Germinating under domes, help with problem

I am germinating abut 6 flats of seed (the little jiffy flats) under lights inside.
Smart me, when I planted I put different seeds in there. Like marigold, poppy, lantana and hollyhocks, all in the same flat. I know that is a noo no now, but I still h ave these flats with about half of the plants up. I don't know what to do about the dome. I know the ones that are good and up don't need it, but the ones that arent up do.
So anyway, there you go, is there redemption

I'd prop the dome up a bit to get some air circulation underneath it. Your humidity will still stay a little higher than if you took it off completely, but you won't have so much moisture around that it'll rot the seedlings that have come up already.

Thanks, you are a good mentor, you know so much. Someday I plan to know stuff.

I am assuming you planted groups of the same kind together - I cut them apart and put the ones that have germinated in another flat, and leave the ones that haven't under the dome. I learned, and now I plant separate six-packs with the same kind. You can get as few as 4 or as many as 8 in separate cell packs. And the flats are cheap.

I did my little 6 packs like that. The ones I didn't were the pellets and the other trays. I did put the same kind together, I just put 12 or 6 of the same kind. Didn't even think of germinating time.
I have learned my lesson!! Each tray will have only one kind or maybe 2 if they are 2 that germinate at about the same rate.
I just spent an hour cutting coleus apart. I used 32 oz. cups and those things are so little that I just put too many in the cups.
I think every one of the little devils came up, so they looked like carpet!! Hope I didn't kill them all. I was careful, but you know....

LOL @ "Someday I plan to know stuff."

Sorry, I don't mean to take away from the good information on this thread, but you tickled my funny bone with that one Lorraine and I wanted to pass along my appreciation.

I posted to another thread before I saw this one. I am so glad to hear other people trying the jiffy peat pellets greenhouse starter! this will be my first try. so much great info on this site!! thanx to all of you experienced mentors out there helping us newbies! and I am so glad you mentioned the grouping of similar plants/germination times together. kept me frommaking a huge mistake! never even thought of that. I have 19 packets of seeds..LOL.. 1/3 veggies, 1/3 herbs, and 1/3 flowers.. only a few of veggies need to be sown directly outdoors per seed company recommendation, but the rest are going in the jiffy flats. Q: I may have some seeds leftover, dont think I have enough room in backyad garden to plant that many, so, hoow do you store left over seeds?

I store my leftover seeds in their individual packets in the fridge. I put the packets in a plastic container with a good sealing lid and leave the container in the fridge. Some annuals such as impatiens stay fresh for a couple of years this way, otherwise they wouldn't germinate the next year.

Perfect! Thanks tanglee! I got a little carried away at Atwoods buying seeds! Does anyone know about Ferry Morse seeds? Atwoods is the local farm/ranch store in this area, and thats what they had the most of...just curious. They have a website too, looks like older company anyways, and says guarenteed to grow, so, hope they are good ones.

Now here's a good laugh for you at my expense. I decided to be smart and get out both trays of pellets that were partially germinated and the rest not. Sooo, I made up two trays, one with grminated growing seedings and one with all the ones that had not germinated. Sounds ok right? Think about it...................................................Okay, I'll tell you, I now have no idea what is in those trays. Even the ones that are up I only know what a few of them ar. So once I see the leaves, I'm on the seed database to see the seedling is.
Anyway, if you do this unless you have them memorized, put tags somewhere!!!
This is called "Stupid thing to do"

I've had the same prob- so, I draw up a 'map' on an envelope, and record the date it was sown, and the day it germinated. I then store the leftover seed packets in the envelope. When I start potting up and shuffling pellets around, I just draw up a new map.
The only glitch is that every once in a while, I remove one to bottom water it separately, or check the seed to see its progress, and if I get distracted, then I have no idea what I have : )

guess that's why they say "it'll all come out in the wash" and we'll know what they are when they get bigger!


Lala, Glad to know you appreciated my "sarcastic" sense of humor, lots of people call it being a "smart alec" Could that be me, I like sarcastic much better. Lol.
One reason I come on here is to get a laugh somewhere.

Hey, I have mixed them up myself... what is the worst is when you have several colors of the same ones separated out so you know what color the flower is going to be, then you mix THOSE up. Might as well have bought a mixed packet lol

That reminds me of what I manage to do every year, mix up colours. I'll start out right, marking which colour is which, say of impatiens, vinca, etc., and then when I transplant them I'll get distracted by something and then oh no, which were pink and which were red! Once they start to flower outdoors I know and then change their spots. Nothing wrong with a smart alec or "sarcasm", if we can't laugh at ourselves others will! This site is great!

Well, this made my day, I'm not the only ones with "mixed up flowers" and you're right , after they are u p and blooming we can move them around, so it's all good

Shubbard,

I planted several flowers last year from Ferry Morse seeds that did very well. I think that they have a good germination rate and are a little lower in cost. My blanketflower, black eye susansa, gazanias, and gloriosa daisies were all Ferry Morse. I know that I bought more of their seeds this year.

Love that, that's my kind of garden. So, the ferry morse seeds are good? I got a wholesale thing from them the other day, but I think can buy just as cheap at wal mart. Who carries them?

Lorraine,

I think that I got Ferry Morse from Home Depot.

