2015 seed starting thread!

[rainbowgardener]

YAY!! Seeds planted - 10 days later than I started the first seeds last year, what with one thing and another.

Planted today:

Lavender - Ellegance purple
Cabbage - Early Flat Dutch
Broccoli - Blue Wind Hybrid
Parsley - Extra curly dwarf
Summer savory - home saved
Ageratum - home saved
Coleus - rainbow mix
Celery - golden self-blanching
Sweet alyssum - wonderland mix
Cilantro

see how it all does. As noted some are seeds I saved from my plants last year. Some are now three year old seeds...

Three year old is usually fine, but may have a lower germination rate. The only seeds I have had total failure with is last year a friend of mine gave me a bunch of seeds that she had sitting around since the mid-1990's and not in cold storage. Not a single one of them sprouted.

[Rairdog]

Pics or it didn't happen RBG lol.

I have lettuce, chard and spinach already up.


Peppers and toms germinating on the heat mat. We will just call the toms a germination test for saved seeds (Martino and Pineapple) since it's way too early. I'm hoping the bells and Anaheim make it through.


I also did a mass planting of Walla onions in a last attempt to start from seed. I might do a mass celery also.

[Rairdog]

Add Kohlrabi and celery to the list. I am working backwards from a plant out date of 3/15 for the green house for cool weather crops instead of 5/1ish for my zone.

[erins327]

Wow y'all are doing winter stuff, and I'm getting read for Spring already!

My first round is starting tomorrow:

Tomatoes:
Cherokee Purple
Tomatillo ( I know I know, not really a tomato I guess)
Yellow pear
Sungold
Black Krim
Chocolate Pear
Ground Cherries

I will do the second round here in about two weeks, which will include the peppers and papalo. Then maybe in a month I'll get eggplant, okra, and the chinese and green beans going!

[rainbowgardener]

erin - your tomato seeds, etc are planted indoors?

Yeah, difference between gardening in Ohio and Texas. Early in Feb, our temperatures will be back down in single digits, gonna be awhile before anything is planted outside....

Today inside under the lights, I also planted kale, lobelia, impatiens.

[applestar]

So strange that I've started some things earlier than you did, rainbowgardener....
I think it reflects the difference in severity of the winter so far. So many times I noted the frigid dip from Canada affecting the middle states and not so much over here along the Mid-Atlantic.

I have some broccoli (Limba) in 2-4 true leaves as well as getting ready to grow first true leaf (Solstice), cabbages (Early Jersey Wakefield, Late Flat Dutch), tatsoi, pak choi, and back up onions from seeds (Yellow of Parma, Sweet Yellow Spanish, Walla Walla, Red Whethersfield) starting to unfold and stand up. Waiting for Kohlrabi (Early Purple Vienna) to come up.

C. chinense hot peppers (mostly super hot habanero types with a couple of "sweet"/ no heat seasoning types are "cooking" in the heated sprouting set up.
Pepper, Bhut Jolokia Peach
Pepper, Bonda ma Jacque
Pepper, Brazilian Starfish
Pepper, CUMARI
Pepper, Habanero Yellow Bumpy
Pepper, JAMAICAN HOT CHOCOLATE
Pepper, PERU PAINTER "PI215741"
Pepper, PERU WHITE HAB
Pepper, RED SAVINA (tz)
Pepper, Habanero RED SAVINA® (F2)
Pepper, Habanero WHITE BULLET ® TM (F2)
Pepper, Trinidad Perfum

I've been "priming" 4 kinds of spinach seeds (Bloomsdale Longstanding, etc... will look up varieties tomorrow) and will be sowing them tomorrow, and will prep Three kinds of Swiss chard (Fordhook, Cardinal, Fuerio) for sowing next day. I should sow some kale (Tuscan Lacinato, Dwarf Blue Curled Scotch) as well.

Alpine strawberries (White Soul, Yellow Wonder) are "chillin'" as are echinacea (Purple), and will be set out in room temp to sprout next week. I'll also start the next round of hot peppers (sweet bell and non-bell), celery (Golden Self Blanching) and cauliflower (Early Snowball), and some more flowers.

[applestar]

Pics....

"primed" spinach seeds inside their little paper packets. You can even see that some of them have already sprouted

-- according to gleanings from around the 'net spinach seedlings should be grown in 50's to 60's and carefully planted in final containers or out in protected well prepared bed when they have two true leaves and no later. Sounds perfect for the current temp inside the house. Seedlings will stop growing in 30's and go format, and grow slowly in 45-50°F (which would work for extras if sent out in the garage V8 Nursery as secession team.) Wish he luck!

