This is a place to introduce yourself ... and we can welcome all of our new and old friends!

Looking forward to seeing old and new friends here.

Please feel free to share your experiences with plants you've started from seed. We'd love to hear about your successes, or things that didn't work so well.

Whether you direct sow, start under lights, or wintersow, we welcome your input.

Here I am, late to the party again. But I did want to add a big welcome from me.

"Seed Forum" can be a pretty broad subject but feel free to add your information, ask questions and give opinions. Those things add to the quality of the forum for all of us. We can all learn from one another.

Karen

Hi, my name's Corey, and I'm a seed-head.

Trading, saving, cleaning, and germinating.

Corey

hey there Rick.. nice to meet you.. what kind do you like to grow?

Hello! I direct sow everything and anything. Have had success this year with Rudbeckia, Echinacea, Monarda, Digitalis and of course all the easy annuals. My fav annuals Morning glories, nasturtiums, cosmos, zinnias, etc. Glad to have found this thread.

I have several favorites from seed catalogs: "Gee, that's pretty!". Delphiniums, Salvia, Columbines, Snapgragons and Penstemon.

But thesmart aswer would be "slug-resistant plants!" I fed hundreds of delph seedlings to slugs before i got one adult, which now blooms beatifully (I think "Pacific Giant").

This year I got several trays of Salvias to live past the damping-off stage, and many have gone into the gorund where they seem to be stalled.

Columbines & Snapdragons sprouted, but i ran out of space in my beds before they seemed stridy enoguh to put out.

I WS ed several Penstemon varieties - my first year WSing. I said "0% germination" and set the tubs aside until I had time to dump the soil and wash the pots. MONTHS later i was ready to dump them and I HAPPENED to look closely at the funny-colored Perlite, and lo and behold, those were teeny-tiny penstemon sprouts. Another month later, aned they are still tinyy.

Corey

Welcome Janice and Corey!

I've found penstemon to be some of the slowest-germinating seeds ever!!! And they don't grow all that quickly, either...mine always bloomed very late in Zone 5.

Congratulations on your delphinium, Corey. I"m envious! I can get them to germinate, but can't get them to survive once I plant them out. It seems the rabbits favor them, as well.

Janice, I'm envious of your ability to direct-sow. Our soil here is so difficult (clay), it's hard to get anything to take hold unless you've really spent a lot of time amending your soil. Please post some pictures if you're able--we'd love to see your garden.

Please continue posting your questions, and sharing your experiences with us.

sorry about the name Corey.. sleepy today as I was reading your post I was thinking wow really.. 0 germ with penstemon.. then I realized they did germinate.. I have had great luck with ws'ing them.. and just love em.. some are taking quite a number of years to bloom though.. but always worth it in the end... Both you and Janice (hello Janice) have great lists of seeds you grow.. can't wait to see some photos if you have the capability!!! .. I wish I had the guts to direct sow.. but I am always afraid to pull them thinking they are weeds.. done it before.. even with markers

>> Congratulations on your delphinium, Corey. I"m envious! I can get them to germinate, but can't get them to survive once I plant them out. It seems the rabbits favor them, as well.

Thanks, Linda. It is BEATIFULL. Pale blue translucent flowers darkening to purplish-blue edges ... light passes through the petals. The spike is a big, blatent cola, but the florets (?) are spaced out modestly and each is delicate and lovely.

The first few years I tried to establish delpiniums, seedlings just disapeared the same day I put them out. Then a few lasted long enough to ID slugs as the villians. Then this guy was the only seedling that made it to a size where it could compete with slugs. Its first year looked like Swiss Cheese used as a machine-gun target. But it put out one spike that year.

Now, second year, it is taller than I am with foliage maybe 2-3 feet around. I had to buy "rings" to prop it up, but now it stands straight and tall. Maybe six great big spikes, and a flurry of secondary spikes below that. It put out out a new stem 3-4 inches away from the center, so i hope to be able to divide it by the roots in another year or so.

Oddly - now slugs leave it alone! No holes. Maybe it has some repellant but the plant needs a year to be able to produce it. Or just plain old "baby leaves are tender". maybe if you could get one plant past its first year, rabbits would find something else more tasty.

