Gardening: Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #27

Only about a week....the soil is a mix, so it's fairly lite, but it's not straight vermiculite. I even have them on the bottom shelf so there's no heat coming up from lights beneath them - and believe me, my office is the coolest place in the house outside of the basement, so they should be right around 65* or so. I think one problem may be that they're in those cells that sit on the automatic watering mat - they may be too damp. I'll go fix that.

I would suggest lettign them dry out, to just about totally dry and then puttign in baggy if you can or coverign with dry cleanign bag if it a big tray. Ya they are fussy to germinate but I would give them time.

You know, I really ought to write to you all at the end of my day, which is the beginning of yours!
ROTFLOL, diaper duty! My DH never changed but one diaper ever in his whole life. The deal was, I change the diapers, and he'd take the boys out and teach them how to work when they turned 12. Well, I kept my end of the deal! LOL!
Star, I am so impressed with your solution to not over watering plants, but ensuring they actually get water while you are gone! I've tried those watering globes you see advertised on TV. They work, but are so expensive! Luckily EB#1 will take care of what needs hand watering, and by next Sept. when I go on Vacation again, I'll have everything on timers.
I've learned that with my boys and DH, you have to be very specific. Don't give them any wiggle room!

For those of you I didn't have time to tell this to, I'm just now catching up, because my Mom (not Barbara), had a stroke last Saturday, and broke her left ankle bones. One per side. I called 911, and had them take her to hosp. She didn't want to admit to the stroke, thought her foot was only sprained, was mad as all get out about having to go to the hospital. I made sure they gave her a thorough check-up, and she had to have plates and screws attached to the two bones so she doesn't end up with a floppy foot. I now have her in a good Convalescent facility until she learns how to use her walker and stay off that foot for the next 6 weeks. It's been a really draining few days.
Luckily I have had the support of most of my siblings, and even the one hold out apologized when the Dr.s agreed with my assessment of the situation. I was blown away today when my Mom finally admitted that not only was I right about calling 911, but she thinks that she had a stroke. Thanks be she is ok for now, and in good hands.
DH and I have longstanding plans to celebrate our 22nd Anniversary this coming Valentines Day at the beach. I have all contingencies here at home covered, and we will only be about an hour and a half drive away if our presence is needed at the convalescent hosp. Thank Bog for Cell phones!
Thanks for being here and cheering me up, even if I didn't have a chance to do more than lurk or write just a line or two. You are all the greatest!
Special thanks to Fairy, and Dreams! ^_^ For your support and teaching me how to make a happy face!
Happy Dance for Fairy followed by Champagne, dancing, and a bubble bath!
Walk In Beauty!
SW

You all sound like such a happy group so i'd thought I'd share...

I received a bunch of seeds that said "freeze for 48 hours and then sow at 70, will take 8 weeks to germinate" un-huh....

Was up until 2 am this morning putting seedlings in their own cells. Your germination instructions should contain insanity warnings Jill:

CAUTION

Following these instructions WILL cause loss of sleep and delusions
of having enough flats at the proper time. Check for sudden onset of
giddiness, apply credit card immediately for relief.

140 plants later Jill, even I do not have enough supplies!!!
You ARE going to come to Iowa to help plants these
plus the 1000 trees right? lol


.:*~*:._.:*~*:.Mindy.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.

SW I'm glad your mom is in good hands and on the mend. You and DH certainly deserve a little break...happy anniversary!

And hurray Stacey! Robin is right, you're gonna feel a whole lot better by....um tomorrow. No, make that today.
;-)

Has anybody grown corkscrew vine? I know it's supposed to get huge, but I don't know what to do with it now when it's only a few inches tall. Should I get a trellis or obelisk for it now? I can't imagine putting it in a great big pot yet, but if it starts twining and I put a small support in the pot for it how will I transplant it into bigger digs when the time comes? I probably shouldn't have started them so early, but all reports say they take so long to bloom that I wanted as big of a head start as I could get. Any input?

Mindy... ROFLOL .. Too too funny.

SW... awwwwwwwww if ya don't get a chance to post before Valentines. Hope you and hubby have a great time. Enjoy it to the max. : )

Lala. I got vinign things going now too. If you put atiny plant in to big of pot, it will get lonely , sit and pout, refuse to grow and just be down right stubburn. best to move it up slowly. I not sure what other folks use, but to start mine out I let them get about 4-6 tall and let them grow straight up, to make a stronger stock base. T

Then I get them I get them i call em wooden bamboo screwes thing s that ya make shishkabobs on. Youc an get a pack of like hundred for a buck at dollar store or find them in the grocery stores too.

