Well I have been gardening for many years and there are a couple of things you should know. First a window sill is not ideal for germinating seeds. Most seeds do not need light to germinate. They need a bit of heat--not too much mind you. The window sill is the coolest place in your house. Move your trays to a warmer place. If you can find a place with a bit of heat so much the better. It used to be that on top of the fridge was a good place but with the new energy efficient fridges it gives off no heat. Even if you can't find a place like that move them to the warmest spot in your house. Next--If you put your plants outside with the clear plastic domes they will fry. It is unbelievable how much the sun will heat up a small enclosed space. Domes are for keeping the moisture in so seeds will germinate. Remove the domes as soon as your plants germinate and put them aside for next year. Plants need air circulation or the wet soil will encourage mold. It is not ideal but put them back in the window sill and outside in a protected place on nice days--no covers. You do have to harden them off when first putting them outside. They have to get used to the UV rays. So start them in the shade and gradually over a week give them more and more sun. I wish you luck

I tried colchicine a few years ago with radish. I took some colchicum autumnale bulbs in summer. I cleaned them and crushed them. The sap coming from pressing was put on a paper sheet with radish seeds. i also put some seed on paper with only water. after they germinated i put them into normal potting soil. some of the seedlings treated with colchicine looked different. THey were much thicker and more green. this was an indication that plyploids were formed. Unfortunalty i threw them away after some days. I want to try it again with other seed. I`m looking forward to people who did this and other mutagenic treatments also.

Update! Today during lunch I went to Hancock Fabrics and boy was the lady there, MaryJo helpful. I took my roll of fabric with me because I wanted to know how much yardage I had and prayed they had this material still in stock or had not been discontinued. She measured and I only had 5 yards and she checked the store and they had it but only two yards so she ordered me 6.75 yards which will be arrive in the next 10 days. The repeat of the fabric is every 18 inches because of the pattern. This is what she calculated based on my window measurements I gave her: my window width: 73" the fabric is 54 inches wide I will need 3 - 3 yards of each 54 width where I will divide one and sew each half to each of the two 54 width; this will give my two panel a length of 108 inches (3 yds times 36 is 108) This will also allow for my 8 inches on top and 8 inches on the bottom giving me the final length I want at 86. The width across for each panel will be 81 (54 plus 27 (1/2 of 54) equals 81. My window is 73 inches wide so 73 divided by 2 equals 36.5 or 37¡Kthis is the magic number when I start to pleat. When I pleat them I will have to ensure the finished width will be 36.5 or 37 I also went to Borders and brought a sewing book called ¡§The Complete Photo Guide To Sewing¡¨ which has 1100 Full-Color How-To Photos and on page 226 ¡V Pinch Pleated Draperies are fully illustrated with all the instructions. The book is by Singer and I only paid $3.00 for it because it is used but in good condition. So what do you all think? Does all this information sounds like MaryJo has put me on the right track? Can I do this? MaryJo said I could º She told me to just take my time¡Kif I get frustrated just walk away and come back. When I finish I will take pictures. This book is awesome¡Kit has so much info on how to make just about anything for the home especially cornice boards which I truly love. So if anyone needs to know anything just let me know and I will look it up, make copies and provide º God gave me the gift of sewing and I need to use it!

I use the sand in my photo above. It is not very chunky and the particles are small. It is something I would never consider planting anything else in. The amount of sand I pour in is to make a layer of around 0.5cm thick. So the seeds don't fall into the perlite and get a bit more moisture than perlite alone. The sand comes in small bags, maybe 1kg. I bought it before I knew it wasn't good in soil mixes. Turns out I really like it for seedlings. The perlite I use is medium-sized and from a local hydroponics store. I never measured the size. It's just a little bigger than what you find at big box stores (after removing fines). In the end, I usually just throw it out after. It's more to give enough surface area for the roots to grow against and keep enough moisture. Plus it's easy to remove when splitting the seedlings apart. You could also try a thin layer of turface fines? Just not too much since Turface holds lots of water. If you put too many turface fines it becomes a soggy clump, which probably isn't ideal for seedlings.