Re: HYB: seedlings (what works & doesn't)
- Subject: Re: HYB: seedlings (what works & doesn't)
- From: L* M*
- Date: Thu, 04 Apr 2002 10:42:49 -0500
> How do you more experienced pollen daubers plant your seedlings into
their permanent beds? I have never seen any discussion of this, and I
could use some help. Francelle.>
I've tried several things, most of which were not satisfactory.
First few seeds were sown in an open bed in full sun, left in place for
a year, then the few that survived were moved to an open bed where the
fescue ate them. The survivor was the seedling in the underwater and
post flood photo. It sent up a stalk from the fescue a few years
later. Good way to get tough plants, terrible way to try to grow
seedlings, given the normal life span of hybridizers!.
The next batch were sown in galvanized washtubs with drainage holes in
partial shade, left therefor a full year, then moved to a bed with
reasonably good soil for another year, then moved to the killing
fields. I had excellent survival with these, but they were pallida
crosses. Also, this technique meant quite a long time from making the
cross to seeing bloom. I did a few more batches this way, including
some second generation seedlings from the tough first one, & some modern
crosses.
Then I made some seed flats in partial shade, transplanted the seedlings
to pots as soon as they were big enough to handle, and tried to keep
them alive until weather got past the summer heat (Sept). These were
very slow to grow compared to those left in the galvanized tubs, & I
lost a lot to damping off and general misery thru the summer. And the
survivors grew too slowly. However, it's easy to move the whole pot
into a permanent location compared to trying to line bareroot younguns.
These seed flats rapidly became too shady (long story involving an elm)
and were abandoned for a sunnier spot, where germination went to nearly
nothing.
However, the technique I used for the few seedlings from that sunny bed
was the most satisfactory of anything I've tried so far. I bought a
large, plastic window box planter about 8 inches deep, 10 inches wide
and 3 ft long. I put a thick layer of alfalfa cubes (more haylike than
the pellets) in the bottom - maybe 3 inches thick, then a thick layer of
a mixture of potting mix from the local greenhouse and Clorox-washed
coarse creek sand . The potting mix is very light, milled peat mossy
type stuff with nutrients added. I haven't asked what the pH is.
Myplanting mix was more sand than potting mix. I lined the seedlings
into this mix, as soon as they were about 3 inches or so, then put the
window box in the shade & kept it watered with Hyponex (nutrient
solution). When I described this last summer, Walter Moores warned me
that the alfalfa in the bottom would ferment and heat up, and might cook
my seedlings' roots. It was definitely warm to the touch, so I gave
them a good soaking with the garden hose (cold spring water) often
enough to keep the temperature down. I posted a photo of one of the one
year old seedlings - 7 increases already. Totally different from
previous seedlings which often took another year to make any increase at
all. Some took even longer.
This year, I don't know what I'll do. A lot more seedlings are up than
in years past.
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
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