When to sow spreadsheet!

do it at the end of the day, its easier on the plant if done in the evening

I'm on week 10 of my planting schedule. The closer the target date, the smaller the bags of seeds seem to get. I keep the seeds in 2 gallon zip lock bags in a tote and pull out the bags by the weeks until my target date for setting them out. I'm already getting second leaves on some plants, so I'll need to start transplanting soon.

yup second set mean time for space and lots of bright light unless they are shade plants my astilbe, heuchera and columbine are doing great in the bay window on the north side they get early morning and late evening sun and they are growing like crazy

Seward is not a haven of sunlight in the early spring months, so all my seedlings have to grow under lights. I went downstairs awhile ago, and I see many, many trays that need transplanting. I've got a full schedule today, but tomorrow, I've got to get started.

yup many tidius hours of back braking work lol I took me 4 to 5 hours day for a week to get them of done and then I re seeded all the flats for the second batch

some seedling seem to take forever to grow like lisiantus seeded that one first week of january and they are only now having a second set of leaves

I keep telling myself patience is a virtue I am old enough and have experienced enough to wait for what I want lol

Everything seems to be popping up and getting second leaves, so I should be in the basement right now clearing a place to fill flats with soil. I do my transplanting in my livingroom at a folding table in front of the TV. I go at it for hours, stopping only to take flats downstairs and bring up more trays of seedlings. By early April, I usually have over a hundred flats of seedlings in the basement and I'm prepping the heated greenhouse to start moving them out. In spite of all this, I am sitting here answering e-mails, D-mails & visiting on the forums... ah, procrastination!

hahahahha I started in early january with the ones that need three to four months before they can go out and five to six months to bloom lol wont be doing that again some are now just getting the second set of leaves invisible seeds and micro plants are not my thing

I finally got down to the basement and cleaned up some shelves to put things away. Then I got some soapy bleach water going in the laundry tub to wash flats and 4 packs. I opened a 3.8 c.ft. bag of potting soil and filled some flats. I'll do more tomorrow. I called it a day and came upstairs to clean up before a friend picks me up to go down to the American Legion for corned beef and cabbage. I'm pretty tired, but I can't miss the St Patty's Day fare.

I found a wealth of information at the following URL.. though I don't know what the chap who compiled the information would think of it being incorporated into another data base. But you could always ask him. He has a very large website, in some ways it is similar to DG, but the germination information page is available to anyone, not just members of his site, and in fact I found his site by finding that page, not the other way around. The site is called Backyard Gardener, and the page is the Propagation page. But as I said, I ran across it on it's own and followed a link to find the rest of the site. Check this URL - http://www.backyardgardener.com/tm.html

Wow! That's a great find. I think I should include that link in the first post. In the off season I will try to incorporate as much as possible into my own spreadsheet if they allow me!

http://tomclothier.hort.net/index.html

for all growing informatin
check out this site it has almost every plant grown by man or woman

I've used the tomclothier site for years, but I have to say, I do disagree with some of the germination requirements, at least with the need for light or darkness. Never-the-less, it has saved my bacon on several occasions.

it has always worked for me

hmmmmm is it difficult to germinate bacon?

snicker

Looks like you've germinated a snicker, wineaux.

tee hee

I got a great surprise today I have been trying to germinate lemon orange gallardia
I put some seeds and they did nothing so I added more and some water and the dome and tried it again we today when I checked I found that they all came up so I will have about 100 plants lol so lots of blooms for the garden

I just love the colors in this one and its a perennial so many years of blooms
they also sell first year plants at 15.99 each so jackpot

Love gallardia! I have that same color that has been blooming now
all thru the winter. Congrats, simply gorgeous.

I cant wait to see mine bloom, are the colors as bright as the picture

Very pretty!

better!

my gayfeather (liatrice) is coming up that is one to grow for new gardeners since it is up in like 4 days and at 100 per germination
on the pic it is purple but the one I germinated is a mix of purple, pink, and white seeds that I collected
hummingbirds love them and so do the bees

i figured that must be an easy one to germinate because my sister always gives me a bunch of seedlings that spread. I have a white one that I dont' even know where it came from.

