Seed Germination Experiment: 14 days & Conclusion

I wondered, just how warm is the heating mat. I placed a thermometer between the mat and the thin kitchen towel that covered it, left the thermometer in place overnight. A toasty 86F degrees. Wow!

I had unplugged the mat and forgotten it for 2 days, which may affect the results.

The additional seeds that sprouted were" Cherokee Purple tomato, all. Lemon Boy, all. Tabasco pepper, 2 more. Spinach, all.

Final results, including sprouted seeds that I removed to make the new ones countable:




Chinese Parsley 2005 0/10
Gambo Pepper 2004 0/10
Cherokee Purple Tom. 2009 10/10
Lemon Boy Tomato 2007 10/10
Lemon Boy Tomato 2006 10/10
Tabasco Pepper 2006 2/10
Tabasco Pepper unknown 0/10
Bulgarian Carrot Pep. 2008 10/10
Supersweet 100 Tom. 2007 10/10


Roma II Bush Bean 2008 10/10
Goldn Wax Bush Bean 2008 9/10
Scallop Bush Squash 2008 9/10
Roma Bush Bean 2009 10/10
Icicle Radish 2008 pkt 1 10/10
Icicle Radish 2008 pkt 2 10/10
Golden Nugget Tom. 2009 10/10
Spinach Savoy 2009 10/10
Black Krim Tomato 2008 10/10
Better Boy Tomato 2006 1/10

Orchids

Representatives from two more genera. I did not plan on adding either. Most Cymbidiums are too large, and I have never seen an Epidendrum available.

I'm trying to photograph the entire plant. Web photos are cool, but all too often, they just display the flower. It's difficult to find good photos of the entire plant. For me, much of the allure is in the form, from the roots, to the pseudobulbs or canes, to the thick leaves, to the flowers.

A small Epidendrum. These are also called "Reedstem Epidendrums" or "Poorman's Orchid". The flowers are held in bunches above the reed-like stems (duh) for an appearance similar to a kalanchoe. Culture is said to be very easy, similar to most other windowsill orchids - American Orchid Society directions here.

A brownp-flowered cymbidium. I had no plans at all to buy one. Most are too big. This one is smaller, and I'm partial to unusual colors like this one. I had a bit of buyer's remorse, solely because there isn't much room. Culture is similar to epidendrum and Cattleya.

The entire Cymbidium. We'll see how it does. In a way, the flowers are too much - one flower on a stem would be less extravagant. These are said to last 2 or 3 months. We'll see how it does in my room.

Seed Germination Experiment: 7 days

Chinese Parsley 2005 0/10

Gambo Pepper 2004 0/10

Cherokee Purple Tom. 2009 8/10

Lemon Boy Tomato 2007 7/10

Lemon Boy Tomato 2006 10/10

Tabasco Pepper 2006 0/10

Tabasco Pepper unknown 0/10

Bulgarian Carrot Pep. 2008 0/10

Supersweet 100 Tom. 2007 6/10

Roma II Bush Bean 2008 10/10

Goldn Wax Bush Bean 2008 9/10

Scallop Bush Squash 2008 9/10

Roma Bush Bean 2009 10/10

Icicle Radish 2008 pkt 1 10/10

Icicle Radish 2008 pkt 2 10/10

Golden Nugget Tom. 2009 9/10

Spinach Savoy 2009 8/10

Black Krim Tomato 2008 10/10

Lemon Boy Tomato 2006 1/10

Planning ahead for seed starting.

This is planning WAY ahead, but having played with seeds I wondered what are the best dates to start vegetable seeds.

The information below is from Suite100.com:

They recommend starting seeds 4 to 6 weeks before the date to set out plants.

Very Early: 4-6 wks before the date of last frost. March 16th to March 30th.
Asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, onions, peas, radishes, spinach, turnips.

Early: 2-4 wks before date of last frost. March 23rd to April 6th.
Beets, carrots, chard, mustard, potatoes.

