Good point Flowerbug-- I didn't think of that. So far I am using seeds that I have an abundance of. I am going to be up to my eye balls in Alpine Poblano seedlings, because they are germinating like crazy with this method.
Also, the first cucumbers are forming on my Bushcrop plants. Exciting!
This is an idea that I got from a grower who germinates his chilis in vermiculite, and decided to give it a try. When it worked I decided to try some other seeds as well. I suspect that not all seeds will germinate using this method as the moisture level is so high, so some trial and error...
I've been playing around with pre-germinating seeds for a few days under damp paper towel, and then moving them to vermiculite that is saturated with water to sprout. Given that the seeds are more or less drenched in moisture you would think that they would rot, but that does not appear to be...
So sorry to hear about your seedlings keeling over GottaGo. Is that perennial shrubby sage that you are growing? Last year I tried growing several perennials from seed including Compact Golden Flax and Rhubarb, and while they seemed to do alright when I started them indoors, most of them...
We woke up to 2" of lovely pure white snow blanketing the garden, the heavy kind of snow that coats all of the tree branches and weighs them down. I am half hoping that it sticks around for a few days, because they are forecasting unusually frigid night time lows of -6C(21F) later this week...
I 💚 spring too!
One of the things I like best about pre-germinating seeds is that I get to observe the seeds as they change. First they swell up a bit, and sometimes the seed even changes colour; I am noticing that many pepper seeds sometimes take on a purple cast. Then when the radicle...
This is such encouraging news GottaGo-- I am so very glad to hear that you are having success with using the 1.5" blocker. I think for most people that would be the idea size as it is suitable for most seeds-- and it is definitely the size that I am using most often. My tomatoes can stay in...
We just made it through two days of wicked wind with really powerful gusts (and cold too). Today was much calmer so I tried to pull some weeds including forget-me-nots, but the plants were frozen to the soil and wouldn't budge. Lol. Now it's been snowing for several hours and the garden is...
I think it should work very nicely. Last summer I used sturdy white plastic-coated wire baskets to create something akin to tent frames over trays of seedlings. I would invert the baskets over the trays, and then clip row cover over top. The basket mesh was easy to clip on to, and it kept the...
It would appear that a critter got in to one of my ranunculas bins last night, and now there is a bit of a mess to clean up. I should have covered the bins with row cover to keep them out; there was even a piece of row cover hanging on a chair right next to the bins. The pesky varmint may have...