When are people starting their daturas?

Hi everyone,

I live in zone 6 and am wondering when people start their daturas. I am planning on planting them next week, is that too early? I want to get pods and seeds from them and would appreciate any input. I am a NJ native and have had experience with Datura inoxia reseeding itself every year and getting pods but have no experience with the Datura metel species. I ordered seeds from Ona Lee's and am excited about starting triples this year.

Thanks!
Elizabeth
NJ Native

Elizabeth, I am in zone 7a and I started them last week under a heated mat. Main reason is that I have no luck with those seeds and they do take a long time to germinate.

Good luck!

Well, the triple whites that I got on my trade are germinating already, MINE, NOTHING!

The only Datura I have only a little experience with is the Black Currant Swirl. Seed for that has germinated VERY easy. I just sowed a Double Yellow Datura I got in a trade, and I have the Ballerina I purchased, but have not sown yet. Is there a big difference beween how these 3 germinate/grow?

Pinkangel1420,i started a few of mine.It doesn't take long for me to sprout mine.Here i have 9 seedlings grow and have pot up a few more.Four of them are datura seeds,i had them under my light i don't put mine a no heat mat.I only done a few to see how long it would take and it took no time and they sprouted.


These are Brugmansia and Datura seedlings.

Hmmm ... you need to get those seedlings closer to the light! They are getting very leggy.

X

Anne,that is far as i can put them close to the light.The Green ones are Brugmansia.

Cody

My Double Yellow's are starting to come up, just barely peeking thur the surface....sowed on 2/16...no soaking or anything cause I didn't know I was supposed to.

Anne,here is another picture.

Outside or a sunny window?

They should look like this especially if you haven't gotten to true leaves yet.

X

I'm going to put them out during the day when it's warm.When we get pass those cold nights i will put them in my green house.Four of them are Rubiline X Peanut,and i would hate for them to die on me now.


Your look good,are that all Daturas or Brugmansias?

Thanks everyone for the great pictures and advice! Since I'm living abroad for the year teaching English, I have to bring datura seeds or trade with other gardeners in order to plant them here in Korea. Unfortunately, the seed selection in South Korea is pretty "boring" with the standard portulacas, sunflower (and I mean only 1 type, the single headed type commonly seen everywhere), red salvia (and only red), celosia, zinnias (all of them look like cut and come again), morning glories (ok, there are some varieties for this category, thank God), and luffas.

I had purchased seeds for triples from Ona Lee's before I left my home in NJ but left them on my nightstand when I left for the airport. I was soooo upset with myself. Thankfully, I was able to order some from her online and she shipped them to me within 10 days. I finally got them planted on 2/26 along with D. tatula, D. inoxia, D. discolor, D. cornucopia, and D. Paruja which I got from trades and ebay last year. Luckily, I don't need a heating mat for my pots since the Korean heating system heats the floor which eventually circulates and warms my apartment. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that these guys pop up pretty soon. I'm hoping I won't have to wait more than a month for them to sprout. Korea is zone 6 so I'm hoping to get seed pods from these guys before frost sets in. How long did everybody's daturas take to bloom from seed?

Thanks in advance,
Elizabeth

Elizabeth

Those are all datura.

X

I went ahead and put them in my greenhouse today.If it gets cold i will have the heater on.

Dats and brugs can handle temps in the mid to upper 30's with no problems as long as they are hydrated.

Thanks Anne.

Welcome

Mine were on my front porch. I was getting worried they wouldn't come up by what I was reading here but they are poking up even more today.
By tomorrow should even be able see more. Weird they are sorta purple when they first break the surface of the soil.
We're supposed to get a cool spell tomorrow so will bring them back inside.

Elizabeth---

I have been growing a couple of Daturas from seed now for about 3-4 years---The Triple Purple/White Datura Metel and the Double Yellow one.....


I do not take any exceptional methods growing them fro seed--so they usually take about 4 weeks to germinate. I just seeded mine on 3/1 and am hoping everything will go OK.

When they have 2 sets of REAL leaves--I will transplant them in 4" pots where they will grow to 5"-6" until I plant them outside by the end of April--or maybe, first week in May.
Our official frost-free date here is May 10th--but i always cheat a bit...as i am impatient.

I can tell you one thing--Daturas DO NOT like their roots messed with!!! SO--transplant them when they are seedlings into the 4"pots--let them grow---take them outside on nice days to harden them off--and then do nor mess with them again until you can plant them directly in your flower beds. Do this gently......Dig the hole and lift them from their pots and put them gently in the holes....It will take about a week-10 days for them to "settle in"---but then they will really start to grow. Look out!!!!