Average: On or just after date of last frost April 20th. (WSU extension states set out tomatoes Mid May)
Beans, corn, tomato.

Late: One or more weeks after date of last frost April 27th.
Cucumbers, eggplant, melons, okra, peppers, squash.

To find date of last frost, check farmer's almanac here. For Vancouver WA, date of last frost is April 20th. (Date of first frost is given as Oct 15th). That's interesting, because for Seattle, date of last frost is March 10th, and for Portland, which is next door, date of last frost is March 23.

For starting seeds, then, we would time our starts 2 to 4 weeks before planting dates.

Tomatoes - start seeds March 16th to March 30th.
Peppers, cucumbers, eggplants, squash - start seeds March 23rd to April 6th.

I'm not sure about the beans, because they grow so fast and need warm soil. I'm tempted to say start them in May.

For direct sowing of seeds in the yard, zone 8, this site recommends:

Carrots: Feb through April
Lettuce: Feb through March
Onions: Dec through Feb
Peas: Feb through March
Radishes: Feb through April
Spinach: Feb through April
Beans: March through August

These seem early! I'll need to check some other sites as well.

We should be about the same as western valleys of Oregon - maybe a week later. So from OR state extension service, this site:
Beans: May through July
Carrots: March through July 15th
Corn: April through June
Garlic: Sept through Feb (interesting)
Peas: Feb through May
Radish: March through Sept
Spinach: April

What's growing? What's blooming?

Lycoris radiata leaves remain alive. I thought the freeze might kill them. So far, so good. A small amount of slug damage - need to get out some slug bait.



Hazelnut trees are blooming - I think. The catkins on one are long and green, and the others are shorter and grey. They are supposed to pollenate each other . One is Ennis and other is Butler - I'll have to go out and check the tags next weekend.

Seed Germination Experiment: 4 days

Now at 4 days. Many seeds have sprouted.


Chinese Parsley 2005 0/10

Gambo Pepper 2004 0/10

Cherokee Purple Tom. 2009 8/10

Lemon Boy Tomato 2007 5/10

Lemon Boy Tomato 2006 6/10

Tabasco Pepper 2006 0/10

Tabasco Pepper unknown 0/10

Bulgarian Carrot Pep. 2008 1/10

Supersweet 100 Tom. 2007 0/10

Roma II Bush Bean 2008 7/10

Goldn Wax Bush Bean 2008 8/10

Scallop Bush Squash 2008 7/10

Roma Bush Bean 2009 6/10

Icicle Radish 2008 pkt 1 10/10

Icicle Radish 2008 pkt 2 9/10

Golden Nugget Tom. 2009 2/10

Spinach Savoy 2009 6/10

Black Krim Tomato 2008 1/10

Better Boy Tomato 2006 0/10

If a count dropped - the seed may have fallen out. Plus, on the first count, it was very hard to see sprouts - kind of like a hanging chad.

I forgot to note on the first post - the water that I used contained very dilute orchid food - 1/2 of the strength used for normal daily watering. I don't know if that influenced the results or not.

I removed the larger grown seeds - squash, beans, radishes - to avoid overgrowing. The remainder went back into the bags and back on the warming mat.

4 days. Not bad.

Oncidium starts from "backbulbs": Update

Today is my day off. I went for physical therapy for my neck disk, now back home. Before starting "homework", I checked the orchids, watered them. I accidentally noticed the baggy-with-sphagnum-backbulb system that was set up 4 months ago. Buy "set up" I mean, I had cut the backbulbs off the original orchid (Oncidium "dancing ladies"-type) , wrapped them in damp sphagnum moss, placed them into a ziplock baggy, zipped it shut, and left them in an east windowsill. I forgot to record when I started this "experiment". I'm thinking September. That would be 4 months ago.

As I discovered the ziplock bag. Barely visible sprout in the baggie. Cool!

