Inside Starts, Yours & Mine

[kathiesgarden]

I used three parts peat, one part vermiculite and one of pearlite in the starter mix I made this year. Had pretty good results except with the dahlia seeds. I don't know what went wrong with them! Reordered the seeds today . This is a new recipe for starter mix that I am trying.

 

[kathiesgarden]

I'm having weird issues with my starts this year. Bad germination on about 1/2 of my varieties, plants just fizzling out, and plants unable to shed their seed coat. I know I'm not under or over watering. I made my own seed starting mix this year which is equal parts perlite, vermiculite, and spaghnum peat moss. That's the only thing I can think of that would be the issue? I did have one flat almost get fried to a crisp because of the heat mat but the flats on the other mats are doing the same thing. I'm getting kind of frustrated!

Just learned how to insert a quote!! Gave a starter recipe above

 

[HotPepperQueen]

Depends on if you want stunted zinnias or full sized ones.

It would help to see a photo, but I would transplant them if I thought the plants were outgrowing their containers. Otherwise, pray for nice weather and soon!

I can get you a better photo but the starts in the half flats in my newest pictures above are the zinnias.

 

[HotPepperQueen]

If you have enough larger containers and potting soil, you can upgrade them and buy a little more time. I usually end up taking my tomatoes out of the cell packs and moving them into 16-24oz. containers I have collected from butter, cottage cheese, etc. It will help keep them from getting root bound.

I got a good deal on 18 square cell pots that fit in a flat from Greenhouse Megastore. Maybe i'll put them in there....

 

[lesa]

I am finally joining the planting crowd! Have all my tomato seeds planted and a few other things going. Still more to do, but glad to be on the right track!

 

[Wishin']

Yay

 

[journey11]

Ava with her babies that she started entirely by herself. She selected them all on her own and even planted some Collarette dahlias (a compact, dwarf variety that is nice in window boxes and containers) that I didn't believe would germinate, but they did! Mostly flowers, but there are a dozen Roma tomatoes in there too.

I told her we would need to thin them to one plant per cell this week and she doesn't like the sound of that. She wants them all to live. I usually feel that way about thinning too. Ha.

These are my snapdragons I am really looking forward to, particularly a double flowered variety called Twinny Appleblossom. I didn't have good germination on the ones planted in the middle. They were a free sample and probably old seed. There is one lonely hibiscus in the front. Here's hoping more will come up. They are a deep pink/red veined bloom/black leaved variety. (I forget the name, but something like this.)

Here's what the Twinny Appleblossom will look like:

Red Mustard (thanks Bay!) in the front, and Pak Choy in the back. These will need to go outside soon.

These are the tomatoes, etc. that were in question of being cooked, all doing well. The peppers have been slow to germinate though. If the weather would just stay sunny and pleasant long enough, my sunroom gets very warm. This is my best attempt at downsizing my tomato patch for the year...19 varieties, 2-4 of each, with a few extras to give away. Two haven't come up yet. I think the Abe Lincolns will sprout yet. I dug in there to take a peek and they look viable. They were collected from last year's tomatoes. The Gram Harper I got in a trade. They don't look like they'll sprout. I was excited to have them too, a unheard of heirloom variety you can't buy anywhere.

There's a few Neon Lights swiss chard growing in there and some okra that hasn't sprouted either. I've not started okra inside before, but was hoping to get a head start on them. Has anyone done that successfully?

 

[Wishin']

Wow, that is a lot of starts. You will have to show of those Dahlias for us when they bloom. I didn't even know of such a flower at the beginning of the year, now I wish I could collect every kind I see.

 

[digitS']

So nice.

Lovely pictures, too.

Steve

 

[journey11]

Dahlias are so addictive! The collarette are really cute. They come in a few different colors, not so fancy and less petals than most, but they have a neat white ring of petals in the center of each.