Hi,

A friend recommended Night Scented Stock and as I was unable to find any
I bought a propagator and some seeds.

I planted them in a indoor unheated propagator with the vents closed on
Sunday evening (1st June) and last night (4th) noticed there are little
green shoots (definitely not weeds as they are in the two thin lines of
seeds I sowed).

I've opened the vents on the propagator. What would you recommend I do
next please? My aim is to get them growing outside in pots (I have a
terrace not a garden) as I want the nice smell in the evening.

I sowed the seeds thinly, about 2cm apart.

Also - will the remaining seeds be usable next year????

Thanks for any help - as you can see I'm a complete novice.

Cheers,

Tom

Tom wrote:
Hi,

A friend recommended Night Scented Stock and as I was unable to find any
I bought a propagator and some seeds.

I planted them in a indoor unheated propagator with the vents closed on
Sunday evening (1st June) and last night (4th) noticed there are little
green shoots (definitely not weeds as they are in the two thin lines of
seeds I sowed).

I've opened the vents on the propagator. What would you recommend I do
next please? My aim is to get them growing outside in pots (I have a
terrace not a garden) as I want the nice smell in the evening.

I sowed the seeds thinly, about 2cm apart.

Also - will the remaining seeds be usable next year????

Thanks for any help - as you can see I'm a complete novice.

Cheers,

Tom

Correction, most of the seeds are spread thinly but there are little
clusters of 4 or 5 very close to each other.

Thanks,

Tom

Tom writes
Hi,

A friend recommended Night Scented Stock and as I was unable to find
any I bought a propagator and some seeds.

I planted them in a indoor unheated propagator with the vents closed on
Sunday evening (1st June) and last night (4th) noticed there are little
green shoots (definitely not weeds as they are in the two thin lines of
seeds I sowed).

I've opened the vents on the propagator. What would you recommend I do
next please? My aim is to get them growing outside in pots (I have a
terrace not a garden) as I want the nice smell in the evening.

Continue to keep the soil moist. When you feel they are big enough to
move, gently ease them apart and pot them into bigger pots - say about
3inch, grow them on further, and finally put them into 6inch pots. Wen
you transplant, put a bit of soil into the pot, hold the seedling
gently, trickle soil gently over its roots, and fill the pot so that the
soil is at the same level (or possibly slightly higher) on the plant as
it was before you started transplanting. Then firm the soil a bit, and
water the pot (it's inevitable that you damage the fine roots a bit, so
you want to make it easy for the roots to pick up water. But don't leave
the pot standing in water).

You can plant several seedlings to a pot. In this case, it's easier to
fill the pot loosely with soil, make a hole, dangle a seedling in it and
fill up with soil, and repeat till you've planted all the seedlings.

I sowed the seeds thinly, about 2cm apart.

Night scented stock is a relatively small plant. I tend to scatter the
seed, and transplant in clumps.

Also - will the remaining seeds be usable next year????

Yes. They'll lose viability eventually, but 2 years is certainly no
problem.

Thanks for any help - as you can see I'm a complete novice.

Try Nicotiana - the white forms, or Nicotiana silvestris. Powerful
scent, and much bigger plants than night scented stock. Different scent,
so nice to grow both.
--
Kay

Tom writes

Correction, most of the seeds are spread thinly but there are little
clusters of 4 or 5 very close to each other.

Transplant the clusters as if they were one plant - don't try to
separate them.
--
Kay

K wrote:

Try Nicotiana - the white forms, or Nicotiana silvestris. Powerful
scent, and much bigger plants than night scented stock. Different scent,
so nice to grow both.


Hey brilliant, THANKS a lot for all the advice.

Out of interest, what is the reason for gradually using larger and
larger pots, rather than just putting them in large pots straight away.

I know using larger and larger ones is the correct way to do it - I just
don't know why :-)

On 5/6/08 17:59, in article net,
"Tom" wrote:

K wrote:

Try Nicotiana - the white forms, or Nicotiana silvestris. Powerful
scent, and much bigger plants than night scented stock. Different scent,
so nice to grow both.


Hey brilliant, THANKS a lot for all the advice.

Out of interest, what is the reason for gradually using larger and
larger pots, rather than just putting them in large pots straight away.