By the way--The D. Inoxia is the "wild" form of the Datura.....It is commonly called "Jimson Weed". They will always self-seed and will come back every year--but will be kind of viny and not too upright. They are fragrant--but nothing to rave about--compared to the more cultivated forms of the Datura--which grow upright in woody stems and bloom and make those round seed pods the size of a Chestnut.
IF you want to collect seeds--you have to start the seeds inside NOW and then transplant them outdoors so the plant can grow and bloom and mature and make the seed-pods.
This takes most of the growing season.
You cannot pick the seed-pods until they split (maybe late October). The seeds will not be mature if you do it sooner.,,,,

There are 100's of seeds in each pod--so take the time to do it right--IF you want to collect seeds.....

Gita

Hey Gita,

I strongly disagree with you about the "roots don't like to be messed with" .. I've never, ever come across that problem with any of the datura I've grown over the last decade:

Datura inoxia
Datura stramonium
Datura metel
Datura fatuosa
Datura wrightii
Datura discolor

I start mine in a community pot or cell pack and then transplant to a larger, about a 3-4" pot, and then to their final place in the large planter. I've even moved 3 foot mature plants and have never lost one. I cannot figure out where "datura doesn't like to be transplanted" came from. Datura are weeds, from the Solanaceae family along with brugmansia, potatoes and tomatoes. All of these plants root freely from stems. You can literally throw a piece of one in a compost pile, cover it over or just let it lay there and it will come back with a vengeance! You can abuse and ignore them and they don't even blink.

For the people who find that datura doesn't like to be transplanted, you must be doing something terribly wrong.

X

"X"--I truly respect your opinion, and have always thought of you to be the ultimate advice-giver on Daturas....

My opinion comes from the fact that whenever I have transplanted Daturas into my garden beds ("messed with their roots") , they have gone in a short period of suspended growth. I am doing NOTHING wrong! It may just be a natural adjustment period.

Perhaps, they are just adjusting to being in a new environment--but I have always been very careful not to pull the roots apart or anything like that. Just lift them from their 4"pots and settle them into the 4" holes I have prepared.

It is only from my own conclusions that I state that! Hey! It can't hurt to be careful when transplanting anything--right? Treating seedlings gently never hurts.

I am NOT referring to transplanting seedlings from their seed flats into their 3" or 4" pots. I am more referring to when they are transplanted into their permanent sites in flower beds. Gentle care at this time is always called for!

Newbies to growing seedlings and, especially transplanting them at least twice, could benefit from this kind of advice--don't you think?

Do we still disagree?????

Gita

It must be your soil then .. I always give any plant I transplant into a bed or container a minimum of 4 inches of potting medium all the way around the root ball so that by the time the roots hit the local stuff they've had a chance to acclimate. When I transplant large mature dats, I'll hose off all the soil around the roots, trim the roots and soak the root ball in warm water with half strength fertilizer then dig my hole twice as large as the root ball after the trim and make a slurry of potting medium, about the consistency of thin pudding and pour that in the hole then dunk the roots up and down in the slurry to make sure no air bubbles remain and let the water from the slurry drain and add more potting mix as needed to fill up the hole. This method works really well on roses too if you want to move them or just rejuvenate them.

X

"X"--Thank you for your further advice. You sure go to a lot of trouble, but I am sure it is worth it.
I have decent soil in my beds and I just plant my new plants in it without much "ceremony"....

I do have one more question for you. Would pinching out the Datura's growing tips make a bushier plant? I have never done it--but I really wonder if I should, as I usually end up with tall, straggly plants with maybe 3 or 4 main stems.
Do you pinch?

Thanks, Gita

Not the greatest picture--but this shows the height they do grow....

I've never pinched mine, but yes it would make it bushier. Datura does their best in blazing hot full sun .. just make sure they get lots of water.

The picture shows what mine look like in a container I use just for dats.

X

Here are more pictures which show the progression of growth at different intervals. They were never pinched back or fed.

X

Well, I guess my experience has been a case of "ignorance is bliss" . I sowed 18 seeds of a NOID double yellow datura and have about 85 germination ogf 07 seeds and I didn't soak them cause I didn't know I was supposed to. I didn't use a heat mat either cause I didn't have one till after they had started to germinate. I've been setting them out on my screened front porch every day. My experience w/ my triple Datura was even more naive. Someone gave me seeds that had been sitting in their truck for a year, I stuck them in some regular potting soil and the not only sprouted they did it in about 10 days and this was sitting out side on a bench. I've since transplanted them twice. Once to 3 in pots and again to 10 in pots.
sometimes I think we don't give plants the credit they deserve for preservering!!