I cut back one of them to put into my pot and gently wrap the vine to it loosely sort of in the direction I want it to go. I just us e that thin one till I get the plant eventully transplanted to a bigger pot then use alittle thicker scewer each time. Fromthe kabob scewers, I move into thin wooden dowel pieces.

I just put the new one in first, runnign it down the side of the old one, transfer the ties holding it, transplant the whole thing, holding sticks in place , then once in the new pot will remove the old stick. adjust ties if need be and keep doign that til the plant makes it to its finally place.

Robin, don't give up on your Pansies just yet. Mine were sown on 1-20 and most are up, but I'm still getting sporadic germination. I've been moving them around from the light set up to windowsills during our time without power (which got turned back on yesterday!!), and had forgotten a pot in one window till this morning. There were twice as many seedlings in there than when I moved it! It was cooler in the windows and they seem to have appreciated that. And I was happy to see the seedlings in the forgotten pot hadn't stretched too much (they were in a west facing window).

The seedlings have stretched a bit during our time in the dark, but I think everything will be fine. They still look sturdy and like I can just transplant a little deeper. I was surprised to see the African Foxgloves didn't stretch at all, they're still as short and sturdy as they were.

Star, I think every one of those Vinca seeds you sent me came up! I'm so proud just to have gotten this far with them! I used a free draining potting mix with them and am keeping them on the dry side and they're responding well. If I remember correctly, you said to go easy on the fertilizer. Would a touch of organic plant food be a good idea when they get a couple of true leaves? Its so odd how they get to a point, then just sit there for a while before exploding into growth.

I don't have any Impatiens coming up yet and am starting to get concerned. Its been about 2 weeks since I sowed them, and I'm getting some mold/algae growth on the surface of the soil. I uncovered them, watered with H2O2 solution, and placed them in front of the little fan. Keeping my fingers crossed that the seeds didn't mold or rot.

Once a seed sprouts if you have it in a setile pottign mix, meanign there is no soil in it liek the bags of miracle grow or jungle soil liek that, then the soonest you should feed a very weak fertilizer, is 7 to ten days. By then the seedling has used all the nutrients up from it's shell.

Gemini... What ya got in your oragnic fertilizer. I am not very familar with organic fertilizers for tiny sprouts. I start mine out on weak miracle grow. I wouldn't know the rates or what the chem component is for your organic one unless you have it.

With the iracle grow you fertilize with it and after so many waterign s with it you swithc to plain water to wash the salt build up out. I don't know if the organic builds salts or not with sprouts, organic for bigger plants, hae some infor , but can't really help with tiny ones. Maybe somebody else does.

For i forget Pansies too ya don't want to over or under fertilizer. If ya cna swing it even gettign one of them cheap fertilizer testign kits is better than nothing. They may not be righ ton for pH but they cna get pretty close.

Ya may have gotten to much water to begin with kinda soudns like, any time their mold it to much water and possibly not proper drainage.
If they don't coem up soon, I shoudl have more of them here and can send ya some.

I get a small I call it liek a small wash bucket, one of them rectangular things. If I just opening abag of mix and you cna feel it has even a touch of moisture in it, I put in my bucket, just mist a couple of sprays with water just to keep the dust down and mix it good and fill my trays. Once the trays are filled I plant my seeds, mist the whole tay again lightly and plop in baggy. That all th ewate r the seeds need.

I know I used to think ya had to soak all the trays first and would let drip a bit an dwhen they stopped dripping would then sow seed and watch the seedlings croak.

For thos e that use them blow up pelleted things, it best to soak them so they blow up and then not plant in them for several days lettign them drain and just about dry out completely again. That tiny little seed isn't going to need any of that water in that pellet for days and days and the entire time that water sittign there rotting and molding in the soil.

Until the seedlings have at least two full sets of leaves and sometime s it later than that til I can see roots wantign to coem out bottom , I don't water with full force of water.

Til my seedlings get transplated into at leats two or three inch pots they don't get water hose waterings on them for a good soaking.

For anybody thinking of using the cloth watering method and thendisappearign out of town for days, please practice first, watch your plants, writ edown when ya water and how logn it take s for your seedlings to dry back out again and your cloths. Soem folks have hotter light sthan other folks and such. If ya kepeign th eplace at 85 all day and night, ya gonna dry out fater than somebody who keeping plants at 70.

