RE: Growing them too early...??

 
Hi all !
 
 Has any of you ever tried to germinate your seeds
 VERY early ? Like end of february, or half march ??
  
IT WOULD NOT BE ADVISABLE TO TRY TO START PLANTS
INDOORS TOO EARLY UNLESS YOU HAVE SOME SYSTEM LIKE
THIS. I AM INTERESTED IN MORE DETAILS ON THIS METHOD. 
I KNOW YOU CAN GROW CLONES OFF OF EARLY SPROUTED
SEEDS IF YOU ARE AIMING FOR EARLY SEASON MALE FLOWERS.
 I DID THIS SUCCESSFULLY LAST SEASON, AND HAD FEMALES
SPROUTING OUT IN EARLY JUNE, ALTHOUGH THEY WERE NOT
POLLINATED. FOR MORE INFO, PRIVATE E MAIL ME.
MARC
 I once did that with some other kind of plants like
 what we call the "wondertree", and also with cucumbers....
 
 I already told on this list that I worked with an aquarium tank
 from about 400 litres. On the bottom, I put some  stones or
 plastic ice cream boxes put upside down. I fill the tank with
 4-6 inches of water wich will be heated up to about 27°C.
 This by using the normal heating set of a tropical fishtank.
 
 Now, the top of the stones stays just above the waterline.
 That's were I put the little pots with germinating seedlings. On top of the aquarium,
 I placed some glass plates which can be altered(open or close) to control humidity.
 
 On top of the glass plates, I put the normal aquarium lights. That means one
 UV-plantlamp and two "normal" lights wich gave more red of the spectrum than blue or white.
 Lights were on 18hrs a day.
 
 This setup was made end of february 1996 and I remember 2 things very well:
 
 1/ The plants grow like a jungle !! With firm leaves and they even gave flowers half march!!
 
 2/ I didnt work with sterile soil, so I had to fight some fungi.
 
 Now, when I wanted to put them outside, I started to lower temp. in the aquarium,
 and taking off the glass plates for longer and longer periods of time.
 Now I am talking about half of april approx.(it was easter)
 
 They all survived ! ! And they had a headstart from about 2 months. I remember some
 cucumbers were bigger, some stopped growing earlier in the season.
 
 Thanks in advance for all comments.
 
 
 Greetings from........BELGIUM ! !
 
 Wim Van Loock
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