This is my favorite plant so far. It is very sturdy-looking and already has good branching. The cotyledons are just starting to look bad around the edges though I'm not sure why because I have fertilized it.

Other than that, I am impressed so far.

Hi Jai,

Is that plant a Haageana? Those precocious branches at the cotyledons are very unusual for Elegans. Those edges on the cotyledons may be nutrient starvation done by the precocious branches. I am also impressed by that plant.

These are few of my scabious recombinants from previous years.


Sometimes if a recombinant isn't quite "up to snuff" I will save seeds from it anyway, following the rationale that if the specimen in question is highly heterogeneous so that its progeny will differ considerably from each other and from their seed parent, then possibly something good could appear in that assorted progeny. My outdoor garden isn't huge, but I can grow over two thousand outdoors zinnias by planting them close for severe culling.

ZM

Yep, it's Z. haageana. I have read that in the wild they sometimes take the form of subshrubs so I wonder if that's what's going on here.

The more I think about it I don't think I have ever seen branching from the cotyledons like this.

I have a new question. I'm planning a 4' by 14' zinnia bed out front next spring for Z. haageana and several varieties of Z. elegans. How many actual seeds would I need to plant that (direct sown) if I intend to do heavy culling?

Would planting them 4" apart with the intent to cull every other one (or more) be feasible? I don't want to overcrowd or waste space, but the intention of heavy culling is what's throwing my planning off because 4" could easily become 12".

Hi Jai,

A few of my seedlings are showing signs of branching from their cotyledon nodes.

The branches don't show as clearly as they did in your photo. Perhaps as time goes by their branches will be more visible.

" I have a new question. I'm planning a 4' by 14' zinnia bed out front next spring for Z. haageana and several varieties of Z. elegans. How many actual seeds would I need to plant that (direct sown) if I intend to do heavy culling? "

First of all, I am going to assume Full Sun in the bed. If less, then we will need to scale back the number of seeds estimates. Your bed has 56 square feet of space. I like to cull to leave my "favorite" zinnias growing at one square foot per zinnia (or more, if conditions are less than ideal).

" Would planting them 4" apart with the intent to cull every other one (or more) be feasible? I don't want to overcrowd or waste space, but the intention of heavy culling is what's throwing my planning off because 4" could easily become 12". "

That is definitely a workable plan. For "heavy culling", I might remove enough zinnias to convert a 4-inch grid to a 12-inch grid. A dense planting might place one seed every four inches in both directions such that each square foot of your bed would "own" 9 seeds planted on a 4-inch grid. (Each 4-inch square "owns" only the seed planted in its upper left-hand corner.) That would imply 9 x 56 = 504 seeds to plant the bed on a 4-inch grid, which could then be culled to 1/9th that to 56 plants in 56 square feet.

So, to answer to your question: a little over 500 seeds planted on a 4-inch square grid. You can get a little more space between seeds by going to a hexagonal honeycomb grid (which can be subdivided into equilateral triangles, each of which can be subdivided into four smaller equilateral triangles, etc.) Planting your seeds on the vertices of equilateral triangles gives them a little more linear separation between seeds.

You will be culling less than 9 to 1 because Mother Nature will cull some for you -- your germination will typically be only about 80% for commercial seed (or 50% for hand-saved seed). And then, if you have cutworms, expect some more "free" culling from them.

ZM

Thank you. Yes, it is full sun. This is helpful and tells me that I will have to buy more seeds (haha)!

I know to put the whirligigs in front because they are shorter. I wish I could just do it right now. But not only would the plants freeze...I probably would, too.

How much boron do indoor zinnias actually need? The fertilizer I have on-hand (Miracle Grow Bloom Booster) does have it, but it says 0.02%.

Attached (hopefully, if I did it correctly) is the label.

Is this a "complete" food for indoor zinnias or should I buy something additional? What about calcium (which I don't see listed)?

Hi Jai,

" How much boron do indoor zinnias actually need? "

Zinnias are "boron pigs" in that they use about twice as much boron as the average plants. The 0.02% Boron in your Miracle-Gro Bloom Booster is standard for most "complete" soluble nutrient products.

However, you may not need to supply extra Boron, over and above what you are currently supplying. (As it happens, I do have to supply supplemental Boron to my indoor zinnias. Long story.) Do you have an analysis sheet for your water supply, or, if not, can you obtain an analysis for your water supply? It is possible that your water supply contains a trace amount of Boron.

Also, what is the growing medium you are using for your indoor zinnias? Some growing mediums can contain nutrients, including possibly Boron.

Your zinnias, themselves, may be able to tell you if they need extra Boron. Nutrient deficiencies can cause tell-tale symptoms in the plants. Quoting from page 356 in the Zinnia chapter of the book "Nutrient Deficiences in Bedding Plants"

"Boron (B) Deficiency Initial symptoms of boron deficiency develop on the upper leaves (A). Puckering and folding of the fully expanded leaves occurs below the apex. With advanced deficiences, leaves become thick and leatherlike, internodes are short and compact, and the buds abort (B). Symptoms progress to a necrosis of the growing point and tip burn (C). Plant growth is also stunted. The letters in parenthesis refer to the three photographs on that page.

You might be able to google for plant nutrient deficiency symptoms.

Incidentally, depending on your water composition and your growing medium, you might start to see deficiency symptoms of Calcium. Although it is not present in commercial nutrient formulas, plants actually use and need quite a bit of Calcium. I supply Calcium to my indoor zinnias as soluble Calcium nitrate.