Out of the bag. I couldn't resist. Plus, I wanted to re-position the sprout so that it gets more light.

This plant, started from another backbulb at the same time, is further ahead. growth is slow - after all, (1) it's an orchid and (2) it's midwinter and (3) I don't know what I'm doing. Still, it IS growing.

Flowers on the original plant. Photo taken January, 2008. Although the plant isn't in bloom yet this year, the new bud spike is growing mm by mm.

So now the starts are back in baggies, but separate baggies. The sprouted start is in my home office along with the other orchids, still in baggie because roots have not sprouted yet. I think they will come when the new start is bigger, and roots don't grow from the old backbulb.

Seed Germination Experiment: 2 days (60 hours)

Interesting result so far. I planted Sunday am, now it's Tues pm, roughly 60 hours.
Chinese Parsley 2005 0/10

Gambo Pepper 2004 0/10

Cherokee Purple Tom. 2009 3/10

Lemon Boy Tomato 2007 3/10

Lemon Boy Tomato 2006 0/10

Tabasco Pepper 2006 0/10

Tabasco Pepper unknown 0/10

Bulgarian Carrot Pep. 2008 0/10

Supersweet 100 Tom. 2007 2/10

Roma II Bush Bean 2008 6/10

Goldn Wax Bush Bean 2008 8/10

Scallop Bush Squash 2008 4/10

Roma Bush Bean 2009 5/10

Icicle Radish 2008 pkt 1 9/10

Icicle Radish 2008 pkt 2 9/10

Golden Nugget Tom. 2009 2/10

Spinach Savoy 2009 3/10

Black Krim Tomato 2008 2/10

Better Boy Tomato 2006 0/10

So far, very early, quite a lot of germination. This is a test of the packets to see what I can use this year, not a randomized-controlled trial of effects of age on germination. Still, it's interesting. The warmer certainly doesn't seem to hurt, and may well help.

The cat, of course, needs to get to the middle of it all. Probably thinking "this is where that large lumbering animal opens the little packages of yummy stinky fishy stuff for me. Maybe it will open one now! She then walks across a paper towel - well, no longer any semblance of sterile :-)

I did add another sheet of paper towel to each bag. They seem too moist.

We'll see how they look in another day or two.

Baby you gotta put me on your healthcare plan...

This has nothing to do with living greener, gardening, pruning, or puttering around the yard. Unless you get a pulled muscle (which I have) or chop off the end of a finger with the pruning shears (which I have done). It's just that I spent all day today (Sunday) doing "homework" - except that prior entry - and needed a laugh. I love this video diversion before heading to bed.

Garden Log: Testing seeds for germination

As planned, this is the start of the germination testing for old seeds. The objective is to determine which packets might as well be composted, and which ones can be planted for this year's vegetable garden. I haven't done it this way in the past, so it's an experiment.



Two generic white paper towels, marked with squares and labeled with the seed varieties and year. The year is the year to sell, so they were one season old at that point. I wanted to test tomato varieties, peppers, and beans. There were also some squash, spinach, radish, and Chinese parsley seeds, so i thought, "why not".

The seed sizes are quite different, but I don't think that matters.

Covered with a paper towel, and very carefully slid into zipper type plastic bag. I did not lift them from the table, just slid, to avoid spilling seeds. This was the most difficult step, especially for round seeds.



I used a tablespoon to add water to the paper towels, about 1-2 tablespoons to each square. This was challenging, again trying to avoid spilling seeds from their designated squares. The labels became more visible when the paper towels were moist. Most of the seeds stayed in place. Once moist, they don't move around much. These photos are also my record, in case the labels become nonlegible.

Then moved to the seed warming pad. My main concern is that the pad is designed to have a seed flat sitting on it, and this method may cause overheating. It's not an exact science. I may give in and buy a thermometer. Regardless, it's a few months to seed starting season, so if this doesn't work, I can try again.