[Lotte]

I started sowing the first peppers and chilis in the Christmasdays and so far all these have germinated:

Adjuma yellow
Alridge
Amy
Aurora
Beaver Dam
Bomb
Bubba
Californian Wonder
CGN 21500
Chenzo
Chiang-Rai
Chocolate Beauty
Chupetinho
Criolla Sella
Donkey Ears
Doux des Landes
Elefantenrüssel Yellow
Elephant Trunk red
Elisabeth
Erfili
Golden Calwonder
Gorria
Hermes
Herzje
Jalapeno
Jalapeno Hercules
Jamy
Jimmy Nardello
Kaibi Round
Lamuyo
Little Dickens
Mahashi
Mini Bell Pepper
Mirasol
Morocco
Mustafa
Nepalese Bell
Nora
NuMex Big Jim
Pepper chocolate NEW
Pepper from Hungary (red or yellow)
Pepper from Swedish tradefriend, red
Peruviano Arancio
Pervoit
Piccante de Mazetti
Raja
Ribki Bulgarien
Rocoto Aji Largo NEW
Rocoto (huge) yellow
Rocoto San Isidro
Serrano Centauro
Serrano del Sol
Serrano Paraiso
Starfish
Sue's Tomato Pepper
Sulu Adana
Sweet Apple
Sweet Cherry
Sweet Point
Tangerine Pimento
Tollies
Turkish Long
Vezena Piperka
Waialua
Yellow Cheese Pimento
Yellow Wonder

In a fortnight or so I will start my tomatoes.

Kind regards Lotte

[rainbowgardener]

Wow! Lotte, that is a LOT of pepper varieties. Do you have a huge garden? Do you sell to market?


Welcome to the Forum!

[rainbowgardener]

Well, I said the first seeds went in about ten days later this year than last year. That's not because I thought they should, just life intervening and me getting all my potting mix ingredients and getting everything ready. But the earliest I've planted broccoli and cabbage is mid-Jan. Usually it can go in the ground around mid-March, so that gives it 8 weeks to get ready. Planted the golden self blanching celery today.

Broccoli and cabbage planted two days ago are already starting to sprout. Nothing showing on the surface yet, but some seeds managed to un-bury themselves and are showing little roots. !!

Managed to explode one of my light fixtures and pop the circuit. Turns out the metal hook that goes in the fixture to attach the chain to touched something it shouldn't. It was all blackened around there and the hook was I think partly melted, easily broke in half when I tried to remove it. I decided that light fixture bit the dust. I've got a ton of them. Later when the 2nd shelf is getting full I will need to replace it. For now I only have three trays planted and don't need it. But it was pretty exciting for a minute in there, shower of sparks, huge pop.

[Lotte]

Thank you rainbowgardner

Yes I have a huge garden, but my peppers and chilis grow in the glasshouse, only if I have spareplants they grow in the itchengarden.I o not sell to the market, only spareplants.I use all I harvest, most are eaten in summer but the freezer is always full of good stuff to use in winter.

Kind regards Lotte

[erins327]

Rainbow- yes! I start indoors. This week every year I start the tomatoes. Then they will be ready in mid to late March for transplant. There might be a couple of days we have to cover them for low temps, but other than that we will be ready! Its always a rush to get them going and producing by the time we hit 100+ temps and they shut down for the summer.

I am jealous of everyone doing more winter stuff. Thats pretty much over for me. I regret not doing more this last Fall, but my last semester of nursing school got in the way and there wasn't much leisure time. But next Fall I will be ready and better than ever!

[rainbowgardener]

Planted spinach today (Bloomingdale long standing). Usually I just put spinach seed directly in the ground, but I thought I'd do a little bit indoors and see which does better.

The broccoli and cabbage now have tiny first leaves showing! So there is now something green under the lights (if you look closely!). Yay, the growing season is starting!

[Mian5]

I wish I was as experienced of a gardener like most of you. My first year everything went directly into the ground. Second year I started in my basement. The plants that survived were leggy and everything else went directly in the ground. This year I'm excited with more experience and better research I'll have better success. I'm using grow boxes for the sets below and a collapsible grow-light station for my tomatoes and peppers (starting early March)



First set of seeds are
Stevia (second year I hope to get at least one to sprout)
Lavender
Rosemary
Thyme
Chives
Impatiens
Pansy

Second set this week
Mints (peppermint, lemon mint, lemon balm, spearmint)
Sage
Oregano

[rainbowgardener]

Your set up looks pretty good, but I can't tell what kind of bulb is in your light fixture. It needs to be fluorescent, not incandescent. Incandescent (traditional) bulbs give off so much heat, you can't get them as close to your plants as they need to be or the heat will burn the plants up. They make compact fluorescent bulbs to fit fixtures like that, though it will probably be less light. The light needs to be just 2-4 inches above the plants, hung so it can be raised as the plants grow.

