Martha you have discovered one of the easiest to grow plants we have. You will soon need to get up the courage to start thinning the crop or you will be overwhelmed. They grow as easily from seed as they do from cuttings. Do not cut the light to slow the growth, you will get very weak plants. When you get the seed restrain the planting so you are not too far ahead of the season of need. Al

I think I have spoken with you about cuttings in water before, so don't want to revisit that if so... There are hundreds of them around the windows as we speak. Last weekend was the cut-off for harvesting them before frost. The view is actually better now from inside than during the summer. Ha!

Coleus seed needs light and heat to germinate, so when you are at the ready point, just know to not cover them over, and do it in a warm spot. I saved a ton of seeds from my plants this year and can't wait to see what kind of interesting little sprouts they might produce. Then to see what new plants I might find in stores next spring to add to the collection!!

Can't get enough Coleus!

ok.. you got the info from the z8 and z9 peeps..

now lets talk reality in z5 MI ...

the drop dead date frost free date [couple weeks sooner in suburbia].. usually.. for what that is worth.. in MI ... is 6/1 .. thats JUNE!!! for the rest of you ... and you still might get a frost/freeze ... coleus have no sense of humor about such ....

you can start playing with extras around 5/1 .. outdoors.. if you put them in a wagon.. and pull them in and out of the garage.. at night.. should temps drop ...

sooooo ... as to when to start seed.. count backwards from 6/1 .. include germination time.. and give them 4 to 6 weeks to grow .... so if it were me.. i would start new seed 6 to 8 weeks prior to 'go outside time' .... which means what.. march????

also.. note.. you dont have to plant the seeds all at once... try some 2/1 .. 3/1 .. and 4/1.. take notes .. and learn ...

now.. your lights should be adjustable ... work that out if they arent ... give us pix of your setup.. we might have suggestions in a new post ...

now.. these things are animals.. lol .. if you cut them back ... every 2 or 3 weeks.. and 'stick' them all .. you will be adding a wing to the house because.. being an exponential function .. 2 cutting.. will give you 4.. then 8.. then 64 ... etc ... [at every one of your cuts.. 2 buds min. will activate]

what i used to do.. is.. root one or two.. of your cuttings.. throw the rest out in the compost pile ... at next pruning.. throw away one of the older plants.. prune the rest .. start two new ones.. etc ... basically.. cycle your plants..

young vigorous plants.. perform much better than old.. tortured plants ... and by 6/1 ... you want a bunch of young.. well rooted .. specimens.. not a bunch of old scraggly plants.. that will go into shock when you take them outdoors ... you want a young virile stud out there.. not grandpa ...

you know what they are supposed to look like.. at point of sale ... and that is your goal ....

i used to run my lights 16 hours per day.. with one on/off cycle in the middle of the off cycle.. it is said to confuse them into thinking the lights are on 24 hours ... and my lights were always about 2 inches from the tops of the plants ... and the light stand was in a closet ... and the lights ran at night ... so the heat from the lights ... kept them warm.. when my furnace kicked down to 64 at night.. in MI .... 64 degrees is not great seed germ. temp.. a 72 degree heat mat fixed that ...

make any sense ...

ken

Excellent point about not starting the seeds all at once, Ken. I used to be a Z5'er, until a few years ago. I did this the same way there.

I do disagree about older plants being scraggly though. That just depends on the light. Shop lights are not the same as a west or south window, where they thrive for winter.

A display of grandpa cuttings...

I do disagree about older plants being scraggly though.

==>>> what the plant ends up looking like.. in april .. is a function of the growers IN HOUSE ability to provide heat.. light.. water and humidity ...

when they win.. they have gorgeous plants ...

when they struggle.. the plants do to ...

but one thing for sure.. there is no real need for a million of them ... been there.. done that.. and ended up.. killing 999,950 of them ... because i ended up not having space.. nor time to plant the rest ...

doc simply doesnt need too many.. so suck it up.. and throw them out.. and when your older plants start looking like some amputee because its been nipped back 100 times.. feel free to get rid of it .. because you have a new fresh one ready to go ...

i thought the premise of part of the post .. or i presumed.. was the GUILT in throwing away excess ...