I know using larger and larger ones is the correct way to do it - I just
don't know why :-)

Very basically, if you put them in huge pots to begin with, they drown - too
much water to too little root system=rot=death of the plant. It's a bit
like people watering houseplants and letting them stand in water in the pot
container. They get to a point where they can't take up more water but the
compost is still wet so they just rot off and die.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

Sacha wrote:


Very basically, if you put them in huge pots to begin with, they drown - too
much water to too little root system=rot=death of the plant. It's a bit
like people watering houseplants and letting them stand in water in the pot
container. They get to a point where they can't take up more water but the
compost is still wet so they just rot off and die.


Thanks a lot!

On 6/6/08 07:55, in article net,
"Tom" wrote:

Sacha wrote:


Very basically, if you put them in huge pots to begin with, they drown - too
much water to too little root system=rot=death of the plant. It's a bit
like people watering houseplants and letting them stand in water in the pot
container. They get to a point where they can't take up more water but the
compost is still wet so they just rot off and die.


Thanks a lot!

One of the old garden sayings was "grow a large plant in a small pot". This
allows the plant to take up nourishment and develop a strong root system
before it's either potted on or put out into a flower bed. Small plants put
into pots that are too large are sort of 'suffocated' by having too much
compost around them.
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

Sacha wrote:
On 5/6/08 17:59, in article net,
"Tom" wrote:

K wrote:

Try Nicotiana - the white forms, or Nicotiana silvestris. Powerful
scent, and much bigger plants than night scented stock. Different scent,
so nice to grow both.

Hey brilliant, THANKS a lot for all the advice.

Out of interest, what is the reason for gradually using larger and
larger pots, rather than just putting them in large pots straight away.

I know using larger and larger ones is the correct way to do it - I just
don't know why :-)

Very basically, if you put them in huge pots to begin with, they drown - too
much water to too little root system=rot=death of the plant. It's a bit
like people watering houseplants and letting them stand in water in the pot
container. They get to a point where they can't take up more water but the
compost is still wet so they just rot off and die.



Ahhhh that explains why I lost some of my seedlings (hollyhocks, rocket,
geraniums) recently, having sprinkled them over the surface of a
largeish 12" pot. They got to about 2cm tall then just fell over and died!

I've just sown pak choi seeds in a similar manner and they've all
germinated ok but are currently at that same "delicate" stage so maybe I
should hold of watering them a while. Surface soil is dry but feels
moist below.

Sandy writes
Ahhhh that explains why I lost some of my seedlings (hollyhocks,
rocket, geraniums) recently, having sprinkled them over the surface of
a largeish 12" pot. They got to about 2cm tall then just fell over and
died!

I'd have thought they'd be OK. It's the having large areas of empty soil
which seems to be a problem. At 2cm are you sure you didn't get damping
off (which despite it's name is fungal) - did the lower stem get thin
and spindly?

I've just sown pak choi seeds in a similar manner and they've all
germinated ok but are currently at that same "delicate" stage so maybe
I should hold of watering them a while. Surface soil is dry but feels
moist below.

I wouldn't. Their roots will be tiny and won't be able to reach down
into the moist soil if you let too much of the top soil dry out. Keep it
all moist.

--
Kay

"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 5/6/08 17:59, in article
net,
"Tom" wrote:

K wrote:

Try Nicotiana - the white forms, or Nicotiana silvestris. Powerful
scent, and much bigger plants than night scented stock. Different scent,
so nice to grow both.


Hey brilliant, THANKS a lot for all the advice.

Out of interest, what is the reason for gradually using larger and
larger pots, rather than just putting them in large pots straight away.

I know using larger and larger ones is the correct way to do it - I just
don't know why :-)

Very basically, if you put them in huge pots to begin with, they drown -
too
much water to too little root system=rot=death of the plant. It's a bit
like people watering houseplants and letting them stand in water in the
pot
container. They get to a point where they can't take up more water but
the
compost is still wet so they just rot off and die.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

When you plant out nicotiana watch for the slugs/snails they stripped all
mine bare lasy year within a week !So i lost them all .

Keith

keith kent writes

When you plant out nicotiana watch for the slugs/snails they stripped all
mine bare lasy year within a week !So i lost them all .

I find my N sylvestris are OK provided they are mature plants (say about
12 inches tall in a 6 inch pot) before I plant out. I agree absolutely
that the slugs will get them if they're, say, 4 inches.
--
Kay