2015 seed starting thread!

[rainbowgardener]

Mine stayed out all night last night! Now it is raining and supposed to rain all day (which should get rid of the last of the snow hanging around). I got them all moved from the solid trays in to web trays so they don't drown in the rain.

[Lindsaylew82]

My seedlings are a little leggy...

They are hardening off in the 60's and 70's weather we've been having. They are tolerating it well, I just worry about transplanting with their skinny stems.

[applestar]

If they are tomatoes, put more damp potting mix up around the stems right now. They'll grow more roots. I'm actually using sand/DE (UltraSor) mix around the stems of seedlings hoping to keep them drier.

With tomatoes, you can bury the stems as much as you want. Cabbage and lettuce can be buried up to their true leaves. Peppers are said to be fussy, though I bury them a little when I uppot.

[rainbowgardener]

yeah, Lindsay, it always helps to say what kind of seedlings you are talking about; different plants have such different needs.

Your seedlings are looking great, applestar!

I am up to eight trays of seedlings outdoors now, having potted up a tray of parsley and one of celery. It's a very overcast day today, good for putting new things out.

[Lindsaylew82]

These are brassicas and lettuces. I haven't started tomatoes yet. Definitely on the to-do list for this weekend.....along with sooooooooooooo many other things!

[Lindsaylew82]

OH! I meant to mention also, I bottom watered them with dirty fish tank water, and they really seemed to like that! Bonus use of otherwise wasted water!

[applestar]

I need to start some lettuce! I have 24 micro soilblocks ready to plant here. Just need to decide which to start with. Friend sent me a HUGE selection of sample lettuce seeds to try....

Here are "some" of them

[Meatburner]

Lindsay, what a great idea! Thanks for the tip.

[applestar]

I started some peas

This year, I'm pre-germinating them, sowing the germinated ones in 2" mini soilblocks, then planting the little plants (hopefully at 2-4") in the garden. Yes, lots of little fiddling around, but I'm hoping for a solid stand of peas, not patchy empty spots, AND to defeat the chipmunks that dig up and gobble up the pea seeds just as soon as I poke them into the ground.

I started soaking them on 3/17 just before going to bed.
I drained and rinsed twice around 8 hrs later, draing well
and repeated the rinse 2x and drain process at dinner time
and bedtime yesterday.

This morning, Mammoth Melting Sugar and Golden Sweet are ready to sow

Marrowfat could wait until later this afternoon, and Green Arrow has one or two germinated peas, but could wait until tomorrow, hopefully when Knight will also be ready, but the first two will have to be taken care of right away. Those little roots will be 3/4" and curling -- hooking onto each other and generally being a nuisance, and needing extra care not to break -- most likely by tonight and definitely by tomorrow morning.

[applestar]

As usual I crammed the soilblocks in the tray. I'll separate them later.
...I remembered to take a picture of the Marrowfat peas BEFORE covering them with soil mix slurry...

Maybe I'll try doubling up some of the Green Arrow and the Knight peas in each soilblock tomorrow.... Would NOT be able to do that with the Marrowfat peas -- look how BIG they are!

Here's a comparison of the germinated peas yesterday morning and evening (approx. 12 hrs difference) I was kind of worried about the way Green Arrow germinated so much during the afternoon, so I put them all in the fridge for the night to slow them down.


Just for fun, I took another picture of the peas this morning. As I suspected, Green Arrow is ready to sow. If I had been smart, I would have left just the Knight zip bag out of the fridge so they could catch up... But I didn't think of it last night.


-- you can see some germinated (none of the leftover Marrowfat peas had germinated yet last night, though the extra long root in today's photo must have been growing under its skin), and the already germinated roots grew some more overnight. But it's curious that Knight didn't progress as much as the others.

[applestar]

So, how are everyone's seedlings doing?

I'm a bit annoyed with myself because some of my beautiful seedlings are looking a bit tattered after some sunburns and frost burns -- yeah both have happened. These are cold weather early spring crops, but the weather is NOT cooperating to plant them out.

The damage happened because I haven't micromanaged them sufficiently. We've had plunges down to LOW 20's. Even this evening around 8:30-9PM, I looked at the remote sensor base station for the patio and it said 26°F Ugh!

