I would put the seedlings in a 1 gallon pot (2.5qt) each for space savings and go for a cutting in the spring. Seems to me the seedling doesn't need a 5 gallon (3.8 true gallons) pot at this point.

I'm not experienced with seedlings so maybe there is more to it than my assumptions.

Barbara, I don't mean to disappoint you but I have 2 year old seedlings that I started from my own seedpods, as well as 4 and even 5 year old seedlings that I purchased 2 years ago that still have not bloomed. Some of these are 3-4 feet or more in height. From what I've read seedlings on average can take 4-5 years before blooming and also seem to need to reach a critical size first. I seem to remember that Jim Little had some seedlings go 20 years before blooming!

At any rate, if you want to see flowers sooner you might add to your collection some rooted cuttings or some of Carol and Luc's grafted plants. Good luck!

Kevin

Hi Barbra. Kevin's right, don't expect to see blooms for 4-5 years, maybe longer. If you want to play around you can try using some of the seedlings as rootstock for grafting. For immediate gratification buy mature plants with inflos in the spring. You can try rooting some cuttings next summer which will probably bloom in a year or two. I also agree that a 5 gal pot for a 7" plant is a waste of space.

Thanks everyone, when I go back next weekend, I will move the plants to 1 gallon pots. These seedlings have the most unusual colored stems, some are actually red. I was reading a thread, and someone mentioned that seedlings take 3 to 4 years to bloom, thats what got me thinking. I called Carol, she said I can start a lay-away plan, paying thru the winter for sping plants. She has never done it before, but said she would do it for me. I wonder if she sells Gift Certificates, so I can drop a hint at Christmas. My husband always puts gift cards in my stocking. Barbra

Barbra, I've heard a lot of people say that seedlings will take at least 3/3 (3 years or 3 feet!) to bloom. However I've also read some others say that they got blooms from 1.5 or 2 year-olds. I don't know if it depends on the varieties, or the fertilizer, climate, or??? but I am still hoping that a few of mine (even just 1 or 2) will bloom before 3 years! I will try to fertilize them religiously and give them the best growing conditions I can give, and see what happens. Good luck on yours!

Sunseeker, I sure hope you are right, I will start fertilizing them in the spring to see if I can speed it up. I have to tell you, I used that spray fish emulsion last week and in 3 days, I had brugmansia, iochroma, and datura blooms. It was beautiful, the new dayliles that I just planted last Thursday were sending up scapes. Gosh that stuff really works on everything! Barbra

Wow, that sounds good! What brand is your fish emulsion spray, and where can I get it from? I'd like to try it!

The brand was Alaskan, it was on clearance at Lowes. I wish I would have bought more, I only bought 5 bottles. The empty bottle worked better than any hose sprayer I own. I sprayed broadleaf killer on the states property, to help control stickers. Barbra

It really varies on the time it takes for seedlings to bloom. Depends on variety, climate, conditions, etc. You have a much longer growing season, so it may be less time. Some of mine first bloomed at 5 feet tall! Yikes!

If storage space is an issue, I'd go with named or no-ID cuttings & plants, or grafted plants. These will bloom much sooner! And you can select more compact varieties if space is getting to be an issue. Even then, these named varieties may soon outgrow your bed and storage space!

Barbra, I read (maybe in Jim Little's book?) that a seedling planted in the ground will do better and bloom sooner than one in a pot. If you have the space after winter to put them in-ground at the coast you might try it with a few, as long as you're willing to pull them up again if the temps drop below 40 next winter.

Seedlings put out a tap root, unlike cuttings, and that tap root will wind around and around in a pot, slowing down their development. Jim Little recommends cutting the tap root if you plan to keep it in a pot. I'll have to do this myself next spring.

I'm sure Carol would happy to make up gift certificates for her customers! They are so nice and accommodating there.

I planted NOID seeds in early 2008 and one bloomed this summer (late August). It's 5 ft tall - it's sisters look like they wanted to bloom, but didn't. I put them in large pots this spring as they're all in the 5 ft range. I've heard 2 to 20 years before blooming, so who knows! Good luck - it's so much fun to see the fruits of your work!

RuthAnne in SC

Larry, the person I traded with for the seedlings, sent me an email, saying his 2 yr old seedlings are blooming. He has them in a hot mixture of peat, perlite, chicken manure, and osmocote. He has to water alot and adds sugar. He puts 3 seedling plants in a 30 gallon pot. He said they are 3 ft tall, and bloomed this year. In the spring, I know I will try to find chicken manure, and will start adding sugar. He mentioned the sugar before, and I forgot. Barbra

Barbra, I sent out a reminder about next Saturday but not to your email address since it's been hijacked. Let me know when you have that cleared up.

Btw, molasses is probably the best form of sugar as it also is packed with extra nutrients.

Jen, I am coming on Saturday. The highjacked email has been fixed, in fact that is why Larry emailed me originally. He said he received and email, but his security told him not to open it, and wanted to know what was going on. Since he doesn't look at the forums, he was in the dark. I emailed him everything was ok, then asked the question regarding how old his seedlings, would be before they bloomed. I posted his reply. Barbra

I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but I'd like to offer a little commentary about adding things to our soils that aren't nutrients, like sugar, molasses, ..... anything soluble that dissolves into the soil solution.

Even if there was something in sugar that was needed and could be used by the plant, sugar couldn't be absorbed by the plant in molecular form. The hydrocarbon chain would need to be cleaved. Sugar (CnH2nOn [n is a number from 3-7]) hydrocarbon chains contain only carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, which are never deficient, so nutritionally it looks like sugar provides nothing the plant doesn't already have in abundance much greater than its needs.

What does sugar actually DO when it becomes part of the soil solution? It increases the level of TDS (total dissolved solids) and EC (electrical conductivity). What this does is make it more difficult for the plant to take up water and the nutrients dissolved in water. The goal of a good nutritional supplementation program should be to keep TDS/EC as low as possible w/o the level of nutrients being so low it causes nutrient deficiencies. From this, we can see that ANYTHING in the soil solution that is not nutritional is going to be a limiting factor.

To illustrate why non-nutrients in the soil solution are limiting, lets say that in a plant growing strongly, 800 ppm fertility is perfect when only the nutrients essential to growth are present in the soil solution, and they are there in the same ratio in which plants use them. Anything lower than 800 ppm carries the potential for deficiencies, and anything above 800 ppm makes it more difficult to absorb water & nutrients. Skewing the RATIO of nutrients in the soil solution even when the total ppm remains at 800 is also limiting. Adding sugar or any soluble substance the plant can't use has to be limiting. At 800 ppm with sugar being 100 ppm, there can be nutritional deficiencies even if the nutrient ratio is perfect. At 900 ppm with sugar being 100 ppm the effect is limiting because it makes it unnecessarily difficult for the plant to take up water - the primary cause of spoiled foliage in our plants.

Sugar can be used just as effectively as salt in the north to melt ice on roads. It isn't, because of the cost differential. In the soil solution, sugar has essentially the same effect as salt. Most brines that we soak our turkeys or meats in prior to smoking have sugar in them. This is partially for the flavor and partially for its tendency to pull water from the cells of the meat & dry it. It has exactly the same effect on plant cells.

I really urge you NOT to consider using sugar on your plants. It can't do good and it will be a limiting factor with the potential for considerably harm (plasmolysis - aka fertilizer burn).

Al