harsh for those.
Cindy

Forgot to ask Do you sterilize all that soil less mixture you use?

This message was edited Feb 6, 2008 2:15 PM

Nope I sure don't.

Riverland, I think that I know what you are talking about with trying to get the peat wet. I bought a bale of it once to store alocasias etc in over the winter, and it was the first time that I had used straight peat and I hated it! It was so hard to get wet.
I usually/always use a peatbased soiless mix that is much easier to get wet as it has a wetting agent in it. It also has a lime charge in it to bring the PH of the peat up to about 6.2 or so. Straight peat has a PH of about 3.5 and that is way to low for almost all plants. You might want to look into finding bales of the peatbased soiless mixes (they are already sterilized). It also has perlite and sometimes vermiculite in it as well. Drains well and you can start seeds in it and use it to grow out plants. I grow tropicals and bedding plants in it.

Thanks tigerlily for the suggestions. I have a bale of peat right now that I was trying to hydrate. I found that hot water works better but I don't have hot water at the green house.

mustangman826
Your setup is very impressive and I am really tempted to give it a try. I have done some Caesalpinia pulcherrima, we have the 'pride of barbados' and a pink cultivar. I want to do the gillisi cultivar also. There are several grasses in vogue around here for landscaping and I have been trying to come up with a way to start the seed and not pay too much attention to % numbers, I get the seed by the bagfull. I wonder if the lantanas would germinate with your system. I have been using softwood cuttings just because they are so easy but seed would give me a BIG headstart. Thanks for the post, like you, I learn something everytime I log on to Dave's. Will start looking for heat mats now. Don't care for ebay, I guess it is just that I am not really familier with it.
Gene

Gene, you can get the mats just on regular websites. If you want to buy it off line you need to look for a hydroponic store.

My soil bill is escalating. I keep uppotting my seeds and cutting and my greenhouse is fulland my soil stash empty. I guess you have a wholesale source for you peat and perilite since your family are growers. Is there a place in Foresthill I can get the ingedients cheaper than Lowes.

I don't use peat and perlite in large amounts (only for my seedlings, then I reuse it.) I use whats called a growers mix which is a soil every grower in Forest Hill uses. You can get this mix for like 30/yard (yes much cheaper than buying $5 for one cubic foot). I can generally plant about 500 one gallons with one yard of soil. Any place in Forest Hill that sells soil is going to require a wholesale/growers license number. You're better off buying some of the growers mix from the nurseries. I don't know too many nurseries up there that use perlite/peat mix. I still buy the 4 cub foot bags for about $20 a bag. Let me know if this helps.