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Seedling Questions

JGW3
10 years ago

After reading about everyone else starting seeds I decided to give it a try. First time I sewed 5 got 3 seedlings and all but one died. The one that lived is stunted and not doing anything. So I decide to give it a go again. This time I used an old strawberry container from the market to start them in. Started them in MG Succulent and Cacti. I made very small impressions with my finger tips, placed seeds in the impression and covered them barely with sand. The sand soaked up the water wonderfully from a spray bottle and all 10 have sprouted. I am about 10 days into this at this point. I am concerned about the seed case still on most of them. I removed 2 this morning, but when I tried with a 3rd it wanted to pull the whole plant up. So my question is this process something I just need to try every couple of days till they are ready? How careful do I need to be? At what point do I need to start worrying about fungus? I really don't want to touch them too much. As a matter of fact I'd just assume to wait till transplant time to touch them at all.

Oh the varieties are pink picotee and pink "this big dummy lost the tag". 5 of each and I am proud to say all 10 sprouted! Now I am anxious to see if I can get all 10 to grow into something worth having, but no matter what I am having fun with it.

John

Comments (9)

  • kodom087 z9a
    10 years ago

    Congrats on your success. Don't worry about the stunted one. It may perk up at some point though it seems some people just trash the runts. With me still being new to seedlings I am keeping every thing just to see what characteristics they might develop.
    I use a couple of toothpicks to remove the covers. Use one to hold the stem and use the other to coax off the covers. Or a toothpick/tweezer combo but using tweezers to remove coating. You can always mist the covers to soften them up to make it a little easier.

    Hope this helps.
    Kirk

  • JGW3
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Kirk,

    You'd never know you were new at it by your success! Your's are awesome. Are mine at about the size where you started pulling off your seed covers? Did you keep yours in MG for the transplant? I'm up in the air about that, really want to give this gritty mix a shot.

    Have you noticed any difference in the one's with a bottle cap under them yet?

    John

  • kodom087 z9a
    10 years ago

    Thanks, John!

    I waited until the sprouts were about 2-3 days old before pulling off the covers. They were pretty easy for me and slid right off with no problems luckily. I kept them in the same dirt until they were about 2-3 months when I transplanted them. Then I put them in a more refined mix of about 50/50 cactus mix & perlite.

    I haven't noticed a difference with them over the bottle caps as of yet but I'm starting to see some roots on the sides of the clear cups I have them growing in so I'll be transplanting them, again, very soon. Hopefully there would have been enough help from the bottle caps to help the process of spreading the roots outwards. I'm sure I'll have to do a little root manipulation and with larger plastic discs of some sort to keep them going outward. I'm also trying to find a cool looking rock to maybe start training roots on one to grow down and around to eventually have the rock totally exposed above the dirt with the DR sitting on top.

    I'll be sure to post pics when I do repot them all and some of the process as they grow.

    Kirk

  • JGW3
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Kirk,
    When you said your looking for a mini disc two things came to mind. First, was those old CD singles, just a 2 or 3 inch CD. The other was foam discs from my one of my kids toys guns about 2 inches across. Like the idea of a rock. You could even shape a lava rock fairly easily to what ever you liked. Sounds like your having fun with it too. Can't wait to see what you come up with. Keep in mind I'm right behind you and may steal... uh um borrow some of your ideas.
    Good luck.
    John

  • Pagan
    10 years ago

    Yo John!

    Not that you should do what I did but if you do pull the whole seedling out of the soil, don't worry about it, just put it back in. I kept telling myself not to pull the seed coat too hard or too often but Myself is an idiot so now I have about five healthy seedlings that can tell you how many times I accidentally uprooted them in my eagerness to de-cloak. I just put them back in and pretended nothing happened. They're pretending too.

    I've sown seeds three times now, in batches of 10. I noticed that when some of the seeds sprouted, the stems were so narrow they didn't split the coat as much as fatter ones did. That made it harder to yank the seed cover off of the seedlings.

    Those that I repeatedly manhandled just went back into the soil and are all still doing well. Some of them have leaf damage from forceful de-cloaking but succeeding leaf
    pairs are healthy and normal.

    Pagan

  • greenclaws UK, Zone 8a
    10 years ago

    Looking good there! Nice to see someone else is having a go with seeds. They should grow fast for you so keep them moist but not soaking wet, nice and warm and they will be just fine...once they take their hats off and decide to stay around that is!
    Gill UK.

  • JGW3
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Hey Gill,

    Kids today, would you believe I had to make them take those hats off indoors!

    What a difference a day makes. I will post more pictures soon, but I was wondering how long to wait on the transplant. I am thinking about a month total, then it will be nice and warm here and they should be a couple of inches tall too. Also, at what point did you leave the container open to get fresh air all the time.

    John

  • kodom087 z9a
    10 years ago

    LOL John!

    I still have a few of those mini cd singles! In fact about 3 months back I finally set up my home backup server and spent about a week ripping my cds to mp3s and putting them onto the server so every computer in the house could access them. Even access them when I'm out of town. Oh and all my photos.

    As for leaving the top off the baby adenium nursery I left my top off after they'd all sprouted and were about a week old. I only put the top back on if I felt the temperature was going to get too cold over night in the room they were in next to the window out of paranoia.

    Kirk

  • JGW3
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Kirk,

    Well it sound's like your way ahead of me on the technology front. Maybe I found a good recycle option for those old CD's.

    John

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