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Begonia started from seed BUT no tuber grown???

Started_with_bean

14 years ago

I started a couple of tuber Begonias from seed this past May, and stored them in the pot in the closed in back porch this season. When I went to get the tubers out this week to start them, I couldn't find any! Do they not make tubers the first year? It was November when I cut them down to the dirt level after I'd stopped watering them for a month. Can it be I didn't let the frost do them in first?

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Comments (4)

sophie12
14 years ago
does it perhaps freeze in your pourch?
Started_with_bean
Original Author
14 years ago
No, but it does get close to it. I read on another post that you can leave them in the pot in an unheated garage to overwinter. Perhaps it was just too cold. I guess I learned my lesson.
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Fill, level and lightly firm the compost in your seed tray; place on the ground and water thoroughly with a fine rose on the watering can; dry the rim of the seed tray with a cloth or kitchen towel (nothing worse than sowing begonias with wet fingers), even though you don't actually touch the seed. Now, sieve a thin layer of fine compost or sand over the surface (just to fill in the pits of the seed compost.), lightly press. Take a sheet of white paper creased down the middle and place on it a small quantity of perfectly dry fine sand; onto this place a small quantity of begonia seed from your packet and stir them together with a dry implement (the tip of your knife blade, the tip of a plastic label etc. Hold the paper over the seed tray and tap it with a finger to slowly move the sand/seed down until it spills over the end and onto the compost spreading as evenly as you can. If this procedure is new to you it is a good plan to practice on another tray using the dry sand alone. Learn how to hold the paper in the fingers of one hand and tap with a finger of the same hand to move the sand gently down the crease in the paper. Don't cover the seed with any compost; place the tray in a close environment and cover with a sheet of glass or perspex and then darken off. Darkening off is not essential but is my preference. Germinate at around 70F. Very carefully turn the glass daily wiping off the moisture collected on the underside. Once germinated remove to the daylight and a temperature of around 65F. Prick off into trays of standard seed or first potting compost as soon as large enough even if it means on the point of a knife. In the region of 60,000 seed per gram. My Website
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For the first time grower, I would avoid the tuberous or tuberhybrida, as they are large growers and need a lot of strong light, and long days, they are not suited to house growing under most conditions. The species tuberous are small, but that is completely another story for a newcomer. If you want to grow from seed why not start with the wax (semperflorens), they germinate quickly and most can grow on windowsill although they can grow as tall as ten inches. I think a catalog for these seeds would be your best bet.
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I don't know how they stand the mid-thirties. I start letting mine dry out about Labor Day.Some growing instructions used to say 'lay the pot on its side', I could never figure that out, thought it might be some form of tropism. . .However I finally ran across some instructions which said 'lay the pot on its side so the fall rains can't get in and start regrowth', Oh that was so funny, I never would have figured that out because we don't have much fall rain. Well, we all have different environments which is why figuring out how to do things can be frustrating.
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Unfortunately whether or not the plant produces a tuber is about the only to tell. If your plant was full grown when you bought it, and the label does not indicate it is a tuberous variety or perhaps the seller may tell you, the only way I can think of is that when the daylight (or plant light) is less than l2 hours, the leaves of the plant get limp and start to drop - that is when the tuber starts to form, you should be able to feel it if you reach into the pot. The hard part is that there may not be enough tuber to notice unless the plant is allowed to go fully dormant, newly grown tuberous species may not produce as much tuber as you would like for the first growing season. Generally commercial tuberhybrida have a nice full tuber in the pot after dormancy. I hope this helps.
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linnea56 (zone 5b Chicago)
14 years ago
First year plants don't make tubers right away. I bought a gorgeous one a few years ago already blooming. I knew from the leaves it was tuberous because I do grow my own. When the leaves dropped off (I had taken it into the house to enjoy it a little longer) I dug around and couldnÂt find any tubers! Not so much as a pea sized lump. I asked on here and was told it takes a while for the tubers to form. To keep the whole pot undisturbed, let it dry out, store it in the cold dark basement, and leave it until April. Then bring it up to light and give it a bit of water. This I did the next spring. Soon I had sprouts: seemingly from nowhere! Again all summer I enjoyed it blooming lushly. This fall I brought the whole pot in again. When the leaves dropped off I let it dry out. After having the plant almost 2 seasons, now I could find tubers. They are still small, each one less than an inch: closer to 3 /4.
Solomon Dang-Goldberg
9 years ago
I uses to live in San Francisco and had no problems with begonias growing under a porch. They always bloomed profusely and tubers always got bigger each year. Even the seeds i started in march of 2011 made tubers the size of a baseball. Albeit, we have a long growing season and the right temps. I gave them all up and moved to MA and boy is gardening different.

I started with Blackmore and Langdon seeds feb of 2013 indoors in Boston. Those that survived the move outside all created tubers the size of a peanut to the size of a golf all. Out of about 100 seedlings, I culled out about half that did not have double blooms and the next spring, only about 20 made it. I kept them too cool in the basement. None bloomed summer of 2014. Mainly because I used regular topsoil with some weird mulch incorporated. They did all survive and their tubers were slightly bigger.

I have started more Blackmore and Langdon seeds.mi started a batch dec 15 2014 and about 100 have been reported into 50 cell trays. I just started another batch last week just for backup. They grew really well when I had them under a 4foot shoplight on a shelf above the stove but started dying and damping off when i moved them to the basement with no bottom heat.

My advice is to start very early if you want tubers and enough time to evaluate flowers to cull, being feb a the latestThey generally create tubers in the fall when day length decreases so they need enough leaves and a big enough root system to do that by September. Also give them bottom heat and use a looserepackaged potting mix. I made the mistake of potting them up in whatever was around only to find the the pH of the black mulch I used was close to 7.5

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