Ranunculas

[heirloomgal]

The ranunculas are just beginning to bloom, and what a welcome sight they are. I just love these flowers! This is one of the fancy Italian varieties.

Oh my gosh! That is so pretty! The color is just divine.

 

[Branching Out]

Some flowers just stop you in your tracks, and for me ranunculas are included in that group-- even at this early stage, when the patch is just beginning to bloom. Not sure what the name of this intense red and yellow one is, but I like to call it 'Flamenco'; it reminds me of a Spanish dancer's ruffled skirt. And I counted more than 30 buds on 13 stems of this one pink ranuncula plant. Talk about a work horse variety.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

I've never grown ranuncula's. Soooo pretty!

 

[Branching Out]

The ranunculas are in full bloom now, and are an absolute riot of colour.

 

[Branching Out]

And Heirloomgal, the Cerinthe is becoming more and more blue-- just like you said it would. What an interesting plant to have in the garden.

 

[Branching Out]

On January 24th I soaked a bunch of Ranuncula corms for 4 hours, and then placed them in bins with slightly damp peat moss to pre-sprout. The bins sat for 10 days in the dark on the cold basement floor, and during that time I only spritzed them once when the surface of the soil seemed to dry out and become crusty. After just 10 days the corms were pushing up out of the soil, so it is time to get them outdoors to continue growing cool and bright. I plan on putting some in large patio pots on the sundeck (close to the house under cover of the roof overhang) and some in 4" pots for transplanting later. Our weather is supposed to be mild for the next two weeks, but given that you just never know what the end of February might bring I am reluctant to put them in the open ground just yet. The corms have lots of fine white roots growing, and are just starting to send up pointy shoots that will soon become the leaves. It will be easy to tell which way to plant them now, with roots down and stems up.

This year I am hoping to make Phenology notes, so that changes in nature can guide my decision making for when to start different kinds of seeds. I noticed that some weeds were starting to bloom right around when I soaked these Ranuncula corms. I call them 'Pop' weeds, because if you don't pull them in time the ripe stalk goes 'pop' and shoots seeds all over the place; evidently they are called Common bittercress. In a few months we will know if the timing was right.

 

[ducks4you]

I had another batch of ranunculas sitting in the basement in the dark to pre-sprout roots, and when I checked on them about five days ago they looked just fine. Really! Then today I pulled them out to check on them and ackk!! Holey Moley. Not only have they sprouted vegetation, but they are all leggy and kind of yellow. I checked my notes, and these ones were pre-soaked exactly 4 weeks ago; in future I will aim to plant them out after no more than 3 weeks of sitting in the cold and dark to pre-sprout.

The weather will not be good for planting them out for at least five days, so for now I moved them outside and put them in a sheltered spot with two layers of row cover. That way they will get fresh air, and have a chance to become accustomed to the light (and hopefully stop stretching, and green up). Their tray was very dry as well, so I gave them just a little bit of water. Ranunculas don't like to be sitting in water, but you are not supposed to let them dry out either.

I dunno...I think ALL seeds would appreciate some heat to start. Just a thought.
I have grown ranunculas before, and they came in the cheapest of packaging, from Dollar General.
BUT, I planted them in May, when it was pretty warm.

 

[Branching Out]

Ranunculas are unique in that they like to start out for 10 days or so at 13-14C(55-57F) in complete darkness, to encourage root growth while at the same time discouraging vegetative growth. Then once they start sending up shoots they can be kept a bit warmer during the day and a little cooler at night-- but apparently they need at least 13 hours of darkness per day until they are three weeks old to promote active growth (as opposed to corm production). This made me rethink putting the ranunculas outside right away. Instead we bought a 4' table and placed it under my spare grow light that is suspended from the ceiling of our laundry room. The ranunculas are in bins of damp (but not wet!) potting mix with some dry organic fertilizer. They had a fresh 2' bale of ProMix for $25CAD so I am trying that as the potting medium.

Normally the grow lights are on for about 16 hours per day, so we reset them to only come on for about 10 hours a day for the next week-- or until the ranunculas green up. A few leaves are already peeking through the soil so I don't think it will take long. Shortening the length of time that the lights are on may also help slow down my other seedlings, which may be a good thing. It will be warm and sunny next week so I will have to dedicate most of my time to cleaning up the garden instead of to tending plants indoors. Today I also received 40 Purple Jean Ranuncula corms that I ordered by mail. They are so tiny, they fit inside a teaspoon measuring spoon. They soaked for just 2 1/2hours, lest they rot-- and now it's their turn to sit in darkness on our cold basement floor. Let's hope they do well here. 🤞

 

[Branching Out]

The ranunculas are actively growing now, so it's time to begin hardening them off outdoors. I quite like that the clear tubs show the growth of the fibrous white roots, which are already reaching down to the bottom of the container. We have very mild weather in the forecast for the foreseeable future, so these ranunculas will likely be planted out early next week.

 

[Branching Out]

Last week I dug out some sacks of Tecolote ranunculas for pre-sprouting, and there were so many of them that I decided I could afford to try a little experiment with a few of the corms. Instead of just placing them in potting mix I placed some on a capillary mat tray, and some on a bed of small stones that were sitting in a tray of water. These trays, along with four bins of ranunculas in moist peat moss, sat in a cool dark spot indoors for six days. At the end of that time the ones on the capillary mat were beginning to show signs of mold, so they were definitely kept too wet. The ones that were perched on a bed of stones looked very good; nice and plump, with minimal mold. I think that method is worth trying again. And of course the ones in the damp peat moss did just fine too. For now I have moved them all to a bright window so they can start to green up.