Hi Julie.

The only fuchsia I have tried from seed is the F. procumbens, a 2" tall groundcover. I makes nice big red berries late summer/fall. I just pick berries, which are the size of a grape, put them in a bowl of water, then break them up with my fingers, then I carefully run water over them and wash away the flesh, the seeds are more dense and tend to stay in the bottom of the bowl. it takes about 5 minutes to get them clean. then I dry them, I have done this in a bowl, and on typing paper. Either way they stick as they dry and have to be rubbed off. I continue drying them in a dish on the kitchen counter until they are really dry and not sticky, then package them up.
I have sprouted them in seed starting mix on the kitchen counter, and using the "Deno Method" of folded moist paper towel in a loose unsealed baggie on the counter. They do not need any kind of special treatment and sprout rapidly. I have never tried other fuchsias, I assume they would be similar. BTW, if you have not put any poisons on them the berries are edible!

interesting about the fuchsias....

Today I will be adding seeds from wish lists that I have available for trading. If by chance you miss them, feel free to tree mail me. I'll send them along as a gift if I have extras.

Lisa

Thanks Mary, that's good to know if I decide to try some

Oh my goodness... Where has time gone? Only 2 more days until the swap. Time to start getting excited!

So excited

@bxncbx Elena, is Salpiglossis fragrant?

No, sad to say it isn't.

Lalambchop1 said:Hi Julie.

!!

So, I went out in hunt of any seed pods that escaped their natural predator, the dreaded determined deadheader. @Pistil: I scavenged some fuchsia pods that had fallen onto the ground that should be ripe. I'll post again when I figure out who's ripe enough for adding, as there were six different species but all with varying degrees of potential ripeness.

I also managed to find some 'glamour girl' Phlox, loads and loads of hot lips salvia, agastache 'ava', agastache 'sunset' and a mystery penstemon (it was a gift from DH who very kindly planted it for me and then the tag went on walkabout). Once those guys dry out a bit I'll see how many seeds I actually snagged versus tricksy empty seed pods.

@luvsgrtdanes I've found that fuchsias sprout readily but they are easy to kill in the early stages if they get too much heat or moisture. They prefer to be cooler/dryer and the baby leaves seem to be easily burned by hot lights or contaminants like fertilizer or cinnamon powder. I use LED lighting and keep an oscillating fan on them so they stay cool and dry and they're much happier that way. I've had good success sprouting them in straight coconut coir, then move them into an airier mix later.

Oh and @Pistil, you're so close (about 45 minutes away; I'm actually in Shoreline rather than Seattle proper), if it turns out I don't have much in the way of viable fuchsia seeds in time for the swap I can always let some pods ripen for you and should you ever be, oh, say, at Sky Nursery at a particular time, I could arrange to happen to be there as well. ;) I will take absolutely any excuse to visit Sky. Or hey I haven't been to Wight's in *years*, I should do *that* sometime. Then I can whip open my trenchcoat and say "PSSST! Hey kid! Wanna buy -- er, have -- some fuchsia seeds?" because I have definitely always wanted to do that.

Joolie- One of the great things about Sky Nursery and Wights (and Flower World and Molbaks) is how they are warm and light in their BIG greenhouses, all winter long! When it is gloomy and drizzly for weeks on end, I can pretend I am somewhere warm and dry- we may have to plan an outing there! And Sky Nursery has a Latte shop (we in Washington must have our coffee). Oh I will shut up I just noticed this is the seed discussion thread, not the Off-Topic Thread for this kind of thing.

Dnd
I'm late to the party, I haven't been reading the threads for several days. Here is the simple light set up my husband rigged for me. I had the nice wire shelves, but I think they can be bought for about $40?? Or if you have something similar. I then bought inexpensive shop lights at Home Depot, and bought plant/aquarium lights for them



I only did 2 lights/shelves, as I was given a 4' grow light with metal frame besides, and that's plenty for my use.

PS, my shelves are pretty much empty because the lights just went up; was growing a few herbs under my other light :D Dont want you to think I dont utilize all the space - LOL

Thanks for all the info on the fuchsia seeds!

You are such an enabler Joolie, after reading your description on collecting the fuchsia seeds I just had to go look them up and promptly added them to my wish list

vma4922 said:Dnd
I'm late to the party, I haven't been reading the threads for several days. Here is the simple light set up my husband rigged for me. I had the nice wire shelves, but I think they can be bought for about $40?? Or if you have something similar. I then bought inexpensive shop lights at Home Depot, and bought plant/aquarium lights for them



I only did 2 lights/shelves, as I was given a 4' grow light with metal frame besides, and that's plenty for my use.

PS, my shelves are pretty much empty because the lights just went up; was growing a few herbs under my other light :D Dont want you to think I dont utilize all the space - LOL

Thank you for sharing! You're not too late at all...I won't likely purchase the lights, etc. for a few weeks since I don't intend to start my seeds until January.

Your setup is just like what mine will be. I already have those same wire shelving units, I just need to get the lights and, it seems, some mylar for the back to reflect some of the light and heat back at the seedlings.

Your picture gave me something to think about...I still plan to put a single light the entire width of the shelf, but if I have some seeds that don't require as much light (heuchera, perhaps?), then I might be able to get away with a single light across two shelves like you have and put any shade-friendly seeds in the fringes where there isn't as much light. I do think most of my seeds will require a lot of light, but I could also see how much more light the mylar reflects back...there might not be any shadier spots if it's reflecting a substantial amount of light to edges where the light wouldn't otherwise go. If that's the case, it could save me a lot of money to not have as many lights!

Val's setup is just like what mine was. Libby, I like your idea of using the shadier side but as you said, with the mylar we may not have any. Shady things will have to go a shelf down.

I chose my NARR prize this morning....$25 from Victory Seeds! I never would have done that before y'all got me hooked on seeds through the swap.

Leslie, I think you will be really happy! I'm so glad you got the Victory Seeds certificate! I only had one ticket this time around because I dumped all of my acorns in September's swap to try and win the Victory Seeds certificate then. I knew the October swap wouldn't allow me to get the seeds in time to divide them up and put them in this swap, so I just went ahead and purchased seeds from them and those seeds arrived this Saturday! I was pretty excited to get them. The seed packets are simple, un-coated paper envelopes, so keep them away from moisture, but they have wonderful planting instructions and descriptions on the packets, so I'm happy. Here's a picture of a few seed packets I purchased:

...I actually got that Texas Early Grano onion because I thought Dave would get a kick out of it and it might be one he doesn't have yet. (Dave lives in TX, for anyone that might not know that.) Unfortunately, he's super busy right now and had to drop out of the swap this time around, but I don't think he's the only Texan in our swap this time around.

I make it sound like the seeds can only be grown in Texas ...they can be grown anywhere that can handle a 180-day onion.

Wow. Now I'm really excited about Victory Seeds. I love that they're so detailed. I'm getting the deer resistant wildflower mix to fill in around the tiny bushes I'm getting from Santa Rosa.

DnD

My shelves are 3' wide (2 together =6'). I bought 4' lights because they were the most bang for the buck, and I did exactly what you indicated: put my begonias/shade seedlings at the ends with least amount of light. I could get a couple 2' lights and make it an even 6' across, but dont really need it. The shop lights were $11-12 and the plant lights were $12 each. You'd be surprised how fast those shelves fill up :D

Mylar: Someone recommended to me that you can go and buy an emergency camping "blanket" (see link below) which is a cheap way to get the reflected sheet

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Cog...

ooohhh...or this one is big and even cheaper!

https://www.moreprepared.com/e...


Just passing this on for info purposes.