Sacrificing plants
15 April 2023 03:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
igenlodeI gave up on the marigolds after a month -- just three have germinated out of twelve seeds sowed, but together with the other two that self-sowed (and are now starting to put out true leaves) that makes for five plants, which realistically is more than enough! So I have emptied out that seed tray and planted up a couple of the compartments with rudbeckia seed; again, commercial from last year. I also put in a compartment of chives, which were supposed to be perennial but which all died off over the winter.
I have thinned out the pak choi by eating half of them, which should give the others a better chance to grow larger. They really ought to be in very much bigger pots to reach full size.
Still zero germination either from the towel-tomatoes sown outside the day before the marigolds, or from the dark-leafed chilli I sowed indoors at the same time as my second batch of towel-tomatoes. However, the latter are now sturdy seedlings (currently resident in the mini-greenhouse along with the Roma tomatoes, and I have four of the latter and four healthy towel-tomatoes along with a couple that have yet to open their leaves, which should be more than enough for this year's supply of plants. I shall have to give away some of the Roma seedlings as it is.
The Demon Red chillies are still sitting on my kitchen windowsill doing nothing very much -- last night I went to the lengths of prising off the empty seed caps from their leaf tips, since they were apparently incapable of opening them themselves with sufficient force to split the caps, and the seed leaves did spring apart with reassuring vigour. The largest seedling is just starting to put out a single true leaf. But at least I now know to expect that, after last year... It doesn't really matter if the dark-leafed chillies fail to germinate at all (I suppose it's possible the seed for that variety is even sterile!), since they were just an experiment, and an attempt at a back-up at a point when I was afraid I wouldn't get any usable seed from the Demon Reds. Of course we still don't know whether the Demon Reds definitely do breed true in the second generation.
None of the flat-growing seedlings in the basil tray are, in fact, basil. But on the other hand, there are a few new seedlings now emerging which just might be. Likewise, nothing that has germinated in the nasturtium pot is anything like big enough to be a nasturtium, but there is one new shoot that might possibly be.
There are now two seedlings in the mesembryanthemum pot, of which one is small and plump and the other probably isn't a mesembryanthemum -- I definitely need more than one of those, since they come in assorted colours! However I have moved them out of the bathroom and am attempting to harden them off. (Possibly I should do the same for the Demon Red chillies in order to give them the benefit of the extra sunlight.) Apparently there is a 'mini-heatwave' forecast, which might give the plants a chance to catch up from what feels like an exceptionally chilly spring :(
I have thinned out the pak choi by eating half of them, which should give the others a better chance to grow larger. They really ought to be in very much bigger pots to reach full size.
Still zero germination either from the towel-tomatoes sown outside the day before the marigolds, or from the dark-leafed chilli I sowed indoors at the same time as my second batch of towel-tomatoes. However, the latter are now sturdy seedlings (currently resident in the mini-greenhouse along with the Roma tomatoes, and I have four of the latter and four healthy towel-tomatoes along with a couple that have yet to open their leaves, which should be more than enough for this year's supply of plants. I shall have to give away some of the Roma seedlings as it is.
The Demon Red chillies are still sitting on my kitchen windowsill doing nothing very much -- last night I went to the lengths of prising off the empty seed caps from their leaf tips, since they were apparently incapable of opening them themselves with sufficient force to split the caps, and the seed leaves did spring apart with reassuring vigour. The largest seedling is just starting to put out a single true leaf. But at least I now know to expect that, after last year... It doesn't really matter if the dark-leafed chillies fail to germinate at all (I suppose it's possible the seed for that variety is even sterile!), since they were just an experiment, and an attempt at a back-up at a point when I was afraid I wouldn't get any usable seed from the Demon Reds. Of course we still don't know whether the Demon Reds definitely do breed true in the second generation.
None of the flat-growing seedlings in the basil tray are, in fact, basil. But on the other hand, there are a few new seedlings now emerging which just might be. Likewise, nothing that has germinated in the nasturtium pot is anything like big enough to be a nasturtium, but there is one new shoot that might possibly be.
There are now two seedlings in the mesembryanthemum pot, of which one is small and plump and the other probably isn't a mesembryanthemum -- I definitely need more than one of those, since they come in assorted colours! However I have moved them out of the bathroom and am attempting to harden them off. (Possibly I should do the same for the Demon Red chillies in order to give them the benefit of the extra sunlight.) Apparently there is a 'mini-heatwave' forecast, which might give the plants a chance to catch up from what feels like an exceptionally chilly spring :(