I never soak dat seeds .. though sometimes I'll put them on a heating pad if I'm in a hurry cause sometimes they can take MONTHS to germinate. I just sprouted some 5 year old datura wrightii seeds and discolor that were even older on a heating mat. They came up in a week. I'm still baffled by people who have had problems transplanting datura at any stage.

X

"X"---

In your first picture, I can still see their upright growth habit. You just have so many so close--they all look like one, beautiful plant. Is that one a Metel or a Currant Swirl?

I suppose I could constrain their legginess if I planted them in a--say--5 gallon pot and dug it into the bed. I do that with my Daturas. Of course--the pot has holes cut out all around it and the roots do grow through them, but it makes it easier to dig up and drag inside.

Your germination rate is great--time wise. I just planted mine on 3/1 and have them sitting on a tray on the bottom-most shelf of my light set-up. The shelf sits right over a heat vent on the floor--so I am hoping the seeds get some semblance of a heating pad.
I pretty much expect them to take about 3 weeks (minimum) to germinate.

This is all I have to work with doing my seeding and under the lights.....3' set-up....
Don't have room for a 4' shelf and lights....

Gita

They were a F3 Black Currant Swirl which is a metal. The seeds, all from the same mother plant and produced 3 distinct flower types and some in between. I called them ruffles, the picture on the top, puffs, the two on the left and skirts the two on the right. I collected seeds from all three types, actually sequestering some of the flowers of each so there would be no chance of crossing. I'm planning to grow some of each to see if any breed true to the parent. I really like the "skirts".

X

Here is a side view of the "skirts"

"X"----Now you have me wondering what it is I really have.....
I think, I most identify my Daturas with the 2 on the left. Absolutely NOT the 2 on the right....They are too plain.

The ones on the top picture seem a bit too "fancy" and i am not sure I have those....

Then again--I wonder if the seeds I harvest every year can, actually, produce some variants of the same kind?

The first-years blooms were not as "fancy" as the last years blooms.....CLOSE--but NO go! I am not knowledgeable enough to "split hairs" but there might have been a slight difference in the "ruffles"...I do not know.....

This is my 1st years Datura Bloom....Still looks like "skirts" to me--but NOT as deeply "ruffled" as the one i posted above.

OOPS! I guess I did not post last years blooms for you....

Here they are.....Sure seem more "fluffy"......

I'd call what you have, Puffs. The Skirts have the reproductive parts clearly visible unlike the Puffs which are hidden by petals.

An update on my datura seeds - A pot of my Datura Cornucopia seeds and Datura tatula seeds that I got on ebay last year just sprouted yesterday morning! Yipee! That's only 10 days from seed to sprout. Pretty impressive. Now I'm waiting for those triples I got from Ona Lee's to pop their little heads up.

Gitagal I have grown different Daturas since 1998 and never had a problem transplanting them.

Also, Datura inoxia isn't the invasive weed. D. stramonium is. Check out this link and you will find the correct one listed under invasive.

http://plants.usda.gov/java/invasiveOne?startChar=D

D. inoxia is a perennial in warm climates and can be carried over in a 16" pot in the North. I have also carried over D. metel Purple Ballerina, and D. inoxia in the frig over the winter. The roots were trimmed down, then stuck in a plastic bag with damp peatmoss and closed. I cut the plant stem down to 4". Come spring, leaf buds sprouted at the base of stem even while still in the fridge.

As soon as the buds showed, I potted it up until the roots were established and feeder roots developed before planting outdoors. They bloomed more beautiful and earlier than when seed sown. Since Daturas do not usually come true from seeds, this is an excellent way to preserve an original plant.

I collected seeds from D. metel 'Yellow Ballerina' purchased from Parks Seed Co. 3 years ago. The flowers from those seeds were quite different, not double. They looked like a yellow D. inoxia. The purple stems remained.

Here is the bloom from those seeds taken from the original 'Ballerina'

Here is the original 'Yellow Ballerina. I had no other Daturas growing that year since I wanted to keep the seeds pure. It didn't

blomma,

Thanks for your information. I could not open the link, unfortunately....

I did not grow the yellow Datura I have seeds for last year--just my fault for mis-labeling them....but here is the one from 2007.
As far as I know--the seeds I have shared all cam up double like this one....
I will see how they fare this year--as I have them seeded...
Which one do you think THIS is???

Thanks, Gita

Love your Daturas,Gita.I have not started on my yet.But it won't be long.