I too watch my seeds like a hawk - it's really fun.

Fred, travel safe

I sure to get a lot of enjoyment going to check on my seeds. If someone that didn't know what I was doing, I'm sure it would sure seem strange. I stand on a small step to see the pots on the table and stare and stare and then I'll move a little bit and zoom in on another row of cups. When I find one sticking it's little bity head up, I'll do a Yeah!!!! and I've found one(all of this is to myself since noone else around gets it!) I then drop a small yellow piece of a label into the cup with the baby and move on to another group of cups. Once I've done this little exericise for 475 cups, I get my notebook, find the cups with the bits of a label in them for easy finding and record which tray, row and cup position in the row the new baby is in. I then check to get the date and name of the pod and pollen cross. This is repeated until all the info for all of todays newbies are recorded.

I'll enter all this info into my spreadsheet once I'm inside for the night. It's fun to see the list and which ones are growing the best.

I know we are a unique group of people. It sure is fun to grow babies and then when they get bigger, it's just as much fun to check to see if any scapes have grown out. Finding scapes is a whole lot harder than seeing the babies.

Goodnight to all, Mona

I kept my seedlings under a grow light in a south facing bedroom - that faced the street. Because I only had one grow light, and 2 shelves of seeds, I left the light on 24/7 - and swapped the seeds every 12 hours.

My neighbors jokingly asked me if I was growing pot in there! ~Jan

Oh yes, that's always asked jokingly, but I'm sure some of my neighbors have thought the same thing. Since I don't have a terribly high electric bill, I don't aroise the local police's curosity.

I have looked at some of the "pot" growers websites. Those people are right serious about their green rooms!!! Put's my little operation to shame. I think they are just gardeners in disguise and don't realize that they could be growing daylilies instead and it would be legal!!!

Blessings to all, Mona

my dentist grows orchids in a greenhouse, and he was "raided" because of high electric and having a greenhouse. The police made such a mess in his greenhouse! He had lots of seedlings etc and they just tossed them on the floor, breaking them and separating tags.

Not a good thing!!!BAD BAD BAD! I'd be fit to be tied and probably in jail!~

I've read about these things happening to people. We all think it only happens to someone a far place away, but it does happen to people that we know. I don't think there is a thing that can be done about it either.

I support our law enforcement agencies but they all need to use a little common sense when they go into a place and see that there is no evidence of anything illegal. There is no reason for them to destroy a place like that.

With the invention of all the cell phones having cameras, I forsee the end to some of the outrageous behavior that they are known for.

Blessings, Mona

Gee, you think something as simple as having a drug sniffing dog with them might be a good idea. Real simple the dog doesn't alert, no drugs. Saves lots of time and money and innocent gardeners don't have all the dismay of years of work destroyed.
Daylily growers - good, pot growers-BAD.

I worked in Law Enforcement for 20 years and if they did not know what the Marijuana Plant looks like they should not have even been there. Only an Idiot would confuse it with Orchids and only someone with no respect for the public or themselves would trash the place. I would raise a little ruckus about it if I were him. That makes me upset when I here things like this but it happens in all professions unfortunately.

He did try to get compensated for the ruined plants. If I remember correctly, they would not pay him for them because they were seedlings and had no "real value".... This happened years and years ago.

He still grows orchids. It is always fun to go to his office and see what he has brought in that is blooming. An office full of blooming orchids!

My sisters and I own an island in a Pennsylvania river. Years ago, the DNR or some such group came down and 'raided' our island. Apparently someone had planted pot on the island. So they swooped in via helicopter, and wearing their "space suits" burned all of the pot off the island.

The neighborhood up there still talks about, and laughs about it. Funny thing, noone ever contacted my father - who owned it at the time. We found out about it after the fact. I guess they figured an 80 something year old didn't plant the pot there.

To this day, the suspicion still rests upon an ex brother in law, and another neighbor up there - but nothing was ever proven.~Jan

That's quite a story, Jan! Love it!

