Seed-starting chronicles 2011

[RickR]

It appears that the seed have germinated at about the same time but the buried seed have left the seed caps under the soil!
cheers
fermi

And it seems, in this case, that the deep planted ones are doing better...

The jagged edge seedlings of A. sikokianum are easy to recognize and don't need labeling.

So when does the jaggedness disappear?  the mature A. sikokianum I have seen have entire leaflets.

[Fermi]

Rick,
I have to agree that the "deep" sown ones have sprouted a bit more generously than the shallow sown ones. I'll have to wait a bit longer to evaluate what success rate I get with each.

Mark,
I'm thinking that I'll have to try a few in ground sowings but mainly of things that don't transplant well for me - like astragalus! A problem we have here is predation by earth mites which keep down the number of self sown seedlings of autumn/winter/early spring germinators! germianting them in pots off the ground is one way to stop the mites apparently!
cheers
fermi

[McDonough]

The jagged edge seedlings of A. sikokianum are easy to recognize and don't need labeling.

So when does the jaggedness disappear?  the mature A. sikokianum I have seen have entire leaflets.

Just rediscovered your question Rick... not exactly sure when they loose the leaf jagginess, certainly mature plants have entire leaves without such fine jaggies.  Interestingly, I grow a dwarf form of Arisaema amurense called 'Jagged Leaf' that Darrell Probst collected (I believe, from Korea)... I'll have to post photos some time.

[McDonough]

Lori, I am pleased to report that seed from you, of Allium ovalifolium var. ovalifolium, sown over 1 year ago, has germinated after our long periods of rain.  Not a great photo, but you get the idea, there are 8-9 short bent-knee seedlings popping up!  I have tried and tried many times with this species, and with my own Allium listera, and the darned things never germinate.  maybe they need extra moist conditions, such as the weather we've had this year.



From a SRGC Forum member in Moscow I had received seed of Allium pseudoflavum (looks like the true species).  I sowed the seed in a flat in late summer and they germinated in November, so I overwintered them on a warm windowsill.  In early spring they had gone dormant.  Leaving out the flat exposed to the weather all summer, even with lots of rain, I'm glad to see how they resprouted strongly over the past several weeks (the Codonoprasum Alliums tend to resprout with winter-hardy foliage in late summer to early fall).
http://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=2017.0;attach=79317;image
http://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=5766.0;attach=234081;image




A terrible photo, but just to show that the rare yellow-flowered Allium eriocoleum from Iran and Kazakhstan (mine collected in Kazakhstan), has resprouted in the last week or so.  I'm happy about this, not being familiar with growing the species I worried that they died when they disappeared in the summer.
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=177.0;attach=9745;image




Last is the extra fine form of Allium caeruleum from DBG (Denver Bot garden).  After the main plant flowers and dries up by midsummer, lots of small basal bulblets appear at the base of the stem; these can be harvested and planted... now with autum rains, they have resprouted.  Behind the grass-like sprouts is a much larger mature plant with bigger foliage, along with many of the basal sprout leaves as well.
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=177.msg1254#msg1254

[McDonough]

Cleaning up around my semi-smashed Magnolia trees (breakage from a surprise early-season 14" snowstorm when trees were in full leafage), I was pleased to find hundreds upon hundreds of Cyclamen purpurescens seedlings.  Left to their own devices, I do get some seedlings, but I'm guessing it is chipmunks and squirrels that take most of the bounty, but if I sit on the ground in the shade of a magnolia tree when Cyclamen seed pods are ready to shatter, and spend an hour or so to gather and immediately scratch the seed in to expand the colony, it WORKS!

[externmed]

Belatedly going to start some dryland seeds.  Remembered coral sand sold in pet shops and may incorporate some of that.
Do folks sterilize their soil?  Iv'e heard everything from pouring on boiling water to baking in the oven.  Guessing wouldn't want to bake at too high a temp (150F? or 225F?) any experience?
Charles Swanson MA USA

[RickR]

I may start with a pasteurized potting mix, but stuff I add to it, like sand, grit, compost, etc. is not.  Nor are my pots bleached or even cleaned well.  I really don't understand all the fuss when you are not dealing with micropropagation techniques, or finicky seeds.  I stick to the "all organisms work in unison, good and bad" principle.

Not that this is the only right way to do it, but it's the way I do it.

[Lori S.]

My process is much like Rick's... the base is potting soil but it's very heavily amended with sand, grit, and perlite.  As I plant things out, I dump excess soil from the pots into a bin and then I reuse it the next winter.  I never, ever wash pots.  Seems to work OK - damping off is not a problem.  

It sounds like coral sand would be pretty expensive if you need more than a little (given how such things are priced in the aquarium/pet trade).  I take it you are looking to create a calcareous soil?  If so, would it be possible to get that limestone grit that's intended to be fed to chickens (to provide CaCO3 for their egg laying)?

[externmed]

Thank you, Lori, Rick for the information and suggestions.  Will go out shopping for poultry grit tomorrow.  (I hate it when I buy an "alpine" plant and find it potted in commercial mix, and it so difficult to try to remove from the roots)
Charles Swanson MA USA