"Bill Rose" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote:

"Bill Rose" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote:

It's a really bad idea. Why would you want to do that?

Because I'm not omnipresent and potent. This, for me, is R & D. You
test
all ideas.

It's good to see you back, schmuck.

-Bill


Schmuck. It's obvious by just looking at seedling roots that they're not
going to withstand the kind of handling you're suggesting.

Sometimes, often actually, just about always, when I'm loading up a
germination tray, especially when the seeds are the size of dust, I get
some migration of species to unintended cells. Other times, I put
multiple seeds in a cell just to make sure that I get a plant in the
cell and my planting stays on schedule, then as quick as you can
say,"Bob's your uncle", I have half a dozen plants in one cell:( In
this unhappy eventualities, I usually have to make a choice of which
plant to keep and which to terminate. As Kay said, handling the stems is
a good way to turn it all to garbage, zooooh, I'm trying to figure out
an efficient way to separate the intertwining roots. As I said, I'm
still in R&D. Still a student and, I need to ask stupid questions. It
comes with the territory.

Another thing I can't figure out is why, sometimes the same seeds will
practically leap out of the tray when they germinates. Other times, it's
like a cold wind blowing through a desolate landscape and then sometimes
you get these little lilliputian midget mutants of a plant that don't do
anything as if they expect you to hit them with a hammer at any second.

Oh, little mysteries of life.

- Bill


Take notes, especially with regard to the brands of seeds. Over the years,
I've found Burpee's to be remarkable in their tendency to do much better
than whatever is claimed on the package, in terms of germination time.

I kind of figured it would affect my electric bill, but a recent
increase from
ComEd
in the Chicago area has made it more evident that raising plants from
seeds can
be
very costly. For about one month, I had two double flourecent shop
lights and
about
six small heating pads going to germinate my seeds. My electric bill
almost
doubled.
Guess there is no way around it, but makes one think twice about
growing veggies

and flowers from seed.


Sherwin, please forgive me for butting in, with a non- gardening
idea....... but if you have an electric hot water heater, check to see
whether you've lost one of the heating elements ( most hot water heaters
have 2 elements for quick recovery capacity). You wouldn't necessarily
notice this right off in your hot water supply, but you sure would notice it
in your electric bill if one element was doing all the work of 2.

When I did condo/rental unit bill reconciliation, a huge spike in a bill
like that was usually a tip-off that it wasn't "use by resident", or
"weather related", it was an element failure in the hot water heater.

If I'm baked on the suggestion, call it just a suggestion, and never mind.

Sue in Maine

On Thu, 24 May 2007 08:00:17 -0700, Bill Rose wrote:
Another thing I can't figure out is why, sometimes the same seeds will
practically leap out of the tray when they germinates. Other times, it's
like a cold wind blowing through a desolate landscape and then sometimes
you get these little lilliputian midget mutants of a plant that don't do
anything as if they expect you to hit them with a hammer at any second.

The term that's used for "getting right onto the job of growing" is
"vigor". Seedling vigor is one of those terms that everyone thinks they
what it means, but no one's ever been able to put a test number on to
quantify. If that sort of thing interests you, you might want to poke
around in Agricola for "vigor testing".

Then there are the species and cultivars that you expect to have a certain
percentage of stunted seedlings that go nowhere...

Kay

Bill,

I don't have problems separating seedlings in a single cell. Are you using a
light
growing media that should break apart easily? Also, are your seeds fresh. I
have
tried to use previous years seeds, and sometimes get away with it, usually with
decreased germination rates.

Sherwin D.

Bill Rose wrote:

In article ,
"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote:

"Bill Rose" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote:

It's a really bad idea. Why would you want to do that?

Because I'm not omnipresent and potent. This, for me, is R & D. You test
all ideas.

It's good to see you back, schmuck.

-Bill


Schmuck. It's obvious by just looking at seedling roots that they're not
going to withstand the kind of handling you're suggesting.

Sometimes, often actually, just about always, when I'm loading up a
germination tray, especially when the seeds are the size of dust, I get
some migration of species to unintended cells. Other times, I put
multiple seeds in a cell just to make sure that I get a plant in the
cell and my planting stays on schedule, then as quick as you can
say,"Bob's your uncle", I have half a dozen plants in one cell:( In
this unhappy eventualities, I usually have to make a choice of which
plant to keep and which to terminate. As Kay said, handling the stems is
a good way to turn it all to garbage, zooooh, I'm trying to figure out
an efficient way to separate the intertwining roots. As I said, I'm
still in R&D. Still a student and, I need to ask stupid questions. It
comes with the territory.

Another thing I can't figure out is why, sometimes the same seeds will
practically leap out of the tray when they germinates. Other times, it's
like a cold wind blowing through a desolate landscape and then sometimes
you get these little lilliputian midget mutants of a plant that don't do
anything as if they expect you to hit them with a hammer at any second.

Oh, little mysteries of life.

- Bill

Coloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)

In article ,
sherwindu wrote:

Bill,

I don't have problems separating seedlings in a single cell. Are you using a
light
growing media that should break apart easily? Also, are your seeds fresh. I
have
tried to use previous years seeds, and sometimes get away with it, usually
with
decreased germination rates.

Sherwin D.

Sherwin,
I'll let you know. Right now I have 6 cells of astragalus - basil mixes.
I'd like to save as many of each as is possible.
-
Bill
Coloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)