Petunia questions please...Seed collection and propagation
myermike_1micha
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
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myermike_1micha
6 years agoRelated Discussions
Do you think all spreading petunias are Wave Petunias?
Comments (40)Michelle65, sorry, but I have to dispute most of your claims. First of all, Wave petunias are spreading petunias, not the other way around. Spreading (Supertunia series, Surfinia series, etc.) petunias grown from cuttings have been around for decades. The Wave series (introduced in 1995) was the first commercially successful spreading petunia that was propagated from seed. Your statement that "the ones that say spreading petunia is the exact same this without the pink pot" is entirely erroneous, as is your statement "greenhouse have only been able to buy Wave seeds for the past couple of years". You should also know that there are FOUR separate divisions of Wave petunias. Actually 5 if you include the vegetatively propagated DOUBLE Waves. Wave, Easy Wave, Tidal Wave and Shock Wave all have very distinctly different growth habits. Are you paying extra for the pink pot? Absolutely. If it is in the pink pot and says Wave on it, it is required to be a Wave petunia, however that is entirely up to the distributor if they want them in a POP (point of purchase) pot or not. Waves can be planted in any color of pot, and there is no law saying that they have to be identified as a Wave. However, if it is NOT a Wave, and the signage identifies it as a Wave, THAT is illegal. The difference you see in price at retail is a factor of a number of things. If it is a spreading petunia grown from a cutting, it will always be more expensive than one grown from seed. But....if is a seed grown spreading petunia (Wave, Avalanche, Ramblin', Plush, Opera, Explorer, Trilogy) and it has all of the marketing POP items associated with it, it drives the price up. All Kleenex are tissues, but not all tissues are Kleenex. All Waves are spreading petunias, but not all spreading petunias are Waves. And for the record, there are no "generic" spreading petunias. Everything has a specific variety name, you just don't always see it at retail....See Morecollected wave petunia seeds...
Comments (19)I have cascading petunias in my aerogarden which are beautiful. I have never been this up close to petunias,but have just found hundreds of tiny black poppy seed looking things that I'm going to assume to be petunia seeds. Since I have both indoor and outdoor petunias, I'm going to put some of these seeds in another pod for my aerogarden and put the others away till spring to go in the outdoor petunia planters. I am so excited. Here is a link that might be useful: Petunias Grown in the AeroGarden...See Morestupid questions about starting herbs from seed
Comments (14)Hey there, I too will share what I have learned... Basil - It will grow in a pot or garden (if you use a pot I suggest it has own pot), one plant will take all the dirt if you let it(unless in the garden), more plants and the dirt runs out sooner. I suggest you kill it early, having planted one every other week or so, that is unless you want free seeds. In that case let one or a few plants live till they flower and die, or if you want just trim the flower/seed part off after the majority of the flowers have open and turned brown, then harvest the seed, very easy to do, just a little time consuming. You can keep using the basil though some think that the basil becomes bitter after it sets flowers, i cannot tell the difference. As for starting from seeds, start them in your normal pot, just broadcast a few seeds on the dirt, water it and it will grow. If you harvest your own seeds you will no longer worry about how many seeds you put down(i.e. you will have too many!) Garlic Chives - mine are in a sq ft garden, Mine are three years old now, started from seed, and transplanted. They will over winter fine (they just look ugly during the winter). The leaves have gotten broader each year, they look nothing like the chives at the store, but they taste good! I agree with what others have said each plant has a bulb it works from, and has a few to several leaves per bulb. I am sure these would work in a pot, but I think if you can put them in the yard or garden it would be much better for you they are a very tidy decorative plant. These too will go to seed, they produce a cool little flower for each plant (the bees loved these!!!). That is where the seeds are developed. also you can eat the flower if you want, just tear it apart and use like chives. You can save the seed for spring if you want each flower makes like 25+ seeds, way too many for me use, as you do not have to replant chives each year. Cilantro - Really easy to grow, broadcast some seed, water if you want, they start regardless. They do have a hard time in the heat, just plant more (seeds are free!) I think they do like a mostly sunny spot that has some shade in the day (they did better when I had a lot together, probably kept the ground cooler). Leave a couple or more to go to seed again, and free seed!! Each plant (depending on size) make like 10-50 seeds. Again you won't care about the amount you plant you have plenty from each plant. Again the plant tends to lose flavor when they go to seed. Their ok in a pinch (nutritionally they should be ok just not as much flavor). I suggest a planting each week if you really like it, or every other week if you don't. Takes a few (2-4) weeks to reach a collectable amt per plant. These will over winter BUT the plant has no flavor (sometimes a bad flavor) in spring time. Suggest tilling in, unless some one knows if the plant will recover? I have one plant that has overwinter and is becoming bigger than any cilantro plant I have every had, it is the size of a large parsley plant now, I want to see if it recovers or not. Btw collecting their seed is way easier than the basil's, they have a large seeds. Btw the seed as a spice is called Coriander, I set some seed aside for cooking with. Thyme - A store bought starter plant, is several years old now overwinters fine, but has thick (2-3mm) stock now like kinda like a little bonsai tree (haha). Not as productive as first year (but that may be because I STUPIDLY put pasta water on it, DOH there is salt in that!!! It's not good for the plant you know, didn't kill it though, just made the leaves really tiny. haha that hurt to write). Even though it has flowered, I have not found how to get seeds yet (though I have not searched yet). It has pretty little flowers, could be something ornamental if you wanted. I have started other plants from clippings, just give be sure it has enough plant to give it the chance to live. Parsley - I started with seed (this year, and last year), I have it in the garden and in pots. in the garden it might overwintered