Matt,

Aside from the fact that you have way too many in that pot, they look very good!

If you thought it would be feasible, I would try and cut that pot's contents into at least 4 clumps and re-pot in separate pots. You don't have to pull them all apart, that would only further disturb them as they are still quite small.

I would bring them in the house for the long winter and treat them to a window ledge with several hours of sun daily. As I have so many seedlings myself, most of mine end up under grow lights down stairs and they remain evergreen and growing this way for several years until you see some that are ready to be potted up separately.

They probably won't all grow at the same rate but there are usually some superior seedlings and those are the ones you want to keep your eyes on. I feed with a very dilute strength liquid fertilizer just about each time I water them. This is just my opinion and what I would do if they were mineâºâºâº...Donna

That was what I was thinking Donna...thanks...looking forward to what others have to say.

Matthew
Indiana.Matt

I agree with Donna's advice.
K

I also fully agree with Donna. And I do too.

This post was edited by oleg9grower on Sun, Jul 27, 14 at 18:03

Note, please don't assume a weaker growing plant is not of worth. In many other genera, the weaker early seedlings are often the most colorful, etc.

But yes, too darn many crowded in that pot. If you plan on the dormant treatment (really wouldn't recommend it..better to keep them growing if you can), you could repot them and separate when ready to resume growth.

It's very true that you can get lovely flowers from the weaker, smaller seedlings, but of course you will need to wait twice as long and just like my very first cross, (Orange Sovereign selfed) you are going to be inundated with little bulbs and you might want to save your precious space for crosses that will give you some wonderful variation in your flowers. Red is a dominant color so how many little red bulbs do you want to keep? Mercifully, my 50+ bulbs of selfed Orange Sovereign succumbed to red blotch (I didn't know what I was doing 6 or 7 years ago) as I learned to keep them much dryer and make more interesting crosses.âºâºâºDonna

There are 2 seed pod's worth of seedlings in that pot. I looks like there are more than there really are because they all have 2-3 leaves now, but there's still a lot of them...I think they all sprouted. It didn't take long, a few weeks and they were all up. I just placed them all on the soil and sprinkled more soil over then until they were covered...then kept them watered (they were outside).

I'll work on getting them re-potted and I think I'll skip the dormant treatment until they get larger. I'll probably plant them out in the garden next year...any thoughts on that?

Thanks everyone!

Matthew
Indiana.Matt

Yes you can plant in the garden. But it is better to give them a foil greenhouse. I would not advise seat young plants now, they have strong growth. Better to give them a drought in autumn and after drying the leaves of seedlings, as advised by Donna.

oleg9grower: I'll be re-potting them and keeping them on the porch in bright, indirect sunlight until fall for this year. I was thinking of setting then in the garden next spring.

Can you explain the foil greenhouse? Not sure I understand.

Matthew
Indiana.Matt

Not necessarily the plastic foil. You can make a shelter of spunbond (agrofibre). This is a non-woven fabric. Underneath plants is much less likely to suffer from overheating. It is lightweight, so very easy to make a frame out of scrap materials. I like using a thick wire.

This post was edited by oleg9grower on Mon, Jul 28, 14 at 16:35

Ok...My garden is all raised beds 4x12 feet beds. I have them set up so I can add low tunnels. I can just put up some of my hoops all summer and add some cloth to diffuse the light. Thanks.

A few days after the suggestion to re-pot, I divided and re-potted my seedlings into 5 pots. Wow...look how much they have grown in a month!

They look like pots of liriope :)

They really look healthy Matt but you've still got way too many of one cross, maybe you could give a pot or two away to some unsuspecting friend....;-) âºâºâºDonna

Is that a hint, Donna. I might give some away. At this point, I think I might over winter them and plant them out in the garden next year.

Question: Will they all be the same, or will there be variations?