It can be fun to breed your own zinnias - Part 5
maineman
15 years ago
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jackier_gardener
15 years agolast modified: 9 years agojackier_gardener
15 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
It can be fun to breed your own zinnias - Part 9
Comments (112)Greetings! I have read with interest these related threads and have been motivated to plant quite a few zinnias this year. I got a bit of a late start, but I'll make the best of it! I am fortunate to have a long growing season, so that will help. What prompted my post is the discovery of several abnormal seedlings in one particular row. This closely planted row is all seed from one particular flower head collected in 2007 and labeled orange single. I am not certain of its exact origin, though I know tht year I planted a State Fair mix as well as a Pastel Dreams mix from Seeds of Change. My guess would be the tetraploid State Fair mix....but that just decreases the odds of something like this showing up, doesn't it? This row has 82 seedlings germinated and 4 have the completely yellow cotyledons. Because of the total lack of chlorophyll, I imagine they are not long for this world. Has anyone seen this in their seedlots? This last picture shows the seed coat still attached. - Arlan...See MoreIt can be fun to breed your own zinnias - Part 19
Comments (106)Hi Viking, You have gotten a really big head start on the rest of us. My tiny zinnia seedlings are just beginning to get their first set of true leaves. Your seedlings in the white pot are stretched up much too far. Zinnia seedlings need quite a bit of light when they first come up. Our safe no-frost date here is debatable, but I am planning to put some stuff out the first of April, or a little later, (hopefully I will not be the April fool) with the idea of giving it some frost protection if it needs it. Which it probably will. The first of May would be less risky, but I want to push for an earlier zinnia bloom this year. I am preparing to provide some frost protection to the early entrants into my garden. ZM...See MoreIt can be fun to breed your own zinnias - Part 34
Comments (115)Hi Alex, " How is the indoor garden going, ZM? Any especially outstanding recombinants you have to share? " My indoor garden is just getting started. I have a few seedlings getting their first true leaves, but many are just in the cotyledon stage. My plantings so far have focused on getting F2 recombinants with the Extreme Uproll feature, and a few choice exotic specimens. My further indoor plantings will look forward to what I want to accomplish next year outdoors. Next year I intend to apply some lessons learned this year. For the last few years I have been planting standardized beds 4 feet wide with four rows spaced 16 inches apart.Those rows in that picture have been recently weeded. I don't like to stoop over to weed, and kneeling is not my favorite thing either, Although sometimes kneeling is necessary in some hand weeding situations. This last year I did as much weeding as I could from a seated position using a little adjustable chair.My son avoided a lot of weeding in his tomatoes and peppers by laying down landscape cloth. That seemed to work well for him, although he found that weeds could penetrate the cheaper grade of cloth. However the 15-year cloth cost a bit more, but worked well. He grew his tomatoes and peppers in cages. Next year he is considering the use of Cattle Panels for tomato support. I will continue to use small cages for my breeder zinnia specimens.I didn't consider the use of landscape cloth in my rows, because they are so close together. For next year I am considering omitting the middle two rows and just have two rows 4 feet apart. That might make landscape cloth feasible for me, and even if I don't use the cloth, I will have better accessibility for weeding the two-row beds with 4 feet between the rows. My strategy for now is to flesh out my plans for next year's zinnia garden (including what kinds of zinnias to grow) and then use my indoor project to supply the seeds to support those plans. Your Sunflower Path and House look very inviting. Wider might be better. It looks like you have a good variety of tall sunflowers. More later. ZM...See MoreIt can be fun to breed your own zinnias - Part 35
Comments (106)ZM - major storm here last night - thunder and lightening (one strike very close - will walk the property to see if I see damage), followed by heavy rain and hailstones that sounded like they were the size of marbles, though I didn't go outside in the dark at 2 or 3 AM to confirm it. The cats inside were a bit freaked. One of the ferals who typically eats with the inside crew was out all night; came back soaked this morning. There are many places to shelter in the area, so I imagine he wasn't out in the worst, just wet from the transit. Anyway, now bring on some heat and this place will really see the green. The 40 seed packets was a rough estimate, but it's not all. This is just the first wave. However, some of those packets have no more than 3 seeds a piece, specifically some of the zinnias that I am starting early. I don't want many of those right now when they will need to be taking up light space for more than 2 months. Today I will start the teeny-tinies in 6-cell plastic planters with my Baccto propagation mix: petunias, lobelia, nicotiana, some campanula, etc. I've decided again that I am very satisfied with the way this propagation mix performs. I wet it first before I ever plant, then water the seeds in. From then on, as long as I don't let the mix get bone-dry, it will take water in immediately without danger of run-off, as some mixes do. The price is steep - about $24 per 2 cu ft, but I feel the quality's worth it. Oh dang - just went to look at the radar map to see if I could tell you if the storm was moving down your way, and I see we are about to be clobbered again BIG TIME. Lights just flashed out and came back on - better send this and get off line.- Alex...See Moremaineman
15 years agolast modified: 9 years agomaineman
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