Growing mediums, like the Premier Pro-Mix that I use, contain some Calcium, enough to last a few weeks, which is long enough if you are just starting some plants early to set them out in the garden. But on my very first indoor growing experience several years ago, I encountered severe Calcium deficiency symptoms after a few weeks, so I researched the problem and obtained some Calcium nitrate from a Hydroponics supplier (essentially all hydroponics projects must supply soluble calcium, and calcium nitrate is almost always the form that is used.)

Another indoor zinnia nutrient issue is nitrogen, specifically urea. The Miracle-Gro products contain urea. Microbes in garden soil and some organic growing media break down urea into usable ammonium and nitrate ions. In the absence of soil microbes, the urea may be unusable by zinnia roots. At least some plants cannot use urea in their root zone. For that reason I use urea-free nutrient formulas on my indoor zinnias.

http://sunbulb.com/info/our-pr...

However, if Miracle-Gro Bloom Booster continues to work fine with your zinnias, then continue to use it. I use Miracle-Gro products in great abundance on my outdoor zinnias. My favorite Miracle-Gro product for in-ground zinnias is Miracle-Gro Tomato Food. Zinnias really "eat up" the extra magnesium in that tomato food formula. The element Magnesium is a vital component of chlorophyll.

There are several more indoor zinnia nutrient issues, but for the time being we will try to decide whether you need to supply Boron to your indoor zinnias and, if so, how to do it. Too much Boron can be quite phytotoxic. We are going for that "happy medium".

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

Merry Christmas everyone,



ZM

I still love that Zinnia Merry Christmas ..!!!

Thank you very much. How do you tell which deficiency symptoms are linked to which nutrient (i.e. How does a boron deficiency look different from a calcium or magnesium deficiency)? That's what seems most confusing to me.

I'm going to call a couple local greenhouses and ask about local soil and water parameters. I think they'd know.

Hi Jack,

" How do you tell which deficiency symptoms are linked to which nutrient "

You refer to a book like the book titled "Nutrient Deficiences in Bedding Plants" that I quoted from above. The deficiency symptoms are different for each nutrient element. I quoted the book on Boron above. For Magnesium in the Zinnia chapter it says,

"The initial symptom of magnesium deficiency is an interveinal chlorosis of the lower leaves (A). Initial plant growth (bud size, leaf color, and petal expansion) of deficient plants is equal to the control, but as symptoms progress, growth is inhibited (B). As interveinal chlorosis symptoms advance, marginal necrosis also develops on the lower leaves (C). As before, the capital letters in parenthesis refer to photographic illustrations tagged with those letters.

As a general principle, elements that are readily translocated in the plant have deficiency symptoms on the lower older leaves, while elements that are not readily translocated in the plant have deficiency symptoms on the upper newer leaves and buds. In other words, if it can, a plant will "steal" a needed nutrient from older parts to use in newer growing parts.

I purchased the book, Nutrient Deficiencies in Bedding Plants from Amazon in January 2009. It was published by Ball Publishing copyright 2007. Apparently it is now out of print, because the current asking prices are outrageous. The official price of the book was $69.95 U.S. or $87.95 CAN. The Amazon price I paid was $48.97 plus $3.57 tax. Amazon typically sells books for less than the publisher price. However, Amazon now lets third party sellers sell through them, and as you can see they frequently ask for highly inflated prices.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=n...

You might be able to find the book in a library. Or find another book that covers the same subject. Or find Internet websites that document nutrient deficiency symptoms.

After you have studied the subject, you can just look at a zinnia plant and recognize what nutrient it is deficient in.

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

Thank you. I will ask for it on Interlibrary Loan after the holiday madness is over.

Oh no!

Look what is happening!

I was gone only two days and I come back to find this.

I am guessing that this is the nutritional deficiency of some sort?

This upsets me more than it reasonably should.

Hi Jack,

I am not certain that is a deficiency. It is a lower leaf, and typically the cotyledon would also be sacrificed for its nutrients. The cotyledon seems to have only a hint of purplish edge color. The cotyledons will be completely sacrificed if a translocatable element becomes deficient.

While you were gone, did the plant suffer a water deficiency and wilt? Or, anticipating that you would be gone, did you flood its root zone?

If it is an infection, it will progress, so keep an eye on it to see what it is doing. For the moment, it is a mystery.

ZM

It didn't dry out, but I could have overwatered it in anticipation of being gone. I am not sure of that.

I'm second-guessing what I could've done wrong.

Hi Jack,

Just keep an eye on that leaf, in case that starts to look like a progressing infection moving up the leaf. Also watch its associated cotyledon. If a deficiency is at play on a lower leaf, as a "lower" lower leaf, it should suffer preferentially.

ZM

Thank you. If it were indeed due to over/under-watering, the cotyledon would be affected first, too, no?

Hi Jack,

" If it were indeed due to over/under-watering, the cotyledon would be affected first, too, no? "

That is a very good question, and I don't know the answer. My guess would be, no, the cotyledons would not be affected first by under-watering, because of the cotyledon's lower surface-to-volume ratio. The cotyledon is a little like a succulent leaf.

But for over-watering, oxygen starvation in the root system would be a factor, and some root tissue death could occur, but I don't know how that would affect the mechanisms of tissue death in the leaves.

In any case, keep an eye on that big leaf with the dying tip.

ZM

Thank you. That makes sense. I work overnight so I'm not used to people responding to my questions so soon. Haha.

Would root disturbance in general cause this? I did recently transplant them into their current containers but I would have thought it'd show up sooner (it's been...oh, about 2 weeks I guess).