Are they in pots, or in the ground?

Outside or inside?

gabe, what is 'cider monday'? never heard that one before....is it the mon. after thxgiving?

Gabe Rivera seedling/introduction. And I can say "I knew him when............."

Must have been thinking about my Cattledog, Cider. My phone autocorrects what it wants. *Cyber Monday*

We use our compost around the newly planted seedlings.

oh, haha, (darling dog). i didn't connect the dots with cider at first. i am still chuckling.

Thanks for your help Kent. They are in pots planted in potting mix and kept outside. One of my pots isn't draining very well too.



Daphne, I think the Monday after Thanks Giving would be an ideal time to have a cider Monday. That was a good guess.

They look OK to me. Are they getting full sun? They'll appreciate as much light as you can give them.

For what it's worth, I never fertilize my seedlings. Fertilizing irises is, IMO, the first step in a cascading series of events that end with rot. The closest I come to fertilizing is adding a fresh layer of compost every three years as I rotate through the seedling beds.

That being said, potting soil has a very limited amount of nutrients in it. The seedlings will only be happy in there for a few months. After that, they'll either need to be fertilized or planted in the ground. I try to get seedlings out of pots and into the ground within four months or less.

Would it ever be worth it to use some of my natural yard soil when putting up to first sprouted or do ya'll recommend a potting mix or a mixture of both. I don't wanna spoil the babies. The less adjustment to soil is better right???

Does anyone else here use a dilute fish fertilizer in water? I'm trying that with my potted iris. Not often, though.

Sorry, Jan. I've only ever used bone meal on my irises and as I have very little rot, I'm reluctant to try anything new tbh...

Since we're talking about seedlings, here's a photo taken just now of my 2015-16 seedlings ( minus one of
In Beauty x something else which is the same size as the smaller seedlings here).
The back big pots are the That's all Folks x Coffee Shop - crossed at the SAME TIME as the smaller ones in front - Care to Dance x Rio Rojo. The TAF x CS were started in small pots but soon out grew them. Now, with 5 monster seedlings in each of two pots, I'm wondering what to do. Let them stay like this all winter, or move them to individual pots? Suggestions from the experts?


edit:Looking at my picture I see that one of the pots has a Mandela x Haunted Heart cross. I'm just wondering why
the TAF x CS cross just got so much bigger. I treated them all the same. And I've only just started using a bit of
fish fertilizer, so that's not the reason.

Lilli - I've never experience rot here in CA. Probably has something to do with dry conditions.

Cuzz4short said:Would it ever be worth it to use some of my natural yard soil when putting up to first sprouted or do ya'll recommend a potting mix or a mixture of both. I don't wanna spoil the babies. The less adjustment to soil is better right???

I wouldn't use garden soil in a pot, for a couple of reasons. First, it's very easy to drown a plant in a pot. That's why potting mixes are made with such light, coarse materials so they drain rapidly and provide lots of pores for aeration. Second, natural soils are a delicate balance of a myriad of different organisms. When you put soil in a pot, you run the risk of upsetting the balance and allowing some disease-causing organism to run rampant.

KentPfeiffer said:

I wouldn't use garden soil in a pot, for a couple of reasons. First, it's very easy to drown a plant in a pot. That's why potting mixes are made with such light, coarse materials so they drain rapidly and provide lots of pores for aeration. Second, natural soils are a delicate balance of a myriad of different organisms. When you put soil in a pot, you run the risk of upsetting the balance and allowing some disease-causing organism to run rampant.

Interesting. Kent, Does your proviso hold true for homemade compost? We're also now using some very well-aged sheep manure in our latest pottings. (mixed in with pricey bags of potting soil that includes nutrients, worm castings, etc.)

o.k. Re-reading your post Kent I see that you use compost on your beds every few years or so. I'm hoping that
the heat caused by the compost cycle will kill any bad organisms. We compost only our household waste, food trimmings vegetable waste . We don't have much meat waste at all and what there is doesn't go into the compost bin - to foil the raccoons.

I'm very new to hybridizing, and those in the photo are my first attempt at crosses. Since I'm doing a lot of
container gardening on my deck ( since my shoulder surgery) I can more closely observe what's going on with the irises. We haven't had rot, or borers in the regular garden beds - but we do get some leaf spotting. I'm interested to see if the potted iris get it. The ones in the photos are planted in bagged commercial planting soil only. But very good quality.
It's all a learning process - and often particular to one's region.

Another edit because this is such an interesting topic! Some day I hope to be able to make crosses for a specific goal. So pleased to see that Gabe has definite outcomes in mind.
I just crossed what was blooming at the same time last year. This year, because of my additions, I should have a wider palette to choose from!
Kent, your iris photos are so beautiful!

Jan I would think you would want each seedling separated as they will all be different. I don't do much with pots, they just stay in them until they are large enough to be lined out.

tveguy3 said:Jan I would think you would want each seedling separated as they will all be different. I don't do much with pots, they just stay in them until they are large enough to be lined out.

Tom, I'm thinking of leaving the biggest seedling in each pot and re-potting the other four
(8 for 2 pots). This can get expensive! And, should I wait until spring to see who blooms? These seedlings are big.

KentPfeiffer said:They look OK to me. Are they getting full sun? They'll appreciate as much light as you can give them.

For what it's worth, I never fertilize my seedlings. Fertilizing irises is, IMO, the first step in a cascading series of events that end with rot. The closest I come to fertilizing is adding a fresh layer of compost every three years as I rotate through the seedling beds.

That being said, potting soil has a very limited amount of nutrients in it. The seedlings will only be happy in there for a few months. After that, they'll either need to be fertilized or planted in the ground. I try to get seedlings out of pots and into the ground within four months or less.

Thanks Kent. They may be lacking sunshine. I think I need to get onto building a new bed for them.

I think that, when you are growing out your seeds, you can plant the seedlings closer together than the plants you purchase. The reason seems to be that you will be trashing a lot of your seedlings so you don't need the big areas that you would if you kept them in place for several years. So, what I've done personally is to plant them in rows and fairly close to each other. I'll keep them for two bloom seasons and then select what I'll keep. It still means planting in the ground but you don't have to have acres and acres. So put them in the ground as soon as possible. Particularly the really big ones. They look like they will bloom next season. Do any have little nubbins coming up - those can signal that the biggest fan will bloom.

janwax said:Lilli - I've never experience rot here in CA. Probably has something to do with dry conditions.

Sounds good! We have a lot of rain in fall, winter and spring, plus the occasional extra water when the snow melts, which can happen repeatedly throughout the winter, so rot is always a possibility here. Also, I have clay soil, so when it's wet, it's really wet and will stay that way for a long time, which all add up to perfect conditions for rot, so I do whatever I can to keep my rhizomes high and dry and I am very careful about what I use as fertiliser.