Even the overall search is not good. Sometimes I want to look for something I posted or someone else. If I use the search here, it might get me to the thread but not where the information is I am looking for. Most of the threads I follow are many pages long. It can be frustrating.

Hello Loretta,
" Even the overall search is not good. "
Well, I think I have proved I am no expert on searching here.
However, these forums are categorized:
Gardening
Plants
Regional Gardening
Not exactly gardening
General
Under the General category, there is a Site Talk forum where you can leave a message or messages about problems with the Site, and that would include various sorts of Search problems. I think Dave, the site owner and chief programmer (chief cook and bottle washer) reads the Site Talk forum, and Dave would be your ultimate expert on problems with Searching this site.

Searching is an important Forum feature, not specifically related to Breeding Zinnias, and we need to resolve all of our problems with it. Hopefully, Dave can help us do that. Over in the Site Talk forum.

Just sayin'

ZM

If you type in your keyword and highlight it then hit crtl f it will find it in the thread if it's there.

Hi Ronnie (Veronica)
So I typed in "zinnia", highlighted it, hit Ctrl-f, and "zinnia" appeared in a pinkish band at the bottom of the page and I selected "Highlight All" and I clicked the ^ and "it" proceeded to cycle through the four occurrences of zinnia on this page, ignoring the other 86 pages of this thread. I am willing to entertain the idea that I am doing something wrong. What is it?

ZM

Not sure if it's browser specific, but all browsers I use can find the next search of the same word by just hitting F3. So just enter it once with Ctrl-F, then F3 to find go down the entire page. It should hold so that when you change pages, just hit F3 again. Most text editors work the same for documents.

Hello Nancy,
That works here, but it is still stuck here on this 87th page, the same as Ronnie (Veronica)'s method. In fact, the same pinkish bar gets opened at the bottom of the page, and it says "Reached end of page, continued from top". Any search that can't leave the present page doesn't do anything toward searching the message string, which can stretch across many pages. (This string is currently on its 87th page and both of the methods so far can't get off of this 87th page.)

Any method that depends on the Browser is severely limited by the fact that the Browser doesn't have a clue how Dave has designed this website.

ZM

Haha, I tried that on my tablet and it found this page.

ZM I have only used the find key for the page I am currently on so I found what I needed. I guess you would have to search each page.

Hello everyone,

I started a message dealing with this problem over in the Site Talk forum. Here are links:
The thread "How to search for a term throughout a message string" in Site Talk forum
I had long forgotten that you can set the number of messages per page. I wonder now if you can change that retroactively. Anyhow, hopefully we can resolve this problem over at the Site Talk forum, possibly with aid from the site owner and programmer, Dave.

Apparently, I have Messages per Page set at 20. I assumed that my thread setting applied to everybody reading in this thread, but based on messages in Site Talk, I now wonder if that is true. I can see how the relatively large number of photos in this thread could be inconvenient for someone who loaded this thread with a high Messages per Page setting.

Anyway, this discussion is now in progress over in the Site Talk forum. Dave has yet to weigh in, but this is a holiday.

Happy Thanksgiving, you all.

ZM

Happy Thanksgiving to all,
🦃🍗🍸🍷🍛🥘🍲🥖

Hi Evelyn
Happy belated Thanksgiving !
We have lots to be thankful about for sure.

Hmm, the search suggestions to increase the number of pages made me realize that increasing does help and I can always use the "search on page"function from my iPhone or PC. Thanks!

Hello everyone, I am growing indoors this fall/winter.

A cutting from a summer plant has bloomed and has a different "tint" than the mother plant I cut from. The indoor blooms are whiter and have a slight pink tint with some intermittent pink areas being a little more prominent (so far on the top petals - expanding the photo shows this on the left side photos). The outdoor blooms had an odd color that I still don't know how to describe. It was creamy and showed hints of a rosy color all over.

I have been told that the indoor lighting causes flowers to be lighter than if grown outdoors but the seeds from self pollination of the cutting will not be affected and should produce the same color/tint as the mother plant. What if I like the tint of the indoor grown flower though? Is there a way to recreate that into a seed?

The photos on the left are the indoor blooms from the cuttings and the right are the mother plant grown outdoors this past summer.

Indoor Growing Supplies and Tools

Hello again!

