"My dog ate my homework". Sure sure! Just kidding. Good luck, Cathy.

I never grew any from seeds, and don't have the room to do it, but I will be watching your progress. Wonder why the dog only ate the good ones... smart dog?

Things get pretty slow here during the holidays while the hostas go dormant. Keep posting progress or failures. Most of us had have both and will understand whatever the results.

-Babka

The first set of seedlings I planted two years ago were variegated. The our new dog ate those. I was so mad but I'm trying again.

They are better after one night of lights.

I put them on top of my refrigerator

==>> this is old school ... when older fridges actually gave off heat up top ... and many of the peeps had their lights in the cold basement ...

not sure it matters wither newer fridges.. but for the fact its warmer the higher you go in a given room ...

now that they are sprouted ... seed energy ... get them under lights.. where they can start making their own energy via the roots ...

i also used a gal milk jug.. bleached out .. with just enough soluble plant food to make it barely blue .;... and use with every watering ... less than a quarter teaspoon ... this was chris of hallsons idea .....

how did the dog get on top of the fridge???

ken

build a barrier for that dog lol

Oh my. I put the seeds in the moist paper towel in a ziplock Baggie on top of the fridge until the seeds germinate (about a week or so depending on the seeds). Then I put the seeds under lights in the seed starting mix. The last picture is of them under lights. I kept the lights on all night last night and today. I will turn them off tonight the back on every morning. I will make a mixture of water with a little fertilizer in it to bottom water when I water (Ken).

Free dog to anyone since I still have him.

lol on dog ...

get a timer for your lights ... 16 hours on ... one on/off cycle in the middle of the other eight ... said to confuse the plant into thinking the lights are one 24/7 ...

and within 2 or 3 inches of the light.. which it looks like you did ...

ken

Ken why not leave the lights on 24/7?

Is this the kind of timer you are talking about, Ken?

why not 24 .... im a cheapskate ... once i heard the theory ...

yes that kind of timer ... if it has 2 on/ff cycles .. if you want to save money

ken

I'll look for one. I'm a real cheapskate.

They are turning a darker green now. These are from a Big Blue is all I know from Popmama.

I'm hoping I get a something like the size of an Empress Wu from one of them.

Staring the variegated seeds today. It's just 5 (small pot).

If you want to save money switch to the led shop lights. I use a combo of led and t8. 24/7. t8 provide a little heat. I built a foam germination box for sprouting. Heat mat and thermostat controlled. It lets me sprout a couple thousand at a time.

I have three shop lights. They use t12 bulbs. In a closet. Using only one right now. They hang on a PVC pipe setup that my husband made. Seedlings set on boxes. (I'll take a pic later). No heat.

you know.. there is no real reason to sprout them on paper ....

just dry then ...use a tea cup strainer. ... to rub off the wings.. and then plant them directly into a pot ...

wonder what post i recently discussed that .. in say.. the last couple months?? .. anyone have a link??

ken

found it

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/4828470/scapes-drying-but-green-pods?n=16

this is how i found it

http://www.gardenweb.com/gardenweb/query/teacup-strainer/topic=hosta

random other older post

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/2058040/viability-of-seeds

Ken, that was good reading material. I still have some seeds from D. Ruff and they are wingless. They are a verigated mixture. I forgot I had some left. They are older seeds but I will try germinating some of them in soil. Would you suggest trying them in vermiculite or coir alone or stick to the same seed starting mixture I have?

You can leave light for 24/7 but it gets expensive. Electricity cost $. After 16hrs your return is probably diminished. Soiless medium usually good enough, pre mix might have some pH adjustment and fert in it and coir will not.

Seedling should have enough power in them till they turn a true leaf, after that it is fine to use very diluted " blue" stuff.

Cathy, did you get the seeds in the mail today? If not today, hopefully on Monday. Please keep me posted.

Pampered Peeps, I just took my grands back home today (all four of them). I didn't have a chance to check the post office but I will 1st thing in the morning. I'll let you know. For some reason, I can't reply in the GW Messages.

Update:

More growth and some yellows

woo hoo...look at the little babies go!

That is precious :) Kinda wish I had the patience to watch them grow from seed. Waiting for TC babies to grow up is painful enough. I usually clip the hosta flowers before they form seed pods, but do recall clipping late a few times and having "weeds" popping up in the Spring. It took this forum to realize that they were baby hostas :( The sad face is for pulling them out :-/

Popmama, they are my babies. However, the phone makes the picture smaller than they actually are.