Quick bring the cauliflower and the still new to hardening young seedlings back in! They were in covered containers but I know they won't last the night out there. The condensation inside the cauliflower container had already frozen I took the two containers in the garage and then realized I'd forgotten to take the broccoli tray outside today and they'd spent the entire day in the rather dim part of the garage....

I have a large clear storage tote out there with a bunch of cabbage, Swiss chard, spinach... ETC. seedlings. Other than clamping the lid shut when in the 20's and opening to offset or entirely depending on the weather, I have been leaving them to survive... And they have.

The four cabbage seedlings planted in the patio windowbox looked frost burned this morning, but alive. I put hot caps (cut off bottle and jug top) on three of them and left one uncovered to see if that would make a difference. (The soilmix in the windowboxes were frozen this morning....)

[NJ Bob]

I got peppers, tomatoes & eggplant under the lights now and it's a beautiful thing!

[sweetiepie]

It keeps snowing here, and temps are cold and it is windy. I was trying to move some housepalnts to the porch (It is enclosed and has lots of windows. But not insulated.) Temps out there are in the 20's and even if I leave the door open to the living room, the highs are in the 50's. The house plants were not looking so good even when I brought them back in at night. So basically can't use that room yet. I really need too.

This is only my second year starting seeds indoors and I may have gotten a little crazy because I don't have enough lights, now that I am transplanting. My germination tests were poor on some of the pepper seeds, so I planted a little thicker and of course they all came up in the dirt.

I only have onions, peppers, marjoram, thyme, rosemary, and oregano planted. In a couple weeks, I would like to start the tomatoes.

I have taken over my daughters room because she has east and south windows and today moved some transplants to the attic windows. My windows downstairs are full of Christmas cactus.

So here is hoping it warms up soon, so I can use the porch soon. By the way I love the way you gardeners share what you are doing. I often wish for a like button on this forum!

[applestar]

If they have sprouted, I think onions, thyme, rosemary, and oregano seedlings could go out to the porch if it's sunny. Maybe bring them inside for the night temp is going down below mid-20's. Maybe not that much space saving, but every little bit helps.

What kind of "houseplants" do you have? Some may survive the porch temps if allowed to go dormant. (Will "look" terrible but will come back once it's warm enough.) -- maybe start a new thread in Container Gardening a Forum

[Rairdog]

Mine are doing pretty good. Some slight yellowing in my peppers. It gets down to mid 50's in GH so they don't like that I'm sure. The AP beds are kicking butt...10 days from transplanting

[NJ Bob]

I'm envious of your space!

[sweetiepie]

If they have sprouted, I think onions, thyme, rosemary, and oregano seedlings could go out to the porch if it's sunny. Maybe bring them inside for the night temp is going down below mid-20's. Maybe not that much space saving, but every little bit helps.

What kind of "houseplants" do you have? Some may survive the porch temps if allowed to go dormant. (Will "look" terrible but will come back once it's warm enough.) -- maybe start a new thread in Container Gardening a Forum

The Houseplants are several kinds of Christmas Cactus and lots of their babies, some aren't so little anymore and Aloe Vera. The Cactus seems ok, with it as long as it comes back in. But the Aloe is looking tough.

I think you are right about the seedlings probaly doing better out there. I got more potting soil, so the next bunch of transplants will have to go out there. It can 't stay winter forever.

[sonia4evers]

Hi everyone!

I'm trying to start seeds for a purple empress tree and I found a couple different sources with different steps on how to do this.

One says to start by soaking for 6 hours (gardenguide.com), while another says to stratify for 2 weeks (eHow). Both then go on to say sow in a pot and germinate indoors before planting outdoors.

I guess in one way or another each will soak but does it matter which way/how long I go about it?

Thanks in advance!

Sonia

[NJ Bob]

I don't have a clue about the type of tree you're trying to start. The fun part for me in all of this though is the personal experimentation. If it was me I'd try both ways.

[sonia4evers]

Thats a great idea, I have more than enough seeds to do that. Thanks!

[Lindsaylew82]

My lettuce got wiped out by some type of fungus. It just kind of melted. Right in the tray...which I haven't planted....yet. I'll do it tomorrow.... Probably (probably not)... Garden isn't ready to plant yet.

I need to feed the rest!

I'm gonna have to buy starts for my hot weather plants. I still have time for seedlings I guess! Late start! I got my hands full!

That was 3 weeks ago.

That's today.