Thanks :)

LorraineR, we must think alike! LOL! the first year I planted a bunch of trays, and didnt mark ANY of them! When it came time to planting them, the only ones I knew for sure were the morning glories, and only because it was the only vine I started! LOL. This year I planted trays that are half one seed and half another. I did have enough forethought to plant each tray with seeds that germinate approximately the same time...however.....I put them all in a greenhouse with no dome lids. Now I have some trays germinating and some that aren't. I dont have room inside the house to remove the ones that have already sprouted.... I just posted a 'help me' thread http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/816156/ and then I found this one.....still not sure what I am going to do with all these seeds & sproutings.

I know. I'm doing the same thing. Since I managed to mix most of them up anyway. The seeds I planted with the pellets, I've been using two trays and when I see one sprouted I put it in the "sprouted" tray without lid and put all the others in the "not sprouted" tray. Can you even imagine what a mess I'm going to have.
One thing that might save me is that I did WS a lot "with labels", so as the seeds come up inside, maybe I can look around in the ones outside and find out what they are.

I had a ton of this one plant and finally looked outside and found seedlings like it. It was bachelor buttons. Hope I can do it with others, cause it's my only hope!!

Try this site - look for the stuff you planted, and find the seedling that matches! Good luck.

http://theseedsite.co.uk/db1.html

thanks pennefeather! great photo!! I hope mine come out so well. I have veggeis and flowers both inth flats now, almost ready to move to bigger size flat. I also started blanket flower, several perrenials, & herbs. except for the peppers, they seem to be doing allright, of course this is my first try, so who knows..lol, I even bought the littlle Ferry morse gardening guide with the seeds, which helped alot, I tend to forget things quickly, so it was handy to reread where I was, an what to do.. so glad to see the Ferry Morse seeds did so well for you! I hope to have a blanket of Blanket flower, all along the front of my property, so I will be so happy if mine do as well as yours! OK I have a new burst of encourgment now! Thanks!!

I forgot to mention- Lorraine- I got my Ferry Morse seeds at Atwoods, but I think Wal-Marts may carry them too, or I bet any local Farm & ranch supply type store/Lowes/Home Depot too. They seem to be doing well so far, and Atwoods had them on sale so less than 1$ pack on most here. Wish we had your weather here! Its supposed to snow here again today! This is March already! Agghhh!

It's cold and rainy here today and it will be 29 tonight, just when we thought it was spring. I dept telling my daughter do not plan until Good Friday, we'll have a freeze before Easter.
So, did she listen, nooooo, What is she doing now?
Out in the rain covering plants.

I had to cover my stuff too.. it was 29 last night... there was ice in the birdbaths.. I uncovered them just to water today, but will cover them up again tonight.

well, its a brrrr 55* and overcast here in Cali, :-D but windy as all get up! I may have to go put a cover on my newly planted vines just to keep them upright!

I googled Ferry Morse to find out more about the company and it has an interesting background.

I bought a bunch of Ferry Morse seeds at HD and Lowes too. They seem to be priced very competitively although the the store racks don't display a huge range of offerings and emphasize the basic stuff. Their website says they offer 750 kinds of seed, but not at the stores where I shop. Ferry Morse is also the distributor of all the 'Jiffy' seed starting products.

Ferry Morse is homebased in western Kentucky. But Ferry Morse was purchased a few years ago by a big French farmers/seed co-op and then that was taken over by Vilmorin-Clause & Cie, a giant seed conglomerate that also owns Sutton Seeds in England, Vilmorin in France, and at least thirty other trade names around the world, supplying home gardeners, farmers, growers, and the floral industry. So they must have in their corporate inventory just about every seed there is. Some have said that Vilmorin is heavily into 'seed technology' , although they don't say that openly on their website (although I don't read french very well any more!)

http://www.vilmorin.com/




This message was edited Mar 8, 2008 5:40 AM

It happened. It not only got 29 degrees, it rained all night, so now we have cold and ice. It's melting some now, but that just means more ice tonight. And 3 days ago, I was thinking about putting some flowers out. Good thing I talked self out of it.

ugh! we have some junk headed our way too! I can finally plant seeds outside, and what does MN do? she sends us a cold storm! Doesn't she KNOW who I THINK I AM?!! :-D

I know, not a very good mother

Ah, mother nature! I thought you guys were blaming Minnesota lol

lol! actually, the junk missed us...well so far anyway. May cool of on Monday again.

Lorriane the one good thing about the pellets is they can be potted up at anytime. Use a styrofoam coffee put about half way full of potting soil and place your pellet in it. Then fill soil around the pellet till even. Good to grow. be sure to poke holes in the cup.

Hey, good idea, that's what I do when the roots start to come out, so guess I could do it anytime, like when they start coming apart!!

Lorraine,

Have you had any luck with the lantana yet? I started some about three weeks ago, and I am still waiting for something to show up. I didn't have any luck last spring, but my starting medium was pretty poor.

According to a couple of the websites that I have been looking at, it could take 50 days to germinate! I'm not sure if I can be that patient.

I've heard it could take as long as 90 days. I won't expect them to come up, but I think I'll just put the containers I WS'd in kind of under the porch and just see.
Anyway, I ordered some plugs, if it takes 90 days to come up, that will be almost middle of summer.
Let me know if any of yours come up and I'll let you know about mine

I just found this thread...

Zarebeth, regarding the link you provided....absolutely fantastic! What a big help that will be!