Fall Begins

Well fall has started and I never did get my seedlings planted for the year. So I just potted them up. Well if they survive I know they will be hardy. On another note that may affect my daylilies is that I have resigned from the mission I was working and will have to move by the end of the year. Since I always plants when I plant in the fall I asked the board if i can leave them here till the end of May and they said I could I could. So depending on where I move to to I may or may not be able to continue growing my daylilies. Time will tell.

End of Bloom Season

Well its been to long since I posted. My seedlings I started over the winter are still sitting in the seedling trays. Lost a bunch more but I figure if they survive that long in the seedling trays in this heat and drought they are going to be hardy. Don't mean to do it this way but seems like I do every year.  This year has been crazy and I didn't even get to the beds to make as many crosses as I have in the past. My last cross attempt was June 26th. 76 attempts and nothing to show so far. Not many pods even set this year and so far those that did have just dried up and shriveled away. I just got a few pods left out there. I bought a water pump 2 years ago to stick in the creek but still haven't bought all the accessories needed to hook it up, so I haven't gotten to water  this year except the ones by the house.

Need to keep a closer eye on things

Well its been a while since I've posted anything. Been embarrassed and didn't want to post but I thought I would so maybe it will help the next time. Well what I did was not pay attention to my seedlings. Since I grow them in the basement under lights and probably  don't have enough, plus some one told me once before to change my bulbs out once a year whether or not they are still burning  (something about light rays and stuff grows better, I beieve it ), my seedlings where growing great but tall and spindly. I usually give them a "hair cut" before they get to big but didn't get to them in time this year. When they get so tall and spindly they can fall over and die. I think they snap or something. Had it happen in the past when first started growing indoors. Well I got busy this year and wasn't watching them and yup it happened I lost over half of my stuff. Nope didn't have any fungus gnats or anything as a matter of fact this year so I'm sure that's what caused it. A lot of tall plants, over 6", just laying on the side and browning up. Some I picked up and they just came loose from the ground. So no pictures this time.

 Now that's it warm outside I've taken them outside and maybe once they start growing again and lookdescent I'll take some pictures.

Trying Something New

Ok I'm getting antsy about my seeds this year. I had 23 crosses still and didn't want to wait for the sprouter. So I've bit the bullet and went ahead with something else. I use little zip lock bags to store my seeds in so I thought I'd just pour the H2O2/water solution into the bags and place them in an old clear plastic box (that I used before to try to grow seeds in) then stuck the box on top of a heat mat from a mini green house , that didn't work for me either. I may check the water in a cpl of days to see if any are sprouting early or if mold is going to form. I found out that a lot times moldy seeds are bad seeds.

Here is the list of what I had left.

Susan Pritchard Petit X Over The Top
Over The Top X Susan Pritchard Petit
Business Unusual X All About Eve
Lady Of Sharon X Snow Blizzard
Lady Of Sharon X Yazoo Jim Terry
Lady Of Sharon X Frances Joiner
Lady Of Sharon X wags-03-46
Lady Of Sharon X Silver Highlights
Lady Of Sharon X wags-03-52
Lady Of Sharon X wags-01-06
Lady Of Sharon X Big Kiss
Lady Of Sharon X Arctic Chill
Lady Of Sharon X wags-04-57
Arctic Chill X Lady Of Sharon
Arctic Chill X wags-01-06
Big Kiss X Lady Of Sharon
Big Kiss X Unk
wags-01-06  X Arctic Chill
Exotic Echo X Lady Of Sharon
Scatterbrain X Yazoo Jim Terry
Lucky Pierre X Arctic Chill
Frances Joiner X Lady Of Sharon
wags-04-57 X Lady Of Sharon
Snow Blizzrd X Lady Of Sharon
Rachael My Love X Lavender Blue Baby
Exotic Echo X Betty Woods

Think you can tell what I'm trying to get yet?

Potting Up

Started potting up the first run of seeds from the sprouter. Didn't leave them in as long as I have before. Some started growing pretty good and a few didn't even start sprouting yet. Had one that already started growing through the mesh.

