ninnymary
Garden Master
Steve, do you use any heat pads at all? Are all of your seeds planted in cookie containers? If so, that's a lot of cookies!
Mary
Mary
Have begun 2014 Propagation Season
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digitS'
Garden Master
I've never used heating pad but my warm bottled water under the boxes seemed to help with the eggplant a week ago.
I have bought cookie boxes for 25 to 30 cents each at the bakeries. They have multiple sizes to fit every need
.
Sometimes I have used strawberry containers but I've learned to put plastic film over the holes in the lid. That covering really helps during the time before the seedlings emerge.
Steve
I have bought cookie boxes for 25 to 30 cents each at the bakeries. They have multiple sizes to fit every need
.Sometimes I have used strawberry containers but I've learned to put plastic film over the holes in the lid. That covering really helps during the time before the seedlings emerge.
Steve
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digitS'
Garden Master
Oh, I'm going to have fun with these!
digitS'
digitS'
897tgigvib
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Yes Digit, I believe you will be getting to the root of a lot of things, and oh what a tangled web shall be seen to be disengaged...
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digitS'
Garden Master
Four varieties in there, Marshall.
Now, you can see why it was reassuring to have Ducks' tell me that I should just be like "horse people" and do it my way! (Or, she said something like that
.)
Anywho, I am a little unforgiving if one group invades the space of another group and tries to blend into the crowd. There are markers and were lines of demarcation! I have to be careful to part 'em out into their proper groups aaaannnd, it is best that I get started!!
Steve
♪ ♫ theme song ♪ ♫ to Ponderosa playing: Timber!
Now, you can see why it was reassuring to have Ducks' tell me that I should just be like "horse people" and do it my way! (Or, she said something like that
.)Anywho, I am a little unforgiving if one group invades the space of another group and tries to blend into the crowd. There are markers and were lines of demarcation! I have to be careful to part 'em out into their proper groups aaaannnd, it is best that I get started!!
Steve
♪ ♫ theme song ♪ ♫ to Ponderosa playing: Timber!
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- #16
digitS'
Garden Master
168 . . .
Threw a half-dozen weak sisters away, broke all the leaves off a Big Beef (tossed that), and broke a seed leaf on a Goliath (happy to keep that). Soaked, drained and hidden away in some shade . . .
:weight
digitS'
Threw a half-dozen weak sisters away, broke all the leaves off a Big Beef (tossed that), and broke a seed leaf on a Goliath (happy to keep that). Soaked, drained and hidden away in some shade . . .
:weight
digitS'
canesisters
Garden Master
I may have missed it... coffee and nap deprived, ya know.
But once you've got all those lovely sprouts, how do you go about getting them in the ground? Do you just plant the whole square of soil and then thin it later?? Cut it into squares??
But once you've got all those lovely sprouts, how do you go about getting them in the ground? Do you just plant the whole square of soil and then thin it later?? Cut it into squares??
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digitS'
Garden Master
What I moved into 4-packs, 48 plants to a tray, are still kind of topsy-turvy, Cane'. I had quite a bit of work this morning getting all those little seedlings out of that cookie box. "Teasing" them out . . .
Here are some plants that have nearly straightened themselves out after having a few days in their new homes.
They are mostly peppers and those just might be able to stay in those containers until it is time to go into the garden. Peppers are much more slowly growing than tomatoes but I don't want them too root-bound and they are growing fairly well right now. I may well have to up-pot them.
The tomatoes, for sure, will need to go into 4" pots. So, they will come out of those 4 packs and just kind of plop down into a larger pot of soil mix in a few weeks. After hanging out in those larger pots for a couple more weeks, then it should be nice outdoors and they can be transplanted into the open garden. Each time I transplant them, they will go a little deeper into the soil so that they will grow more roots along their stems.
Steve
Here are some plants that have nearly straightened themselves out after having a few days in their new homes.
They are mostly peppers and those just might be able to stay in those containers until it is time to go into the garden. Peppers are much more slowly growing than tomatoes but I don't want them too root-bound and they are growing fairly well right now. I may well have to up-pot them.
The tomatoes, for sure, will need to go into 4" pots. So, they will come out of those 4 packs and just kind of plop down into a larger pot of soil mix in a few weeks. After hanging out in those larger pots for a couple more weeks, then it should be nice outdoors and they can be transplanted into the open garden. Each time I transplant them, they will go a little deeper into the soil so that they will grow more roots along their stems.
Steve
897tgigvib
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Cane, when they are like that it is time to do some root and leaf untangling.
The way I used to do it in the greenhouse would be to use my fingers and dig in on the inside between varieties and lift them all out and set the cluster clump on moist potting soil. Then the fun begins. Ya pull off a corner of them slowly and loosely, actually listening and feeling for breaking roots, twisty, shaky, tenderly. Ya have your 4 inch pots already half full with the soil having holes worked out in the middle. Separate one or 2 at a time, trying to get them all as singles. Ya promise yourself never to sow that thickly again...every year...sometimes 2 are INEXTRICABLY INTERWOVEN. That's ok, long as it's only one in 20 or so. If it's 3, one dies, sorry. pinch of death on the smallest. If there are very few to start with and or the seed was expensive, using a bucket of water to separate them with the roots in it helps. Trouble with that is, then the roots all want to lay limp and do not want to spread easily. If you don't then spread their roots, it may languish or even die. Repeat the process of removing a small part of them to separate and plant. It can be like a puzzle!
The way I used to do it in the greenhouse would be to use my fingers and dig in on the inside between varieties and lift them all out and set the cluster clump on moist potting soil. Then the fun begins. Ya pull off a corner of them slowly and loosely, actually listening and feeling for breaking roots, twisty, shaky, tenderly. Ya have your 4 inch pots already half full with the soil having holes worked out in the middle. Separate one or 2 at a time, trying to get them all as singles. Ya promise yourself never to sow that thickly again...every year...sometimes 2 are INEXTRICABLY INTERWOVEN. That's ok, long as it's only one in 20 or so. If it's 3, one dies, sorry. pinch of death on the smallest. If there are very few to start with and or the seed was expensive, using a bucket of water to separate them with the roots in it helps. Trouble with that is, then the roots all want to lay limp and do not want to spread easily. If you don't then spread their roots, it may languish or even die. Repeat the process of removing a small part of them to separate and plant. It can be like a puzzle!
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digitS'
Garden Master
"Listening?"marshallsmyth said:
Well, that would go right over my head
.I'm fairly good at it with the larger and the more-forgiving plants, like tomatoes. It is a little like my digitS' are paralyzed. I've got to do a little gripping at times but it is real conscious or I do something like rip all the leaves off that Big Beef :/!
With real tiny plants, I have trouble feeling the leaves. I think if DW wasn't willing to do those, with her very small hands & fingers, I would have to sprinkle the seed very sparingly and use something like a t. measuring spoon to lift them out of the potting mix.
Steve