I know someone in here has the Cork Screw Vine... as they posted an image a few months back... but Heck if i can remember how.

I gotta get sowing today, [WS that is] I've been meaning to all week, but have gotten so busy doing other stuff, it got pushed aside again.

Howdy, howdy,

I've been lurking a bunch, gleaning all the info I can. I'm off (no comments, please) to the garden club with a big box full of best wishes for gardens along the coast, thank you very much, again and again!

tcs1366 I grew corkscrew vine last year - they grew about 7 feet tall over the summer.

I started them inside - probably 8 weeks before last frost. They didn't develop flowers until August - they do smell great and look impressive. I tried to save seeds - but it just become cold to early.

I think I would start the vines earlier - maybe 12 or 14 weeks before last frost.

I was told they develop a tuber that I might have been able to overwinter like a dahlia (wish I had followed this advice)

That great news to hear Pull. You keep doign good work helping your community.

That remidn s me has anybody heard from Lynn since her town got flooded out?????

OK, I think my pansies are too damp and too warm. So I've pulled them off any kind of watering situation, and will be moving them to the basement where it's about 58*....and keeping my fingers crossed!

I put mine in the bottom of my china cabinet in my coffee can and had no issues....

ROTFLOL!! I just had a quick mental picture of all our houses with all sorts of seed containers stashed all over the place - sorry Fairy, it was the coffee can that did it....

LOL, Mindy... I just ordered a case of 48 cell inserts and another case of deep 36 cell inserts.. think that will be enough (200 altogether!!) to last me a few years?

I keep telling myself it's OK to just compost some of the extra seedlings... but then I think of somebody who would like them, and I try to make more room under the lights!

Hmm, so here's a question. Assuming that my 5 million winter sowed poppy seedlings make it through this freeze (I was a little heavy handed), do I thin them, or just let them fight it out amongst themselves?

You really think os Critter. I doubt it very much. Once ya start transplantign them 6 packs disappear real quick.

Oh geez. LOL 5,000 poppies. Way to go!!!!!!

Well, DH knows to be careful opening cupboards and such during this time of year-things may just come a tumbling out that I would NOT be pleased about;)LOL

Can ya just see yoru hubbies face when he opens a cupboard expectign to find hi sfavorite snack an dinstea dfind a bowl of sprout sgoign on. LOL

I was just looking at some stray Salvia splendens seeds on my desk and realized how much they look like mouse droppings! It looks like I'm collecting mouse poo...Ewww!

Ironically, I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of my worm poo. :)

Thank you so much for the tips on the corkscrew vine. I have several more viners sprouting now so I definitely need to get my system in order. I think I have some of those little skewers tucked away some place too. Perfect! And thanks for the tuber tip Michaela. Assuming they make it to maturity I will look and see what's going on below the soil line at summer's end.

I had to LOL when I read Critter's post....at me, not at her. From a tiny 4" tray I transplanted 91 blue petunias yesterday and from the pink pet tray I transplanted 95. I kept telling myself to let some of the stragglers go but I just couldn't. I never can! I always think that if a seed has enough will to sprout it deserves a chance to live. Maybe if I start calling it 'composting' instead of 'killing' I can be a little more brutal.

I doubt it.

I'm giving up on phlox. I cannot win with that one. I've tried cool, I've tried heat. I've tried covering, I've tried light. I don't think it's supposed to be a difficult germinater, but I just can't get that one to go.

Well, it's been a couple of years since I ordered my last case of the 36 cell inserts... and I even shared them around a little... I may share some of these around at our upcoming seed swap party. :-)

But you're right, I do seem to do more seed starting and transplanting each year. I really like those two sizes, by the way.. the 48 cells are good for most stuff that only needs a 6 or 8 week start (basil, marigolds, alyssum, whatever), and the deep cells have been just right for tomatoes (8 week start) and peppers (10-12 week starts) as well as various perennials, petunias, etc that get a longer start and need more root room.

Lala, "clump transplanting" helps... and you get a fuller plant that looks like it's branching at a young age. :-)

I never thought of that with petunias Critter, good call. I do it with lobelia and some of the other small plants, but I've never thought of that with the larger seedlings. I still have 6 more colors to go, LOL. Maybe I'll go crazy and put them 2 to a cell.

