12 Month Seed Raising Results

[t00lie]

Howdy all.

Although i've been sowing seeds as a hobby for many years,(Lesley thinks i was born in a seed pot),it is only recently that i've started keeping statistical information.

This came about after a visit to a friends garden last year when upon viewing her latest batch of youngsters i was asked how my endeavours were going.My response was that while i had a general feeling ,i had no factual basis on which to make an informed reply.
Later on this got me wondering and although i have a dislike of figures,(whenever i see statistics my first thoughts are 'lies damn lies'--smile),i started a register of all seed sown from April 06.Each entry records the date sown--name of seed--source and if lucky --eventual germination .

A total up this morning confirms 345 pots,(of small bulbs --woodlanders and alpines),have been sown from April 06 to current,however the results relate to the 256 pots sown for the 12 month period April O6 to April 07.

Of the 256 sown --138 have germinated so far--a 54% success rate.I'd expect this to increase over the next few weeks as the weather slowly warms up here.

If i take out a large Trillium batch that i sowed early this year,(they have had only had one chilling period and most won't come up until next season),the figure goes up to 66%.

I should point out that other than the 'doctoring' with the Trilliums above and one *environmental adjustment ,i've tried not to influence the final result.ie when requesting seed my focus was not on whether the sps. would germinate or not ,but rather that the seed was a must have.(Smile).
*This winter i placed a cover over the seed raising area to help control the moisture levels.

Finally a few pics with attached comments to show my setup.

Cheers dave.

[t00lie]

Oops --pics now following.....

[t00lie]

Hang in there folks!!!!!!--for the moment i can't seem to load more than one attachment....

[t00lie]

more

[t00lie]

I generally leave these small germinated pots for a season or two .However recently i was given 6 poly. fish containers so i decided to pot a few up.


There is an endless supply of leafmold at more or less our back door which i mix with my standard potting mix of 40 bark-40 peat -20 grit.This shows the leafmold

[t00lie]

The final result--A container with various Erythronium sps.You can see there are some that are second and maybe third year growths while the rest are seeds that have  germinated in the last few weeks.If very careful i find i can gently release them from their small pots even at the stage where the seeds are just coming through the gravel topping without any losses.

Cheers dave.

[Maggi Young]

Super thread, Dave. Of interest to lots of us, I'm sure. I found it strangely moving to see the pot of Thomas' babies thriving in NZ... How I love this Club and this Forum!

[annew]

Very interesting, Dave. Do you add any fertiliser to your compost?

[Lesley Cox]

I absolutely refute that I thought Dave was born in a seed pot. It was a raised bed, and a heated one at that. Mrs Toole had more thought for her baby!

Just for the record Anne, I put some slow release ferlilizer in my seed pots, Osmacote Plus, 9 months, high potassium, which is what I use for all potting. I use it on the basis that with literally hundreds of pots of seedlings waiting to be potted up or planted out, some are going to have to wait a good long time and so need something to eat in the meantime. Especially I think something is needed for bulb seedlings which remain in their seed pots for two years.

I had almost nothing germinate in the autumn this year - don't know why - but things have made up for that following harder than usual frosts this winter and more snowfalls than we usually have. In particular, frits are coming up like crazy and even the rather temperamental onco and juno irises are popping up almost daily. A great result. Herbaceous things too are germinating in quantity and I'm delighted that most of the seed which Thomas sent to me in 2005 is bursting forth. Last year, 14 months after sowing, just 5 Gal. nivalis were through and no more came. I was very disappointed as there were so many seeds and it was such beautifully plump and fresh seed. The original 5 are up again with grey leaves but this week there are at least 100 more little green spears though so my dream of a bulb lawn in Thomas' honour, may happen after all. Hundreds of last year's crocus seeds and puschkinias and Eranthis cilicicus and other snowdrops are also coming up at last, along with more hundreds of Anemone blanda. All these from the hugely generous Thomas.

[fermi de Sousa]

Definitely an excellent idea for a thread, Dave.
I'll try to get some shots of my seedpots to post in the next few days.
It would be interesting to see how others also do their seed-raising.
And as for being born in a raised (heated) bed, I guess it beats a cabbage patch!
cheers
fermi

[Thomas Huber]

Hey Dave - good to see my "babies" growing in your garden!
Strangely not a single seed from this stock has germinated in my garden 

Lesley, if you've finished your bulb lawn I will visit you and dedicate it   

[Lesley Cox]

Thomas, you'll be most welcome whenever you can get here but so far as the bulb lawn is concerned, it will be a couple of years before I get it planted out. After all, the seeds are just germinating now. A lot of crocuses are up and growing nicely but still very tiny.

I'm suffering from deep frustration at present because somehow, over the last couple of days, my USB cable that fits into my hard drive and camera for uploading pics, has become bent (the camera end) and the darn thing won't work. It still goes in the camera but no software comes up on the screen to start the upload. I'll have to get a new cable I think. In the meantime several pics are waiting to appear, especially a stunning form of Anemone pavonina (or fulgens), the form without the yellow band between the red and the black and which I like much better. I have a nice batch of about 50 coming into flower now, yet they were just tiny seedlings when given to me by a Northland friend, last November so only about one year from germination to flowering!!

[t00lie]

Thanks for the feedback peps ,(a.k.a. peoples), as my 20 year old son explained the other day when he informed me to 'get with it'.

Anne--The potting mix which is made up at a nursery has the following fertilizers---Osmocote--Nitro. blue--Dolomite lime--and a few other ingredients --the names of which elude me for the moment.I don't add anything else and presume the leafmold provides some tucker,(food).

I tend to try and grow all my plants hard when following a friends advice a few years ago i gave my drumstick primulas a feed of blood and bone.Fermi above mentions a cabbage patch--that is how i would describe the result!!!!!!--lovely strong flowering stems near enough to the thickness of a persons thumb ,however oversized leaves that swamped and killed most small gems growing close by. Me heavy handed ?? of course not.............

Will post a couple of comments in the next day or two on some interesting observations/facts gleaned from the seed raising exercise.
 
Good night for now--i'm off to my,(raised),bed.

Cheers Dave.

[Carlo]

Dave,

I expect your 20 year old as talking about "peeps" for people...kind of like "pooter" for these infernal machines.

[fermi de Sousa]

Hi Dave
My seed raising efforts aren't as well organised as yours, though I do try to keep records these days (since returning from the USA in 1997, having seen the sort of things the Bartletts in Colorado were doing).
Here are a few pics of the rather cluttered area at the front of the house. Then the little shadehouse and some of the contents.
cheers
fermi