Pampered Peeps, I love planting seeds. It does require patience. Transplanting is tedious also. But the reward is awesome! I just love it.

I haven't put any fertilizer on them yet, per Ken's instructions. I forgot but I will make a mixture for their next watering.

Update (watering with fertilizer):

Very cute, indeed :)

Does anyone have pics of yearly age progression of hosta seedlings? I'm curious to know how they look from year to year since I get the impression that they are awfully slow-growing from seed.

Here are the ones I planted 3 years ago. I've given some away to my aunts and sisters. I just put 2 in my garden this year and I have two left in this pot now. They would probably get bigger if they were in the ground and in the right spot.

Here are some pics of seedlings germinated in January of this year.

Pics taken at the end of July.

Plants are all in 3inch pots.

As you can see growth rates are variable due to parentage mainly but also the amount of white in the leaf.

They didn't get much bigger before dormancy but I would expect at least a doubling in size next year. Those that make it through the selection process will be planted out in year 3.

Dave

Awesome Dave, I'm hoping for some variegation in my next set.

Cathy and Dave- that’s actually more growth than I expected for those ages....

Looks like fun. Next year maybe I’ll try it. I saved some Blue Hawaii seeds, but don’t have time to mess around with all that this winter.

Windy mess, it's really not that hard. You just have to have viable seeds. You can use the paper towel method like I did or you can just plant them in sterile soil as Ken suggested. Once they come up you just have to put a little water in the bottom of the tray as I do. Not hard at all. Not much time.

Too much vying for my attention right now... and some upcoming travels. Yours are surely doing nicely though... and I’m inspired to want to try that!

Dave, those are some beautiful hosta babies, and very good growth on some of them too!

That mega-crop of seedlings almost makes me want to try. So far, I have just moved the ones that seed themselves in the yard. But that's a pretty good looking batch of babies!

algae means the soil is staying sodden .... ken

I'm going to try germination some seeds in milk jugs outside. They are not geminating in my baggie method.

Is this the right time of the year to start?

Milk jug? Outside? They need some warmth to germinate. As to the right time, a mid-winter start should give you plants that can survive next winter planted outside. If you start earlier, that just means they're spending more time inside under lights before it warms up outside.

My "FAQ" take here: https://www.delvalhosta.org/faqs-part-iii

Cathy, in my zone, the method you refer to is called Winter sow and this is the time of year to do it. But I don't know about your zone. Google Winter sow with your zone and see if there are any suggestions.

DTeager, that was information worth saving. Ken already suggested that I can plant my seeds straight in the soil and not use the baggie method. That's my next step. I'll plant them in the cups with soul to see what happens.

Popmama, I'll plant a few in a jug to see if they work with the rest of my Winter sown seeds to see if that works.

Maybe some of my seeds are too old. I'll see if the newer ones work.

Updates on my other seeds to come tomorrow.

Two terms I had never come across before. " Winter Sow "and " sowing in milk jugs ".

Just Googled both and all is now clear.

Now the question. Why would you want to do that with Hosta seeds?

Take this as no way meant as criticism.

Hosta seeds don't need stratification, they will germinate fresh from the plant given the right conditions.

They need a soil temperature of around 70ºF for germination.

After that, warmth light, moisture and nutrients for continued growth.

If you want them to germinate outside then why not wait till all those conditions are available. After all things may be right in early spring germination occurs and along comes a late frost " and that's all she wrote"!

JMHO

My first batch of indoor sowings just starting to germinate.

Pictures soon

Dave

Dave. I always use the paper towel and baggie method to germinate my seeds. As of lately my seeds are not popping. I plan to Winter sow some seeds for the first time and thought to add some hostas seeds that are either old or just not ripe to add to this experiment. Even my verigated ones are not geminating so I figured I'd try this.

I already have one hosta bed but lost some of my Hostas so I'm going to move them. I am also trying from seed again to fill two other spots I am making for next spring.

Right now I am experimenting with gifted seeds hoping they are viable.

Dave, I believe winter sow is meant to mimic what would take place naturally when seeds are spread naturally on the ground. But the milkjugs allow you to control where the seeds are. I also think one of the entertaining things about Winter sow is the germination takes place in colder months and then when spring comes, it's very exciting to see the little plants. If you sow outdoors in the Spring when conditions are right, you wait a lot longer for the plants. I have never done it with hostas. But I had decent success with hardy hibiscus and lupines. I tried siberian iris with no success. It's just a fun experiment.

Popmama, Do you have soil temperatures of 70ºF in winter time?