 

  

Now I planted all these is tree seedling tray that I learned about from Lee Pickles when visiting his greenhouse during a Mid Winter Symposium a few years back. The tree seedling tray sure makes it easier to keep things together. Once they start sprouting & growing better I'll take pics of that and share them.

Since I haven't decided how I'm gonna do the rest of the seeds I went ahead  and placed 12 more crosses in the sprouter.

A- Powder Puff Truffle X Gerrie Frankenberger

A red- Gemini Jack X Boysenberry Truffle

A yellow -Rose Duet X Boysenberry Truffle

B - Rhubarb Truffle X Over The Top

B red - Rhubarb Truffle X Gemini Jack

B yellow - Soft Tender Touch X Ariel Benjamin

C - Carp01 X Ariel Bejamin

C red - Gerrie Frankenbarger X wags-05-09

C yellow - wags-05-09 X Boysenberry Truffle

D - Powder Puff Truffle X wags-03-17

D red - wags-03-14 X Eye Be Darn

D yellow - wags-03-11 X Mulberry Connection

Seed sprouting

Well I think these are the fastest ones I've had sprout. Here it is day 8 after starting this batch and I saw the first sprouts when I changed my water out this am.

 

  

Now in a few days when the sprouts get a little longer then I'll move them to a  seedling tray. Went through the rest of my crosses and  I still have 42 crosses to start.  Been trying to determine if I want to continue using this method or place seeds in seedling trays.  To start all these crosses would take a very long time or I would have to buy a few more sprouters. Can't find them @ Wally World any more but I've found them on the Internet cheapest I've found so far is ~$13 plus S&H. I would need about 4 more to speed things along but don't know if I want to invest that much into it.

Starting my seeds

Well Its time to start my seeds for the year. I've tried several methods over the years (from directly planting in ground to using miniature greenhouses and peat pots) and found this one works the best for me. I use a seed sprouter. The one I use has 5 trays, 4 drain and one holds the water.

 

To help add more seeds per tray I made little baskets out of mesh material. I can get two baskets per tray so I can actually have three crosses now per tray.

 

When making these baskets try making them tall enough to reach the top of the tray but not to tall so the trays will still stack on top of each other.

  

To keep help keep crosses straight, I label each usable tray with a letter. Then to each "basket" I add some colored thread.  Then as I add the seed I write the crosses down as follows (for the tray shown)

B

B red

B yellow

Now after you fill all trays your ready to start the sprouting process. The trays hold about 2 cups of water so I add on capful of H2O2 (Hydrogen Peroxide). This helps ward of mold and I've been told it also helps the sprouting. I pour the water in the top tray and let it trickle down to the holding tray.  I do this once per day and use fresh mixture everyday.  I've had some seeds before start sprouting after 9 days. Since I do both tet and dips I try to keep all the same ploidy the same in each tray, just in case I pour the water to fast in the top tray and the seeds wash out from one basket to another. Better to have crosses of the same ploidy mixed then have tets and dips mixed together.

So for the first 12 crosses I'm starting this year here is the list

A - JERRY PATE WILLIAMS X SDLG

A red-JERRY PATE WILLIAMS X OVER THE TOP

A yellow-OVER THE TOP X JERRY PATE WILLIAMS

B-JERRY PATE WILLIAMS X FIERY VISITATION

B red-JERRY PATE WILLIAMS X SUSAN PRITCHARD PETIT

B yellow-JERRY PATE WILLIAMS X GEMINI JACK

C-JERRY PATE WILLIAMS X BOYSENBERRY TRUFFLE

C red-JERRY PATE WILLIAMS X SDLG

C yellow-JERRY PATE WILLIAMS X MULBERRY CONNECTION

D- PLUM PLUME X JERRY PATE WILLIAMS

D red- ALAXANDER'S RAGTIME BAND X EYE BE DARN

 D yellow- SOFT TENDER TOUCH X EYE BE DARN

  

I just sit the sprouter on a table top, somewhere out of the way so it doesn't get knocked down and check it every day.

Finally starting this thing off

Well after the 2010 Mid Winter Symposium and listening to Nikki Schmith. I've decided its about time I actaully start using this thing. I've had it now for 3 years but never done anything to it. Now all I have to do is learn how to write and I can get this thing going