Seed-starting chronicles 2011

[McDonough]

Some excellent links Lori, love Salvia cyanescens, and I think I shall be spending some hours on the Robin's Salvias web site... unfortunately I sense a new overpowering plant lust coming on... SALVIA!

[Lori S.]

I just found my missing 150 packets of left-over NARGS seeds from last years seedex...all are now sown with most in the root cellar for a now, short strat period...

Wow, that must have kept you busy for a while.    I envy that you have not only your yard but also a botanical garden to plant in - what luxury!  (On that note, I will be digging up old perennial beds and toting stone around this spring to make more rock garden space... but still have no real plan in mind for the new beds.) 

It seems I am always "misplacing" seed packets! 
Somehow, they get all over the house...

Worse yet, I think, is misplacing the seedlings... For example, I grew a rather interesting clematis last year, but where the heck did I plant it?   

[Hoy]

Misplacing seedlings? I do it every year! Once I even weeded out some totally forgetting what it was and that I actually had planted them! I needed space for another batch
Seedbags do I store in a fridge in the basement.
BTW i have sown about 200 pots and 100 more to sow. In a week i'll move some pots out to get more space indoors.

[Lori S.]

For me, the crux is the point where I have to start separating seedlings into individual pots... where there was one pot, there is suddenly 4 or 6!  I can only keep that many with the amount of room I have!

... although the whole operation will be made easier this year, when it finally gets warm enough to start putting plants out during the day, then putting them back into the garage at night - which won't be for some time yet (oh, have I already mentioned that?  ) - by the addition of this new, deluxe, turbo-charged, heavy-duty plant cart! 
Tah dah!! 

Feast your eyes on those sturdy locking wheels!  That solid construction - it holds 4 trays per shelf (without the frightening wobbling of old plastic shelf system)!  The sleek lines.... It's the Rolls Royce Silver Shadow of plant carts!  Or maybe the Lockheed Starlifter of plant carts, I dunno. (Try to imagine it without all the crap piled on its shelves... and maybe with some flames painted on the sides...  )
Envious??  Yeah, I thought so... 

[Lis Allison]

Great idea! Much faster than all those trips in and out....

[Todd Boland]

A couple of quick shots of some of my babies.  Pots are sprouting daily!

[Lis Allison]

Here's a picture (I hope!) of my solution to the more-seedlings-than-space problem. I made what I call my seed-starting shed using old 2 x 4's, some recycled polyacrylic panels, a roll of 6-mil plastic and a lot of staples. On really cold nights I put a small electric heater inside. It's very ugly but the new one I am planning to make this summer will be more of a lath house with removable plastic windows and it's going where it won't be visible from the house.

(I said, I hope, because I'm having some trouble remembering how to post images..... hope this works!) If not, I'm sorry, everybody!

[Hoy]

I can see your picture Lis but I couldn't see Fermi's (in another thread).
Your shed is similar to one of mine made of recycled window panes.

[Fermi]

I can see your picture Lis but I couldn't see Fermi's (in another thread).
Your shed is similar to one of mine made of recycled window panes.

I've re-posted them in the hope that others can see them!
(Fermi, your reposted images fixed the problem, thanks!  Mark McD)

Lis,
that shows what determination you guys in Canada have to have to raise all those seedlings!
cheers
fermi

[Hoy]

For me, the crux is the point where I have to start separating seedlings into individual pots... where there was one pot, there is suddenly 4 or 6!  I can only keep that many with the amount of room I have!

... although the whole operation will be made easier this year, when it finally gets warm enough to start putting plants out during the day, then putting them back into the garage at night - which won't be for some time yet (oh, have I already mentioned that?  ) - by the addition of this new, deluxe, turbo-charged, heavy-duty plant cart! 
Tah dah!! 

Feast your eyes on those sturdy locking wheels!  That solid construction - it holds 4 trays per shelf (without the frightening wobbling of old plastic shelf system)!  The sleek lines.... It's the Rolls Royce Silver Shadow of plant carts!  Or maybe the Lockheed Starlifter of plant carts, I dunno. (Try to imagine it without all the crap piled on its shelves... and maybe with some flames painted on the sides...  )
Envious??  Yeah, I thought so... 

Lori, if you get only 4-6 pots for each sowed you are luckier (or maybe more restrictive) than me - I usually get the double! (Can't throw any seedling )
Do you export your (patented I suppose?) Rolls Royce Silver Shadow? I'll have some

[Hoy]

A couple of quick shots of some of my babies.  Pots are sprouting daily!

Nice and orderly, Todd. Do the babies have famous names?

[McDonough]

A couple of quick shots of some of my babies.  Pots are sprouting daily!

Nice and orderly, Todd. Do the babies have famous names?

I actually copied-pasted Todd's pics of seed pots, so that I could rotate the image 90 degrees to the left (to make the labels right-reading), and zoomed in a bit, to see what species were planted.  Curious minds...

[Hoy]

A couple of quick shots of some of my babies.  Pots are sprouting daily!

Nice and orderly, Todd. Do the babies have famous names?

I actually copied-pasted Todd's pics of seed pots, so that I could rotate the image 90 degrees to the left (to make the labels right-reading), and zoomed in a bit, to see what species were planted.  Curious minds...

I thought of doing something like that - but figured Todd could tell me if he wanted to

[Lori S.]

A few more little goodies...
Salvia indica - easy, warm, germination in 6 days:

http://www.google.ca/images?client=safari&rls=en&q=salvia%20indica&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1280&bih=636

Papaver sp. from Tajikistan, collected by Panayoti; easy, warm -germinated in 11 days:


Scutellaria resinosa - easy, warm; germinated in 6 days:

http://www.rmrp.com/Photo%20Pages/SS/Scutellaria%20resinosa%20100DPI.htm

Campanula cervicaria - easy, warm; germinated in 22 days:

http://sophy.u-3mrs.fr/photohtm/HI924.HTM

Campanula orphanidea - in cold room for 1 month, then germinated in warm after 9 days:

http://www.greekmountainflora.info/Falakro/slides/Campanula%20orphanidea.html

Orostachys iwarenge - easy, warm; germinated in ~18 days:

http://www.rockwallgardens.com/Succulents.html

Penstemon davidsonii var. praeteritis - in cold room for 1 month, then germinated in warm after 9 days:

http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/potd/2009/05/penstemon_davidsonii_var_praeteritus.php

Potentilla megalantha - easy, warm; germinated in 6 days:

http://www.wildgingerfarm.com/Potentilla.htm

[Hoy]

You really know to choose the right plants, Lori! I always wonder why I didn't choose those! The only one I have is the Potentilla i think