Do you have a heat source? Most of that stuff germinates better at soil temperatures around 75-80 degrees F. The soil temperature is a lot more important than the air temperature, so heat mats work well to elevate the soil temperature above ambient.

In general, the perennials are slower to germinate than annuals and take some patience and maintaining appropriate conditions for a long time. All these perennial herbs you are trying to grow are much more challenging from seed than things like lettuce, tomatoes, peppers. The impatiens, sage, oregano, lavender need light to germinate. So do not cover the seeds, just lightly press on them to make sure they are in contact with the soil. Rosemary seed benefits from being soaked for a couple hours before planting. Rosemary, sage, oregano, and lavender can take up to a month to sprout. This is an issue, because without perfect conditions for all that time, they can either dry out if they aren't kept moist or rot out from too much moisture. I bottom water all my seeds, putting a little water in the bottom of the trays. However, all the seeds that need light and are just sitting on the surface, I also lightly sprinkle with water from the top to be sure they don't dry out. But it is possible, I have started all these things from seed in the past. I have lavender seed planted again this year.

I think you have done well at getting the timing right of when to start things. Best Wishes and keep us posted how it is all going.

[applestar]

Top left photo is this year's first set of soilblocks in a 1/2 gal. Rice Milk carton (I'm trying cutting +'s in the bottom and placing the carton on a riser to see if that can effect some air pruning). 2" miniblocks planted with solstice broccoli that had been started in a small community container.


...this thread is potentially very dangerous for me. I already see a few things I hadn't thought about planting/starting from seeds that I DO have the seeds for, and I'm itching to grow them, too!

[Mian5]

Thanks for the tips rainbowgardener. These are things I wish I knew last year. I used incandescent plant light bulbs instead of florescent bulbs and had the lights too high above the plants. I ended up scraping rosemary from seeds and bought starter plants from Home Depot. I water bottom as well and will try lightly sprinkling water on top and heating mats. I don't want to buy any starter plants this year.

[rainbowgardener]

So rairdog says I have to show pics!

2015 first sprouts.jpg (43.01 KiB) Viewed 2677 times

seed starting 2015.jpg (26.96 KiB) Viewed 2694 times

[rainbowgardener]

I have asked this question before. I posted 2 pics at the same time using the exact same process steps. One shows in the post, one gives only a link. It does this to me most of the time. What is happening and how do I make all the pictures show?

[rainbowgardener]

In the meantime, I planted dill today. Broccoli, cabbage, summer savory, and kale have started. Kale was particularly impressive because it is not on the heat mat. Without added heat, it sprouted in 3 days.

[skiingjeff]

Not sure if this is the issue with the pics but I usually select each photo one at a time and place them inline by clicking the "place inline" button and they both show in the posts.

Maybe if your trying to selection more than one picture at a time and not clicking to place each one Inline that is the issue.

I posted the following 2 pictures to be sure of my process. The first is our backyard this past autumn and the second is a pic of the purple cauliflower we grew last year.

[Rairdog]

Thanks RBG...I am always interested in looking at peoples setups with lights, heat and such for ideas. junk....now I got to plant some dill....might as well do some fennel as well.

Kohlrabi is poppin in 3 days.

[rainbowgardener]

No, I did each one separately, browse> open> add photo > place in line. I don't think it lets you do more than one at a time. applestar/ webmaster: is there a way to fix the ones that say not downloaded yet?

Beautiful pics, jeff!

I will post a couple more pictures, showing my set up more. I am just starting. Currently have three trays mostly planted, two on the heat mats and one without. When it is in full swing, it will have 8 (or sometimes I squeeze in 9!) trays on each of two levels. And by then a lot of the earliest stuff will have moved outside.

[applestar]

I'm trying to find out. But FWIW,

If you click on the link for the undisplayed image, you'll see it, right?
Then you can grab and copy the address for it from the top of the browser (it doesn't end in .jpg but that's OK). Put that between the image codes and voilà


Your seedlings look so ordery and neat -- mine are haphazard as ever

[webmaster]

I think I may have fixed the problem. Thanks for the feedback!

