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Donn
| | Posted on Thursday, November 16, 2006 - 06:57 pm EST : |   
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Please bear with me. Photo posting (and most other syntax) is very different on this forum, than on other fora I frequent.
This is what my jug-o-seedlings looks like tonight.
As you can see, the little critters range from a couple of months old to a couple of days old. There are even new ones today, just sending up little curling growths with dried potting mix stuck to them.
It will be difficult to excavate the ones which should be potted on, without disturbing the rest of the seeds which have not yet germinated. There are 60 seeds in there.
Ideas?
Donn
- New York,
Zone "7"
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Geoforce
My Weather
| | Posted on Thursday, November 16, 2006 - 07:18 pm EST : |
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Donn, I had a similar problem with seed of a florist's cyclamen I planted in june which started to come up in july and then really started sprouting stronger last month. I just waited till I saw no more new ones. That was this last weekend and some had 3-4 leaves, but most were still single leaved. Perhaps you want to wait a bit longer?
Geoforce
- Pennsylvania,
Zone "USDA 7a"
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Tim
| | Posted on Friday, November 17, 2006 - 12:10 am EST : |
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If you did want to prick those seedlinngs out, Donn, I suggest this: water the whole pot first, then lift the lot out of the container in one go. The small tubers won't be deeply rooted, so scrap all of the soil in the bottom of the pot working your way up to just below the roots of the young plants.
You'll be left with a relatively small amount of soil, a slice of soil containing the seedlings and ungerminated seeds. Prick the germinated seedlings out, trying to keep a plug of soil around the seedlings and with the rest of the compost containing the ungerminated seeds, just put it back on top of the soil you scrapped earlier. Do you get what I mean?
I've done this before when I've wanted to get seedlings moving on but have wanted to give ungerminated seeds a chance to sprout. The seeds will be at different depths, but that's OK. Anyone who has thrown compost with ungerminated cyclamen seeds in it on the compost heap will tell you that they continue to germinate.
Tim
- Cambridgeshire,
Zone "7 "
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Jgwoodard
My Garden
| | Posted on Friday, November 17, 2006 - 10:52 am EST : |
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Yes Wilson, I received a glut of seed with a recent order. Roughly 60% is C. hederifolium, the remaining divided between C. coum, C. cilicium, and C. purpurascens. The number is actually much more than 1000 but I wasn't interested in counting... maybe more like 2000+. The disadvantage of this method is that it is an awkward time of year, and there may be little or erratic germination. The advantage (which I consider priceless) is that you don't have to do anything. :-) I had already potted up the seed from Tim, so cyclamen had already met its quota for indoor space.
Jgwoodard
- TN,
Zone "7"
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Tim
| | Posted on Friday, November 17, 2006 - 11:17 am EST : |
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Going back to my last post here (written at 5 am and in a rush); I'm going to post photos tomorrow of how I tackle pots of seedlings which still contain ungerminated seeds.
I would like to have done it this afternoon but the rain here has been non-stop. Better tomorrow hopefully.
Tim
- Cambridgeshire,
Zone "7 "
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Tim
| | Posted on Saturday, November 18, 2006 - 12:46 pm EST : |
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This is what happens when i sow seed out of season. I can't remember if these were sown at Christmas last year or Feb/March. Either way, this tray, which measures 2 feet long x 15 inches across has yeilded hundreds of seedlings so far and I haven't finished yet.
The problem is that some germinate early whilst others have only just germinated (with other seeds germinating in between). The older plants are harder to settle in. You can clearly see plants of different ages in the second photo.
Tim
- Cambridgeshire,
Zone "7 "
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Terryk
My Weather
My Garden
My Time
| | Posted on Saturday, November 18, 2006 - 02:28 pm EST : |
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What a site! So are you and Susan tearing the house down to build more glasshouses and polytunnles? Where will you put them all Tim? This makes my collection look like nothing.
Terryk
- NY,
Zone "6"
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Tim
| | Posted on Sunday, November 19, 2006 - 04:58 am EST : |
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Well Terry, I didn't plan on sowing these seeds but now that I sell at a popular spring event every year I've found that I need to increase the amount of saleable stock if I'm to meet demand. We'll be tight for coum this coming spring but should be back on track for 2008.
I don't know where they will all go! The cyclamen tunnel is full to bursting point. I have nearly emptied the hellebore tunnel in readiness for the flowering hybrid hellebores, but some cyclamen will have to go in there. I could do with another polytunnel, Terry, but I don't want to give up any perfectly good ground for it. The tunnels I have now (and the glasshouses) are situated on soil that really wouldn't have been any good for planting. We will just have to cope with what we have.
The plan for the future is to carry on growing large quantities of coum, but hardly any of the species which don't sell. Interestingly, hederifolium isn't worth the bother for me. Two years to flower and I can't get much for them when they do eventually go. It's the rarer species that need to be concentrated on. I wish I had a tunnel full of C. colchicum, silver leaved creticum, elegans...
Tim
- Cambridgeshire,
Zone "7 "
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Terryk
My Weather
My Garden
My Time
| | Posted on Sunday, November 19, 2006 - 08:32 am EST : |
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Perhaps you could add a shelf to the glasshouse therefore increasing your usable space. The problem I see is then you might sacrifice good plant appearance and land up with leggy ones like some of mine. I must say that my C. coum that were outdoors under the deck stayed compact through the summer and all went dormant. Something to think about.
Terryk
- NY,
Zone "6"
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Carol23
| | Posted on Sunday, November 19, 2006 - 09:34 am EST : |
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Tim, I like that coum seedling with the large very dark center edged in silver.
Personally hederifolium is my favorite so it puzzles me that they don't sell. Perhaps you sell what is flowering?
Hederifolium has endless possibilities in leaf size, shape, patterns and it is the easiest for me to grow in the garden. I'm always looking for different forms.
The gene pool knows no boundaries.
my only plain green leaf
Seedlings labeled " sagittate" form. Must return to the friend's garden to photograph the parent plants.
Carol23
- Southeastern PA,
Zone "6B"
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