Is there a list of supplies and tools needed to grow and breed indoors?

If not, can any of you ge gracious enough to let me know what I MUST have? What could be the "nice to haves"?



LIGHTING: I have heard cool and warm lights should be used and that I can find them in the areas of stores with shop lights (or to use shop lights". I have visited these sections several times and still do not know how to determine which lights are warm and/or cool. I don't have enough info to know what I am looking for!

Thank you so much for any help you can provide!

Hello 2Kids1Bike,
There are a couple of books that contain information relevant to your intended activities. I particularly like https://www.amazon.com/dp/1580118674/
I paid the extra $10 or so to get the spiral-bound version, and I wish all books were available spiral bound. Another helpful book is https://www.amazon.com/dp/1604697954/

" What if I like the tint of the indoor grown flower though? Is there a way to recreate that into a seed? "

I don't know of any unique way to "recreate that into a seed". But the indoor tint might already be genetic, so if you self-pollinate the bloom you might get at least some specimens that look like your indoor specimen. Even zinnia seeds straight from a commercial seed packet can show some variability. I don't know of any different genetic rules for indoor versus outdoor zinnias. There are obvious environmental differences, such as bees and butterflies outdoors but not indoors. And there are differences in lighting, which could be a photographic factor.

You are off to a good start. It is impressive that you are successful at growing zinnias from cuttings. Very few people know how to do that.

From the standpoint of your zinnia plants, the differences in your lighting are affecting you a whole lot more than them. Plants need some blue light and some red light and don't have a use for green light (so they reflect the green which makes them appear green). Some indoor growers use just red and blue, which mixes into a hideous purple. If you are using fluorescent lights, the bulbs are frequently labeled as "cool" or "warm" or sometimes just the color temperature. (3000K for very warm (reddish), 5000K for cool (bluish), etc)

I have been doing this zinnia breeding thing for nearly two decades, so my lights are obsolete fluorescent shoplights. Contemporary lighting technology uses solid-state Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs).

If your preference is white zinnias, I should give you my "take" on white. Zinnias have a wide range of colors, which are based on several organic dye pigments. But zinnias, like snow, don't have any white pigment. Zinnia white is produced the same as snow, by fine clear cells in a varied arrangement. So when you cross white zinnias with colored zinnias you can get hybrids with a combination of dye color and structural color, like these examples.


Like I said, you are off to a good start. Incidentally, when I was a kid growing up on the farm, it was 4 kids, 1 bike. But we also had a pony.

ZM (Not associated with any product or vendor mentioned or linked)

Wow what a post ZenMan. Thanks. While I'm digesting all of it (and formulating even more questions 😬) I'll respond to this:

"Incidentally, when I was a kid growing up on the farm, it was 4 kids, 1 bike."

When we were in our teens, my husband's (at that time, my boyfriend) car needed repair. We couldn't drive it until we saved up. We rode my bicycle double with me on the handlebars everywhere we went (mostly the beach 🏝) for a whole summer. You would get tickets for that back then. The local police stopped giving us tickets at some point and we became known to some of them as, "Those two kids on a bike". We only learned this many years later when visiting home and ran into one of the officers who laughed and told us about it. It makes me laugh often.

This was one of my earlier "breeder" zinnias.

I think it had some "scabiosa flowered" genes.
ZM

That is a pretty one. Did it's likeness show up again for you?

Welcome 2K1B
It is helpful to fill in your growing zone/state location. Once this profile information is filled in, it will show in the upper right of your posts.
Even though we're discussing annual & indoor methods, it helps when we answer questions.
I only grow zinnia outdoors, but always interested to learn.
This year, as usual, I grew a 100' row of standard zinnia from saved seeds.
Currently, this year's (two gallon buckets) saved seeds are drying on trays in the basement.
In late season I love wandering next to the mature zinnia row, it is taller than me.

Thank you explaining the details of white zinnias. Your flowers in your reply (post 3033787) to me are amazing! I particularly like the light purple. These were a result of crossing white with what color(s)?

I ordered your recommended book. Thanks!

Thank you for the description of warm and cool lights. I'm going to check out just what I have here.

I'm surprised to hear that cuttings can be difficult but it's only because I struggled with mine and other social media members said it was a snap. 🤣 I felt so helpless as I was failing miserably.

Thanks again for your help.