[skiingjeff]

Thanks RBG! Glad Webmaster found the issue. I usually don't select more than one pic at a time so that's probably why I didn't run into the issue.

Looking at everyone's starts is getting me itchy but I don't start my stuff until the end of February. Through experience I've learned my soil is not ready for transplant until about one month later than yours and Applestar's.

Got my seeds waiting though!

[applestar]

Last year I had absolutely miserable spinach germination. Very spotty inside snd out.

So this year I tried what was described as "priming" -- soak overnight in water kept at about 70°F, then allow to dry for a day or two at 60-65°F, then sow and keep at around 65-70°F. Viroflay and Giganti Inverno sprouted in 5 days and 6 days respectively.

...the row of Bloomsdale Longstanding in the same fibre tray hasn't come up yet, but it looks as though they are stirring under the mix. The so-called Japanese Spinach "Sharaku" came up in 3 days, but it's not a real spinach -- looks more like some kind of an Asian green in mustard family, so fast germination is to be expected.

[rainbowgardener]

Planted Anaheim chili peppers and cilantro today. The reason for spacing it out as I have been is partly to try to approximate ideal planting time, but also just to conserve space on the heat mats.

On the heat mats I now have broccoli, cabbage, lavender, summer savory, parsley, ageratum, coleus, impatiens, the chilis and cilantro, sweet alyssum, and lobelia. The broccoli, cabbages, savory, coleus, and alyssum have sprouted. The broccoli and cabbage seedlings are significantly bigger than when their picture was taken.

I have one square of cells left unplanted on the heat mat right now, so when that is filled, I can't add any more. But it won't be that much longer until the broccoli and cabbages have true leaves and can be moved off the heating mats, freeing up four more squares.

2013 was when I bought a whole bunch of seeds from the bulk seed place, so this is my third season of using them. We will see if germination rate is reduced any so far.

[Susan W]

RB, a couple of questions. You have parsley on the heat mat which I presume is valuable real estate. I have one of my trays sprouted, just starting to show true leaves, planted 2 weeks ago. Fast enough for me! They don't seen to mind peat pellets and top watering.

The other is Lobelia. Is this cardinal flower ( perennial) Red? Blue? I've been fighting that one! One mention had it chilled and of course light dependent with itty bitty seeds. Hmmm. I have one red in a 4" pot in the mini greenhouse, started last season. A few blues are just showing very tiny in one tray. (I don't top water the itty bitties). And why am I trying to grow these? Not sure except a friend said I should. Perhaps time for me to move on to other plants! (and she can still be a friend)

[imafan26]

Since the folks in cold country are starting peppers, I might try some. I usually wait until March 1. I start mine outside. The night temps are in the low 60's with an occasional heatwave into the high sixties. I will still wait on the Bhut Jolokia since it really likes it to be near 80 to start.

I tried to start my fall garden in July but I had problems with snails eating everything and the weeds over running the rest. I finally got my Fall, er, make that 2015 garden started.

I have beets, swiss chard, kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, won bok, cilantro, daikon, rakkyo, cucumber, pak choy,lettuce, and kai choy cabbages (they are just sprouting now). Garlic chives, Spanish thyme are perennial in the garden (pot escapees) as well as aloe.

I am barely making a dent in the weeds.

I have planted
more beets
kale
green onions
leeks
cucumber
nasturtiums
fennel
dill
papaya
roselle
basil
lettuce- manoa, mesclun, and romaine
asparagus
tiger eggplant
long purple eggplant
hawaiian chili peppers
yellow bell peppers
anaheim peppers
hungarian wax peppers
won bok cabbage
kai choy cabbage
beefsteak tomatoes (need to be potted up)
cucumber
Itaian parsley
Swiss chard
spinach
sunflower mix(second attempt, the cardinals ate the first set of seeds)
cuttings started of bay leaves, spanish thyme, piper nigrum (black pepper), pandan, black sesame,


I had a hard time remembering how to post pictures and I think I posted them in the wrong order. But I don't want to try it again.

The first pictures were posted in September after I weeded the garden to plant, but the slugs and snails kept eating my seedlings.

I finally got the snails under control, sort of, they are still a problem but at least I got the plants big enough to last more than a week in the garden. I found 2 snails today and they had mowed down the tomato seedlings overnight.

I planted a small section first and those plants have now doubled in size. The remainder of the pictures are of the garden today. As you can see it is a small garden 8x16 ft but I do pack as much as I can get into it. Many of the other plants, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, many of the herbs are in pots around the yard and most of them are still buried in the weeds.