Or, planting Zinnias in that same bed distracted the slugs from the Delph. Or maybe it was all the beer saucers and sparing bait.

Corey

>> sorry about the name Corey..




No problem Allison, I answer to almost anything.

>> I've found penstemon to be some of the slowest-germinating seeds ever!!!

Some site advised that, if WS penstemon didn't sprout, to hold onto the tub and try again next winter

Penstemon eatonii "Firecracker" is SO pretty in the Botanical Intere4sts seed packet! Then I found out it was a semi-endangered wildflower, and I WANTED it. That was several years ago and several pkts of seed ago. I'll keep trying ...

My current puzzle is what to do with seven 3" pots, each with a dozen or more TINY P. seedlings. I suppose the only answer is to get a magnifying glass and carefully dis-entangle the roots.

Then pot them up to "something": a shot glass? Do they make 4-ounce Dixie cups? Maybe this is the time to break out that 50-cell (round) plug tray. At least it won't tip over. That would, however, be wierd: I WSed the seeds so i wouldn;'t haveto startify and harden off. Now i may to move them INside for the Winter!

I hope they get big and sturdy enough to plant out before fall gets cold and wet. I dread learning that slugs like Penstemon, too!

Corey, or Rick

Rick, have you ever tried iron phosphate for slugs? I've had really good results with it.

Karen

can always use bathroom dixie cups for your babies

Allsion, you asked for photos...this bed was direct sown.

wow those beds are great.. that was a lot of work you put in there... wish I could get nasties to grow that well.. have to try again next year

Thanks, Allison!
Not really much work, as I just tossed most of the seed ( except the nasturtiums) on the ground, then watered them in. I'm lazy I guess. LOL
I soak the nastie seeds a few hours.

I was missing the soak part.. and I haven't found the right spot for them yet.. always either just sulk or get leggy

Karen,

>> Rick, have you ever tried iron phosphate for slugs? I've had really good results with it.

Yes, during the years that I lost every single Delphinium and lots of other seedlings and even Hostas, adult Swiss Chard and Bok Choy. And they crippled a lily that I only have one of.

It does work, I would say 1/4 as well as the metaldehyde-based slug baits. The difference is very dramatic when you have lots of slugs, and western WA has had a few years in a row with lots of slugs.

I saw ONE slug mow down an entire clump of baby Lobellia overnight, and when I don't bait, there can be over a dozen slugs on one small part of the deck, even at 8 am. Before I realized that slugs ate plants, I wondered if my neighbor was plant-napping seedlings ... but she would have had to have been AWFULLY fast on her feet to get 100% of seedlings in one night!

I don't think the breakdown products of metaldehyde in ground water are TOO bad (compared to many other things in wide use) but I use it sparingly, only around seedlings, only just after a rain, not in the rainy season, and in conjunction with lots of beer saucers. The beer saucers also let me know about slug population explosions, and then I get out the bait. An early warning system. There is some fancy name for matching the seriosuness of anti-pest measures to how severe the probelm is at the moment.

This year I noticed that zinnias were mowed down in preference to other things, as soon as i put them out where I don't bait. Funny - I've had Zinnias survive the slugs, but that must have been when they were near the Bok Choy, which the slugs preferred. Or they are different varieties of zinnias: "Oklahoma" and "Benary Giant" this year. Dozens of seedlings now swiss cheese. (Can you tell that I haven't reconciled myslef to living with slugs?)

I meant to try a trap crop of lettuce this year, but never got arouned to it (and had no leftover space in the beds).

Corey

Wow, Janice! Beautiful. I have not done much direct sowing, but may need to give it a good try after seeing your results. My dh did that with the marigolds that I put around the veggie garden with amazing results come to think of it. He just popped open the seed heads of the ones that were there last year. I think I could have supplied the whole neighborhood with marigolds, lol!
Corey, I wish I could grow delphs here. Just too danged hot...right, Janice?! Cooking today, whew!

Thanks, Bev! Yes, bet it will work for you.
That is the bed that had the voles. Remember that problem?