Seed starting chronicles 2012

[AmyO]

Now, only 4-5 years until full sized

Googling this plant, I'm surprised by the wikipedia link that says "As with many other members of the Ranunculaceae, seedlings of Anemonopsis form only cotyledons in their first season; the first true leaves form the year after germination".  I wasn't aware of that.  Can anyone comment, is it true that's all I'll get this year is pairs of cotyledons and no true leaves?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anemonopsis

Mark...I sowed seed from my plants 2 years ago, and I can say for sure that now in this second year is when I am seeing true leaves on them. Now if the red squirrels & chipmunck would leave the pots alone I'll be all set with many plants in a few years time!

[McDonough]

Thanks Amy, then 2 years it is to see true leaves on Anemonopsis, they sure are slow!

May I recommend buying some "hardware cloth", typically available in hardware stores, sold by the foot or yard on rolls, as much as wanted.  Then with standard wire snips (also at the hardware store), I cut pieces of the wire mesh to cover my pots, turned down at the sides to hold the mesh in place.  When seeds germinate, the mesh can be easily bent to give some height to the covering to give seedlings some room and not have leaves pop up through the mesh and expand the leaves, making for a tricky situation removing the mesh eventually and no ripping the leaves off. It works well, even if the mesh is formed into a loose arch over the pots, so far squirrels and chipmunks leave such protected pots alone.

I no longer get great angst over incessant diggings of these varmints in my pots since I started using wire protection.  The wire covers can of course be re-used over and over.

[Hoy]

Thanks Amy, then 2 years it is to see true leaves on Anemonopsis, they sure are slow!

May I recommend buying some "hardware cloth", typically available in hardware stores, sold by the foot or yard on rolls, as much as wanted.  Then with standard wire snips (also at the hardware store), I cut pieces of the wire mesh to cover my pots, turned down at the sides to hold the mesh in place.  When seeds germinate, the mesh can be easily bent to give some height to the covering to give seedlings some room and not have leaves pop up through the mesh and expand the leaves, making for a tricky situation removing the mesh eventually and no ripping the leaves off. It works well, even if the mesh is formed into a loose arch over the pots, so far squirrels and chipmunks leave such protected pots alone.

I no longer get great angst over incessant diggings of these varmints in my pots since I started using wire protection.  The wire covers can of course be re-used over and over.

Mark, do you have a picture of your "hardware cloth"? Don't know whether something like that exists here.

[Tim Ingram]

A few more things germinating - here Eriogonum ovalifolium, Lomatium californicum and three Asclepias, hallii, latifolia and asperula (from Alplains), which I am particularly excited by if I can grow them on to flowering. These were all sown and kept in the fridge for 6 weeks before bringing out into the greenhouse. All this propagating is beginning to bear fruit as we fill the greenhouses with young plants on the nursery. And finally a lovely surprise in the garden, a mass of Trillium rivale seedlings next to the parent plants. For many years I only had one clone and never got seed set, but have planted several plants from different sources together. However, I didn't expect such largesse!

[Lori S.]

Trond, hardware cloth is just a welded wire mesh - see photos:
http://www.google.ca/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=hardware+clth&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=Unt4T9yKLq3SiAL2xNmnDg&biw=1803&bih=984&sei=Y3t4T7WNKIHliAKCz7ynDg

I'm considering making covers, as you suggest, Mark, for the troughs out front.  The jackrabbits continued their munching this year (despite less snow cover and presumably more choice of things to eat) and nipped off my Prunus prostrata and a little juniper through the winter.

[Lori S.]

Lori, I keep wondering where you are going to put all those new treasures  

Ha, at the rate that I kill stuff off??      Just (mostly) kidding.       
Well, I did go overboard on seeding but think I have enough room in the existing and new beds for a couple of representatives of each new species... just not room for 5 or 6 of them.     

[AmyO]

May I recommend buying some "hardware cloth", typically available in hardware stores, sold by the foot or yard on rolls, as much as wanted.  Then with standard wire snips (also at the hardware store), I cut pieces of the wire mesh to cover my pots, turned down at the sides to hold the mesh in place.  When seeds germinate, the mesh can be easily bent to give some height to the covering to give seedlings some room and not have leaves pop up through the mesh and expand the leaves, making for a tricky situation removing the mesh eventually and no ripping the leaves off. It works well, even if the mesh is formed into a loose arch over the pots, so far squirrels and chipmunks leave such protected pots alone.

I no longer get great angst over incessant diggings of these varmints in my pots since I started using wire protection.  The wire covers can of course be re-used over and over.

I have made a few flat covers with hardware cloth already and use them, I just have so many pots & trays to cover! I need to find a less expensive way to protect my 'babies'. 

[Lori S.]

Have you considered using chickenwire in the same way, Amy?  It costs less than hardware cloth.

[Hoy]

Trond, hardware cloth is just a welded wire mesh - see photos:
http://www.google.ca/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=hardware+clth&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=Unt4T9yKLq3SiAL2xNmnDg&biw=1803&bih=984&sei=Y3t4T7WNKIHliAKCz7ynDg

Thanks Lori. I supposed it was something like that. I use chickenwire against hares and European elk(!)

[McDonough]

Here are a couple views of peat flats protected with small rectangles of "hardware cloth" or "welded wire fabric" or "welded wire mesh", all terms for basically the same thing.  In the photo on the right, the mesh has been loosened to allow room for the developing Jeffersonia seedlings.

 

[Hoy]

They look pretty tough, Mark, not like the chicken wire I use! But my main problem is not warmblooded animals either. . . .  However I could need it where I plant some of my bulbs. They are often dug up and eaten by some animal.

[cohan]

Trond, I was just reading how good ducks are at eating slugs!

[RickR]

Chickens, too...

[cohan]

I think the wild birds here must eat a lot of them- they are around, if you dig under rocks and boards etc, but I don't see much sign of them on plants, so far...

[Hoy]

Trond, I was just reading how good ducks are at eating slugs!

Chickens, too...

I have read it too - but as we are away from home we don't even have a cat. When the girls were kids(!) they had rabbits and we (I) had enough of travelling with animals > Can't just leave them alone . . . .