[applestar]

Looks great! I'm loving how -- although some of the weeds are familiar - I don't recognize many of the weeds and exotic plants are casually growing right there in the ground.

[imafan26]

What would be exotic plants are common ones here. The aloe was moved because it was easier to move it than to weed it where it was, now it tries to take over the veggie garden and I have to cut it back a couple of times a year. The bushy shrub is the Spanish thyme, Lippia micromera, it has a lot of common names, I use it as an oregano substitute. It escaped its pot. The three trees in the background are my plumeria, Frangipani plumeria lose their leaves in the winter months (my winter sign) and will start blooming on the bare branches before the canopy will fill in. Besides the weeds, the orchids hang from the tree fed by the drip irrigation emitters.

The pots stacked in front of the tile bed and wall are weeds and potted ginger, taro, pineapple, mioga, lilies, marigolds, mini bozo, rosemary, bay leaves, curry, strawberries and probably a lot of empty pots. In front of the tile wall are pots with mostly citrus trees, some roses, orchids, and a whole lot of weeds, some of the weeds are taller than the citrus trees. My weed whacker broke and I don't relish the thought of fighting with the new one. This is just the back yard. The front and side yards have more weeds.

I made a little more room today to pot up the tomatoes and beets, hopefully the slug bait will hold off the snails long enough for me to plant them out. I might even have a little space left to plant out a few more pots of seeds for succession planting into my community garden.

[applestar]

<<< my response to weeds that take over the garden

I brought the alpine strawberries and echinacea seeds that had been sown and been cold stratified out in the garage to the inside plastic covered shelves seed starting area "Winter Paradise." Put the strawberries on the wire rack above the heat mat, replacing the onion seedlings that have straightened up and have been moved OUT to the garage "V8 Nursery".

Also brought inside cranberry seeds that had also been cold stratified. This one is an experiment with seeds collected from the store bought organic Wisconsin cranberries with unusual shape.

[rainbowgardener]

Beautiful pictures, imafan!

OK Susan, when the heat mat real estate gets too tight, I will take the parsley off it.

The lobelia is not the cardinal flower. It is lobelia erinus, the small spreading one with little blue flowers. In the warm season, I have a ton of containers and hanging baskets on my deck, so I grow flowers for them.

I only started the chili peppers. In my (rather limited) experience with them, they are slower than the bell peppers. I may wait another couple weeks for bell pepper seeds.

[Susan W]

Thanks for clarification RBG on the Lobelia. I should have recognized it as a pretty annual from my garden center days.

My seed start for today was winter savory and sage. I have a few 4" pots going of the savory but need more, especially as a squirrel messed with some. Sage from seed new for me.

[rainbowgardener]

seed starting 2015-2.jpg (29.77 KiB) Viewed 2784 times

Here's one more of the seed starting operation. Still need to get a better picture, but this shows all my hundreds of little black pots all lined up underneath. The countertop sits on top of some old kitchen cabinets, so there's plenty of storage.

It is just getting started. Eventually both shelves (the wood one and the white wire one you can just see at the top ) will be full.

Picture enlarges if you click on it.

[Rairdog]

RGB, do you up pot on the table? I can't see the pots in the cabinet...too dark. Do they fit in 1020 trays? I tried solo cups but they are like dominoes and fall over too easily.

[rainbowgardener]

Yes I up pot on the table. Sorry about the pix, try again, but it is just stacks of black plastic pots, mostly the 3.5 inch variety. Yes they fit very nicely in the 1020 trays and since the trays are full, the pots can't fall over.

Here's an older picture of the operation that I posted last year, with more trays in operation and some of them with pots

[applestar]

I just "started" -- prepping by soaking in labeled little paper packets -- some eggplants:
Eggplant, Diamond
Eggplant, White Comet F1
Eggplant, Rosita
Eggplant, Rosa Bianca (saved)
Eggplant, Orient Express F2 (saved)
Eggplant, Thai Green F2? (saved)

I have no idea if the last thee saved seeds will be viable, but I did want to try. Orient Express is a hybrid so these will be F2 -- another mystery as to what will grow. If pepperhead drops by this thread, he can tell us whether the Thai eggplant was a hybrid or an OP (this one I'm REALLY not sure if the seeds are mature enough. I saved some because a few of them did look as though they could be.

[applestar]

Pepper, Habanero White Bullet germinated after 10 days
... still waiting for the others.

Spinach and Broccoli --