fine, last years plant was older with a large root the size of a carrot or so, it rotted before the middle of winter, this years plant is still alive and is growing fine, go figure. Though it is not a bushy little plant, now it is a flat plant very close to the ground, tastes fine though. The plants in the pots are from last year, they are still doing well, I had them inside during the winter, seem to fare well in the window, almost no growth as expected though, that is until I put them outside in the late winter sun. These did not go to seed, though I thought they should have (would have been nice, but no free seed!). Garlic - This is the first year for me, and they are still in the ground. Pots should work, I think ground is better. I started the first batch in the garden in October, the second batch was in pots planted about Nov-Dec, they sprouted inside the house by the window. The first batch in the garden really took off now the weather has warmed, with some of the stalks now about an inch in diameter (much bigger than I expected as it is not supposed to be ready to harvest until August). The second batch isn't doing as well. These were put out before the last frost, and taken in at night (to avoid the frost), to take advantage of the warmer weather and sunlight. But they have not had the growth the first batch have had, they just seem spindly, but I think they will catch up. I have just planted another batch in the garden. I really think that the way these are sprouting they may catch up to the first batch. My original spacing was with 4 per sq ft, I think that is too far apart though, I think that you could probably squeeze 5 in a sq ft easily. I'm told the garlic leaves are edible (might be thought though), use them like green onions. Garlic may develop a bulb looking item on a stalk (and/or flower) this is a seed/clove and is also edible or you can plant it. I saw a video from some farmer on expertvillage.com and he had a great Idea. Intended for plantings in a garden, but works in a pot also. Say for example you have a garden full of winter vegetables right now, no room for garlic. Well what you do is plant the whole head of garlic in October like normal in a small area or a pot. The cloves sprout, you let them grow like normal till spring, then remove the bunch of sprouts and separate them (carefully) and transplant them where you want when the ground is ready, viola you have a jump start for the garlic. I have tried this, so far the plants seem good. Mint - grown from seed in a pot, grows and grows and grows... Once established will take over anything you put it in pot, garden, yard... beware the mint! Its not as bad as that, but I have heard the horror stories... Also I don't know why but... my mint sucks, It has no flavor, no aroma, little leaves. I'm gonna give it till the summer to shape up or I'm gonna compost the little sucker. Gonna have to find a better mint, suggest you try before you buy a plant. Oregano - Grown from seed, in pot, this might overwinter. Grows similar to mint with it's long stems,though they do grow a lot slow than mint. It might be able to grow up a trellis, and may be worth it as it has nice little flowers. The stems will take root to begin a new plant if you want, not sure about how to get the seeds though. Oregano in an 8 inch pot got root bound by end of the season. Sage - Was grown from seed in a pot, started last spring. It is a shrub so should have no problem overwintering. I have several plants in one 8 inch pot, does not seem root bound yet. Alright hope this helps, sorry I was so long winded!!....See Morepropagating perennials for farmers market
Comments (13)Congratulations!!! you did it. You learned something, well actually a lot of things. You do have the skills to sell what you grow. You do have plants that people will pay money for. A simple guide to pricing stuff - if you sell completely out of something then you aren't charging enough. You want to price your plants just at the limit of what the public will pay for them. If you're too cheap they sometimes feel that the quality is low. But if you're too high they won't return each weekend to buy from you (which is the best thing you could hope for - repeat customers). I shop around a lot. I pay attention to what other places sell plants for. If I have a plant that looks like a five dollar plant, I sell it for five dollars regardless of what it cost me to grow it (often less than a dollar). Even if someone else at the market has the same plant with the same quality for a cheaper price, I keep mine where it is and hope they sell out before the end of the day. If something doesn't sell well I retire it and figure out another way to price it and bring it back in a month. Like I break it up into smaller plants and sell them at a smaller size for a smaller price. I never sell the same sized plant for the lower price. The only thing similar that I have done is to bring back the same plants at a future date for a lesser price, but I take them out of their pots and wrap them in newspaper with a rubber band. Making them look like a bargain and not like the same plant at a reduced price. Once you drop prices, people will wait for your end of season sale or they will start haggling you for a discount (something I flat out will not do. I often explain that my garden can use the compost and proceed to take the plant home and compost it!). Every vendor has their own threshold on what they will do to make money. What works for me may not work for you. One year I had a bunch of Rosemary cuttings. I sold them for $1 each in a tiny cup. We are talking about a stick of rosemary for a dollar!! people bought them all day long even though I'm sure one of the cut herb people must have had bundles for $2 or so. Go figure - for some strange reason that spring everyone thought a sinlgle stick of rosemary was worth a dollar. It has never happened since. Yesterday I loaded light because I figured the holiday weekend would find everyone at the beach - wrong! they came to the market in droves. Most were just out sightseeing and showing the town's farmer's market off to visitors. Very few bought plants but the few that did bought over $20 worth so it all worked out in the end. The other vendors have convinced me to sell produce in addition to plants. I had considered this but didn't really want to compete with them since they are so nice to me at the market. But they claimed that they cannot have enough tomatoes at the market. That customers always complain about the selection of produce. So I guess I better put in a few more tomato plants just to be safe....See Moremyermike_1micha
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agosusanzone5 (NY)
6 years agomyermike_1micha
6 years agomyermike_1micha
6 years agosamhain10 - 5a
6 years ago
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susanzone5 (NY)