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Starting Hosta Seeds

12 years ago

A strange thing happened on the way to the forum. I googled for 'Bill Nash Hosta Seeds" and was able to look up a 2009 GW thread, actually replied with a message, and it never showed up in 2012. Time Warp? So I copied it here :

" Starting Hosta Seeds

Posted by don_r Z 5 (My Page) on Tue, Feb 3, 09 at 13:49

I thought I'd post some links to helpful information about starting hostas from seed, since many of us enjoy doing so during this time of the year.

Bill Nash's article titled "About Seeds & Hostas" is posted here

Bob Axmear's article title "Hosta Seed Starting" is posted here

Many wonderful articles written by Josh Spece are posted here . They include the following titles:

"Introduction to Hybridizing Hostas"

"Selecting Parent Plants- Goals, Fertility, Bloom Period"

"Hosta Genetics"

"The Mechanics of Hybridizing Hostas- Flower Anatomy, Preparing & Protecting Flowers,Collecting & Storing Pollen, Transfering Pollen, Marking Crosses, Keeping Records"

Hosta Seeds- Harvesting, Cleaning, Storing

"Starting Hosta Seeds- Planting Containers, Planting Medium, Moisture, Heat, Germination Time"

"Growing Hosta Seedlings- Light Type, Photoperiod, Reflecting Light, Water, Fertilizer, Re-potting"

"Problems Encountered While Growing Hosta Seedlings- Damping Off, Fungus Gnats"

"Hardening Off & Moving Seedlings Outdoors"

"Culling and Selecting Hosta Seedlings"

"Hybridizing Resources"

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Comment (1)

in ny zone5
Original Author
12 years ago
The above post was by don_r in 2009, here is my reply in 2012 :

I just culled my first seedlings and did this per Bill Nash's article 'About Seeds and Hostas'. He wrote it easy to understand and made it simple for me in the case of culling streaked seedlings. Wow what an experience!

In summary, since these were open pollinated seedlings of streaker mother plants Fickle Blue Genes, Topo Gigio, Blue Lightning and Dorothy Benedict, and I wanted only variegated seedlings, I did not want any stabilized single color (here all green) seedlings, threw those all out. From about 110 seedlings I culled 90, have left about 20 streaked or potentially streaked seedlings, about 1 or 2 per cell.

With offspring of streaked mothers, if a seedling is single-color, it will not be going back to streaked. I also have seedlings of variegated mothers which are yellow-border/green center. In that case I keep green seedlings because variegation might show up only next year.

The above streaked seeds I had from Mr. Hosta of Land of the Giants Hosta Farm and M&M Hosta Seeds. Seeds had a very high germination rate. Trudy from the Hosta Seeds Grower Forum gave more streaked seeds, which are now germinating nicely.
Bernd
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I did get your e mail gardenweed,thank you so much for your kind offer,I tryed growing hosta from seed for the first time this year, so far, no luck. I grew a few streakers,last year, just so I could have some seed, and grow them out,but not a one so far. I have a million, in my yard,that come up on their own,I have given away so many,when they come up on their own, the roots are strong,and deep.And most do come up all green. Any one want any baby seedlings, free, to a good home, you pay postage. :0) cAROL
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Starting Hosta Seeds
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Bump this up! I just culled my first seedlings and did this per Bill Nash's article 'About Seeds and Hostas'. He wrote it easy to understand and made it simple for me in the case of culling streaked seedlings. Wow what an experience! In summary, since these were open pollinated seedlings of streaker mother plants Fickle Blue Genes, Topo Gigio, Blue Lightning and Dorothy Benedict, and I wanted only variegated seedlings, I did not want any stabilized single color (here all green) seedlings, threw those all out. From about 110 seedlings I culled 90, have left about 20 streaked or potentially streaked seedlings, about 1 or 2 per cell. With offspring of streaked mothers, if a seedling is single-color, it will not be going back to streaked. I also have seedlings of variegated mothers which are yellow-border/green center. In that case I keep green seedlings because variegation might show up only next year. Bernd
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streaked hosta are unstable ... they pass that instability to the seeds.. and ergo.. the seedlings ... streaked seedlings.. over the years.. will settle out to edged or centered plants ... though possible ... stable .. which means one color or edged.. or centered plants.. will give a majority .. like 99.9999999999999999999999999999999999999999% solid plants ... just throwing some numbers out .... if you use a stable plant.. you will get about 85% green seedlings... 10% blue.. and 5% yellow ... and one in a million edged or streaked ... though it might happen.. dont bet the mortgage payment on it ... when you are growing seeds.. you will need to throw out almost all the green .... or you will very quickly be overwhelmed by all them.. fear your success ... ken
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This depends on the kind of hosta they come from, how much light you give them and how big you can handle them under lights before being able to bring them outside. That means how high the maximum distance is between pots and lights in your setup. For example, I am in zone 5 and can bring the little pots outside the first weeks in May. That is, I would bring them into my garage when a frost is in the forecast. In case you grow from variegated and single color hostas, then you will get single color seedlings which grow relatively fast. If you plan to have the lights on 24 hours, then I would not start before January 1, or they will get too big at the end of April. In case you will shut off lights 8 hrs every night, then start the seeds earlier. Green seedlings will grow the fastest. In case you grow seeds from streaked plants, and you plan to keep only streaked seedlings, then start much earlier. I start usually November 15 and grow them under 24 hrs light, also give seedlings a weak fertilizer in the water.
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