ken

ps: you know you have way too many.. when your windows are dripping so much water from humidity in the house becaeu it ZERO DEGREES in MI in Jan [which of course ices over at night in MI] .. that the furnace cant burn it all off during the day .. at that point.. you are living in a greenhouse.. which might be nice.. until mold fills the basement ... and you have to walk over the carpet in swampers ... because everything is all wet .. at this point.. i recommend reducing watering.. lol ... [i did get to ice on the windows ... but the swampers part.. get this.. is exaggeration .. lol]

Thank you, all, for your advice. It all helps me think through what I should do in my particular situation. I have a great light set up with adjustable lights on three shelves and it's all enclosed in clear plastic tent with zipper access. My husband set up a timer so the lights are on 16 hours daily. I think I'll follow something similar to Ken's system of recycling my plants as they mature. I am going to try to keep a bunch of cuttings in water in the window to see if they could make it through the winter. I might try that later in the season, as well, just to see how thing vary from one period to another.

These plants make me so happy! I could just stand there and stare at the miraculous colors and textures for hours. I just wish I had space for my lights upstairs so others could enjoy the beauty with me.

Martha

I am going to try to keep a bunch of cuttings in water in the window to see if they could make it through the winter.

==>> sounds good ... the only caveat.. is that water roots.. sometimes dont plant well ... and even here.. a week or two before going outside.. i would root new ones.. and get them in the ground with roots no more than a half inch..

again.. the water.. is just a system to hold over the plant.. what actually goes into the garden.. may not be what is in the glass ...

ken

Totally agree with that, Ken. Having more plants than you can care for is a heartbreaker. The amount of *healthy* plants you can sustain is a reasonable, worthy goal. Almost constant pinching of large leaves and growth tips can help you keep the ones under the lights compact and ready to explode with a ton of branches in the spring. The jar plants I usually just let get very tall, then work on the form after planting outside.

No doubt there is an adjustment period when put back outside, but doesn't seem much different than a little 6-pack plant with a tiny soil root ball getting established. The only trimming of the roots I do is inadvertent, if some break when pulling them out of the jar, which is sometimes pretty much full of roots, the plants figure it out.

I've never said (about cuttings languishing in water for months) "this is the best way to grow Coleus indoors." Hold over is spot on, like someone called "time out" in the garden until spring. I'm not trying to cheat the stores or growers. I'll still spend whatever money is in my garden budget, and extremely likely most of it will go to Coleus. There are over 2000 diff kinds and I want most of them. But this is the only way I know to afford hundreds of plants that are of a decent size in spring. And if cold didn't kill them, it would be a moot point and they would live for years outside. These are just the plants that I paid for. Not that I need the high numbers, nobody needs any Coleus, but it's just what I like, whole swaths and hedges of wild leaves. Probably the exact opposite of Ken's much more civilized, stately, permanent predominance of evergreenery which I very much admire.

Just keep any dead bits out of the water, and change it if it begins to discolor or become cloudy. The cool thing about beverage bottles is that they usually fit on those very thin sills that newer windows/houses can have. This is the first house I've lived in that had sills wide enough for even small pots. If this house had a basement, you can bet your bippy there'd be shop lights hovering over tiny fields of Coleus.

I keep moving stuff around in here, but this window area looked like this a couple days ago.
They make me happy too! Until the day it dies, Coleus always looks good.

check out the link ...

i got some at meijers .. indoor plant area.. for $2 .... they are about the size of a pinhead before they fill with water ...

fill a clear beer or wine bottle with them.. and inset coleus ...

the multi color ones are spectacular in the sun .. i have them in a tall marinade bottle that is whiskey bottle sized.. and in some of those little artichoke jars ...

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

I finished trimming my jungle and observed that my cuttings look healthier and more beautiful than the original plants that I took those cuttings from. It makes me want to plant some of the cuttings I have now into potting mix to maintain the quality. But that would mean getting more potting mix and taking the time to dump the current plants to make space. I'll have to think about that for a while. I did manage to toss many of the cuttings, though it was like throwing out a pet. LOL.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

observed that my cuttings look healthier and more beautiful than the original plants that I took those cuttings from.

the plants you cut from.. were going down hill... due to the declination of the sun.. and the cold nights of MI ... which i might call.. they looked tired ...

you new babes.. are .. well.. new... healthy.. vibrant.. etc .. of course they are better ...

glad you got over the guilt.. and got rid of excess .. and otherwise seeming to be having a blast ... hope it runs all winter.. let us know.. if you ever hit the wall .. lol .. like when fungus gnats hit... keep them as dry as you can.. without wilting ... to avoid such ...

ken