ROTFL! We are a bit insane, aren't we? Beats wandering around the house mumbling at ourselves while we wait for spring to come :-)

Kelly - if you get a field of poppies going I'd just let 'em rip! I had some poppies along the drive last year that set seed, and since I had so many still inside (Suzy told me last year they have a pretty good shelf life) I just shook them on the ground where they were, so that's *my* poppy experiment for this year. I've yet to get outside to put the Columbine down though - it's just too dang cold for me to be traipsing through almost a foot of snow - and in a day or so it will be well above freezing for a week. I may go out and put them down then - the area has that lovely "Can't Kill Me" english ivy (hedera helix) so the seeds should settle in beneath that, ready for the next snow/freeze/whatever.

Next up I'm going to try the small tray-full of seedlings for the tiny seeds - lobelia and such. Anyone got advice on that method? I mean, other than what you've already provided here?

I've got Columbine WSed and inside under lights... nothing's up yet... I think I'm watching them too closely. Maybe getting away for a few days will make some sprout!

Robin for me lobelia is definitely HOS planting. I sow it rather thickly in the tray (happens without trying) then I just break off hunks to put in individual cells. Or if I'm short on space I just leave them in the original trays 'til I'm making my containers and break the hunks off then.

Haha Kelly, you know that whole watched pot thing seems to be truer with planting than anything else. I've been sowing in waves. Wave one has been off the mat for several weeks and I'm now trasnplanting the little darlings. Wave 2 is just now starting to germinate so I get surprises almost every day. Today I'm going to start wave 3. Yippee!

Lala_Jane

Here are the instructions from Stokes seeds regarding phlox:

PHLOX (Decussata) Perennial

Approx. 2,500 seeds per oz/28 g

GREENHOUSE: Seed requires a freezing temperature for 30 to 40 days to break dormancy. Seeds will then germinate according to color over a four week period. Requires a soil temperature of 35 - 40°F/2 - 4°C for proper seedling growth. The best colors take the longest to germinate.

DIRECT SOWING: Freeze seeds for 30 - 40 days in an ice tray, then plant ice cubes in the soil in late fall. Plants are quite hardy and do not usually require additional winter protection.


Hope this helps.

oh my - columbine....those are another one of those seeds that requires that you hold your mouth "just so" and do a few other things to get them to sprout. I had some luck with some last year in basic seedling mix, watered from underneath, and I don't think I treated them special. My WS columbines didn't do bupkiss. I think the coffee filter/baggie method works with those too. So many seeds, so little time!! (And Nora's in her office laughing hysterically at some YouTube stuff, so I keep running in there.....)

Seandor - I think I've figured out one issue with some of our swapped seeds - some of us keep our seeds in a fridge, so they've already been exposed to cold, while others (like me) keep them in a cool place, but not somewhere that would provide stratification temps. That may be why some seeds are coming up with apparent ease, and others are being difficult. For those of you who got seeds from me - they've not been kept colder than 50* - so if they require stratification I did not set them up for you :-(

I guess I'm in the middle of 'wave 3' but half the mat is taken up with the Columbine... it better sprout in a week or two more or it's getting bumped for the 8 wk stuff! There are so many things that like 8 wks... I'm afraid to count!

Thanks Michaela, back off the mat I guess. Wow! 35-40° is definitely the coolest recommendation I've seen.

That makes me wonder. If you've had a seed on the mat that doesn't like warmth have you 'ruined' it? Or is it still viable if given happier conditions?

Ok, had to take a picture for future reference so I will try to restrain myself in the future. I guess I just didn't believe they would all come up! This is just one of many containers of poppies, though the most heavily sown.

great googly wooglies Kelly!! I would recommend breaking them into smaller clumps and putting those clumps in larger containers now - they REALLY HATE to have their roots messed with when they're older, so if you can get them into a larger container they won't be as hassled when you go to transplant them outdoors. Wait, they're already outdoors, aren't they? Der....

This message was edited Feb 5, 2009 1:41 PM

Poppies are such a great candidate for HOS. Lookin' good.

Kelly if you're taking pictures for reference I'd like to urge you to submit them to plant files. I've been snapping pictures of all my seeds AND seedlings in an effort stamp out childhood NOIDS in my lifetime. LOL.

Help me out here Terese - what's HOS?

PANSIES!! I've got three pansies!! I just went to move them to the basement, and darned if one tray isn't starting to sprout. I am not patient by nature........I've also got some Osteospermum (from LeBug), Dusty Miller, Alyssum and Chicory sprouting up. Yippee!!