It's been raining ( a very good thing) so I haven't had a chance to take photos. Here's what the babies look like today.

The ones in the pots which are growing better than the ones in the bed. I think that's because the sun heats the black pots and keeps the roots warmer than in the beds so the cold didn't affect them as much.


I never did add the pvc pipes to put the tags in. I started to, but after I put a few in I realized since they are planted closer than I really wanted to plant them that the markers would be overcrowded in there. I would have needed 90 pvc pipes. Next year they will be planted further apart and I will use the pvc.

They look fantastic, Michele!

Looks really great Michele!!!

Beautiful Michele!!! I'm so jealous of your seedlings. They are wonderful!! They have done some serious growing the last few weeks. Last week was very cool with loads of clouds and rain. The next 10 days we don't have any freezing forcast. The average highs is about 60 each day. I really bet I'll start getting some good growth. I;m going to work on getting everything clean and fertilized this week if the rain will just hold off. I may not get it completed this week but I'm doing my best ones first so they can get some growing done.

I sure hope you get loads of blooms this season. I sure do look forward to seeing a bunch of photos from all of you in the deep South. Then I can set and dream about mine!
Blessings, Mona

Michele, all those plants look so healthy. Do you expect to get bloom in a few months?

Michelle I know you and Fred have gone to a lot of work to set up the watering systems for the plants and seedlings. Have either of you added up what it cost for say one of the beds?/ Just curious what kind of money I might need for something similar. I would need to drain and winterize it here of course but it would be so great esp. if we go somewhere for a few days and had a timer system.

Shirlee- If I get blooms this year from them it will be on only a handful most likely. I got the seeds started a lot later than I should have. Then the seedlings got transplanted in pots and then transplanted again into the bed after I moved so that set them back quite a bit. Next year I will get them started at the right time to see most bloom the first year.

Steph- no I've never really priced it. Fred would have a better idea than me, he has timers on his. He'll be back home from Birmingham shortly. The cost depends on how you plan to do it. Will you have it hooked to a well pump or are you on a regular water line? At my old place I didn't have a well so I just hooked the water hose to the end of my sprinklers ( I had the hose connect ends on them) and just turned it on when I needed it. I could have left it hooked up and gotten a timer, but each bed was hooked to a different spicket at the time. I should have just run PVC to each bed from the main spicket, but I can't remember why I didn't; might have been a pressure issue since I didn't have a pump. I looked on Lowes website and timers run up to $100 ( I'm sure they can get more costly).

Hmmm, Michele, wondered if repotting seedlings might set them back a bit, plus the
stress of planting them in the garden. Mine are getting a tad bushy in their confined space,
with several in each pot. They have a bit more to grow before transplanting to garden.
Hope I don't have to repot them.

Hope it is okay to add photos of them here rather than starting a new thread. Think it does
follow the topic. If anyone disagrees, just let me know.

These photos are a comparison of growth from November 17, 2011 to February 18, 2012.
Upstairs and downstairs. One would not imagine that almost 2100 could be in these pics,
but there are that many.

Taken 11-17-11 upstairs


Taken 2-18-12 upstairs


Taken 11-17-11 downstairs


Taken 2-18-12 downstairs

Your seedlings look great!!! And yes it's ok to post photos to this thread, we love photos
Transplanting only sets them back a little bit if done once, but I had to do it twice. The roots were just getting really established with the first transplant and then I transplanted again into the bed so they had to get re-established in there. I tried not to disturb the roots too much doing this, but it can't be helped.
That's why I use the seed trays to plant seeds; the soil and roots usually stay intact when you pull them out of each hole and it's not disturbed too much. When they are planted a bunch to a pot, cup, or what have you I think having to pull the seedlings apart, since the roots are tangled together, disturbs them too much. That's just my humble opinion so take it with a grain of salt . I understand why people do it that way because of lack of space.