I seeded white liatris a week ago. (I already have purple but I need pink) and gaillardia 'Goblin' to replace mine that finally pooped out. I was hoping to direct sow a few things outside this weekend but NOT now that we had another dump of snow sigh.

dahlianut,

I have pink liatris if you want a division when spring arrives

Yes please Jo South. Thanks ^_^

the only problem I have is that the seeds are all mixed so now I wont know which color is which till they bloom lol
but I am use to planting stuff and not knowing what the are, so when they bloom I will mark them and move them in the fall so they will be in the right place next year but is there really a bad place for flowers I think not hahhahahah

any advice as to appropriate time to transfer foxglove, delphinium, or lupine seedlings from peat cells to 4" pots? Lupine are approx 2.5" tall and just sprouting primary leaves.
My foxglove peat cells are each packed with a cluster of sprouts....any suggestions as to thinning them out to transplant them? A garden center manager advised once the cell is completely rootbound, cut it in half, and replant in the 4" pot? Sounds sensible, but this is my first time doing any seedlings? All were planted 03/01/2009

ok so as soon as they have a full permanent set of leaves they can be transplanted just remember to not handle the stems grab the leaves and be carefull not to break the roots so do it with care, that is why I dont use those peat things I hate them I just start my seeds in flats full of soil so it is easier to pick them out or for the large seeds I use a pot to start so no transplanting for those at all three inch pots fit in a flat and the dome fits on top so it works really good and I put four seeds in each and they are fine till they go out then I split as I plant out

thanks for the tip about peat cells. makes sense to skip that step and just start in pot. do the foxglove clusters need to thinned in order for them to sprout permanent set of leaves? Right now they look like a bunch of bean sprout microgreens?!?

Good info, Scicciarella!

thanks and what I would do with the foxglove is cut off the netting and plant the whole thing into a six inch pot and wait some will grow enough to be handled and a few will not make it but if you try to take it apart now you will loose to many maybe try to loosen it a little before planting it and water from the bottom to increase the root system to make them stronger

Whenever I sow foxglove seed or other fine seed, I always get more sprouts than I need. I usually thin out seedlings before they get their first true leaves by just cutting them out with little cuticle scissors or these nifty embroidery scissors with a hook on the end for cutting out stitches. It's easy to just hook onto the stem of the unwanted seedling and snip it off at ground level. Then I don't have to worry about transplanting clumps or stressing about root damage prying the seedlings apart. Normally, I use one cell for each plant that I want. If I want 12 plants, I use 12 cells and thin to one seedling per cell. Even if I start seeds in a plastic tub (my first year experimenting with this), I still thin out any over-abundance with the scissors. Makes transplanting a little easier.

I was just looking at my seedling and my daturas have buds on them lol but they are only six inches tall this is crazy must be the new fertilizer I got since my morning glories are also making buds at six inches the flower is going to be bigger than the plant ahahahh
oh well at least ill know what color they are hahahhaha

I have a Datura question, do the flowers smell like the leaves? My seedlings are about 4" tall, and stink horribly. I thought the flowers were supposed to smell good on some of these, but I'm not thinking this is a very good sign...

thanks so much. i will thin tonight. i have 32 cells of foxglove, and will thin 10 cells to one seedling/cell; 10 I will thin approx 2/3 of sprouts, 10 I will thin 1/3 of sprouts, and the last 2 i will let go 'au-natural...this being my first year doing seedlings, guess I just want to "hedge" my bets, and see what method is best from seed to outside flowering plant!

klstuart - nope, you're lucky there. The leaves do stink (a good thing, really - considering that they're really poisonous, it keeps both the animals and kids away from them). Depending on the type you're growing, I'd guess, they get a light scent - just barely sweet, it almost smells like a manufactured scent to me.

I used to get a good rush from this plant when it opened at night - even with all these blooms, the scent was not overwhelming.

most animals will not eat daturas and what is really dangerous is the seeds that why the pods have spines on them
and yes they have a smell but only if I sniff them lol and the flower usually have a scent but not strong the one that have a stronger scent smell nice the lilac colored ones smell like lilacs I have that one this year and the triple white, triple purple with white inside and the triple golden queen and the large white those grow so big it looks like a tree amazing flowers just love them
its funny to have them bloom when so small

Thank Goodness. I have a pretty hyper sense of smell. Just brushing them when I water the flat is horrid! I'll put them behind something else, so I don't touch the leaves when they're outside, and look forward to some blooms! I've got the double purple, and the black currant swirl, as well as a white started. Have seed of yellow ballerina, commercial, yet it hasn't germinated :(