Re: HYB: Coddling Seedlings
- Subject: Re: HYB: Coddling Seedlings
- From: J* C*
- Date: Mon, 15 Feb 1999 23:18:07 PST
From: "Jan Clark" <janclarx@hotmail.com>
Betty wrote:
>Because I've been interested in strength and survival from the
beginning, I developed a habit of planting my seedling in a certain
order in the rows.......
I like your idea of planting in rows from strong to weak, and might try
this with my next batch. I found that the smallest seedlings survived
the severe frost better than the larger ones. They were not weaker, just
younger, and I think the fact that they were still attatched to the seed
(endosperm?) meant that the damage to their roots did not effect them as
much.
I have around 100 seedlings, planted in 3 batches. One area seemed to be
not doing as well as the rest, and I lost quite a number before I
decided the problem was with the soil and not the seedlings. I carefully
lifted all 30 seedlings, root ball attatched, and planted them
individually in 5" pots. They have been fertilised, and have made
excellent growth since I moved them, some are even putting up increase.
The losses stopped as soon as I shifted them. I think I will just
transfer them to larger pots when they show roots through the bottom of
their pots. I had irises flower in 8" pots last year, and put on good
increase. They don't have to compete with other plant roots (trees).
I misunderstood Jim's comment, and thought he must be growing his
seedlings to flowering stage in their pots. Is anyone doing this? I'm
seriously thinking of doing this with those crosses which only produced
a few seeds, and which I particularly want to see bloom. I know this is
coddling, but reeely, our soil conditions are very poor.
Jan Clark, in Australia
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