I agree that there are seeds of certain plants and most definitely of weeds which will germinate in cold soil but not Hostas.

Cathy, are you giving the seeds the right conditions for germination. I have to reiterate they must have a constant minimum of 70ºF.

I have also used the plastic bag method, however it was indoors with direct sunlight through a south facing window. Bear in mind my sunlight is not as strong as you get.

Unless you use seed from streaked fertile plants you will only get green or yellow seedlings. Variegated plants are no different. Unless you are sowing thousands upon thousands of seeds in which case you may get something different.

One other thing. Germination is normally around 14 to 21 days which is why you see them popping up in spring as soon as the soil warms up. If they germinated in winter you would be able to observe the seedlings at that time!

Am I beginning to sound like Ken!!!

Dave

While I an at the computer. Here is a shot of my setup. One set of lights is off so you can see.

The plants you can see are a few that had not made sufficient root growth to survive the winter so I will keep them growing. The right hand pot is probably a gonner.

The two trays at the back with the domed pots were sown on the 2nd December.

These are Valley's Top seedlings which germinated a couple of days ago and just pushed through.

It is just to give me an idea of air temperature.

Once I switch on the other light which is unnecessary till the front row germinate I will have to move the plants to a different set up as it could get too warm for them being that much closer to the lights.

Dave

No I do not have ground temperatures of 70ºF here. Winter sow doesn't take place in the ground. It takes place in little greenhouses. I'm not particularly scientific about it. I'm sort of a "no harm in trying" gardener. I don't have space or patience for a setup like yours. It's obviously successful, you have beautiful seedlings. But I am sure that Winter sow can work as well, maybe not to the same level. I'm not sure how winter sow works in Cathy's zone. Her "winters" are not like the ones here.

Ken already suggested that I can plant my seeds straight in the soil

==>>>

this is when i started called the stuff in the house ... media ... and the stuff outside.. soil ...

some of the marketing geniuses like to use potting soil ... crikey ...

winter sowing is an option .... but not needed .... they arent going to sprout until the jug hits proper media temps ... by which time .. you may as well just make a nursery bed in the garden... and plant them straight in the soil ...

bob kuk used to have a number of railroad ties ... and just sowed all his seed outside in spring.. with chicken wire to keep the squirrels out of it ...

what her name.. can start the seeds indoors ... when she finishes the travel ... and have them sprouted and of decent size by the time temps outside are ready.. in her zone ...

ken

here is how i used to do them in a tray ... with names written on slices of window blinds written in pencil ...

I'm trying the seeds in the cups today. I don't know about temps but I don't have a heat mat so I'll put them on top of the fridge for warmth. I'm plan to do a mixture of them all to see what happens.

I read in this forum that some people don't sterilize the soil.

So if I plant seeds directly in the soil now, they have a chance of coming up this spring? Like they would naturally. I've heard of scattering them in the bed.

If winter sow works in a cold zone 5, I don't see why it wouldn't work in a warmer zone 8. Worth a try anyway. I don't think I would bother planting anything inside the jugs though, only to have to move the seedlings again. If it were me, I'd plant the seeds in the ground, and invert the jugs to cover the seeds/seedlings with and therefore provide that greenhouse effect. I did something similar with plant cuttings last year, but I did replace our regular clay soil with soilless for it. It was just two spots along the North-side foundation, each around 2-3ft wide and only a foot or so out from the foundation, not too terribly deep either. Dipped the ends of the cuttings in cinnamon powder, didn't use any rooting hormones, and covered them with inverted plastic soda bottles that I cut just under the throats to make them wider (covered some with inverted glass jars instead, but the soda bottles worked better since their cut throats made them wider). Anyhow, what I observed is that the leaves on the cuttings stayed green all winter, and the mini greenhouses kept some moisture along their walls without me providing any water or ice. We did have a warm winter last year, but it still kept the cuttings alive. I don't think any of them started rooting until the Spring though. So for Cathy's winter seed sowing, I don't think temperature would be an issue, but she might need to provide some water around the "greenhouses" throughout her winter (don't water the rest of your yard/plants though). I wouldn't lift the inverted soda bottles off of the seeds for the watering. Then again, in her zone the greenhouses might not be necessary at all. I'd suggest trying all of these methods this winter to see what works best for you. Indoors is more problematic for me since mold seems to grow regardless of soil...although I haven't tried adding a fan to keep the air moving. The house is at 70 degrees or above anyway, so for me extra heat would not be necessary unless I was doing this in the basement or was using fans for air circulation. In any event, have fun! :)

Update on seedlings from 11/15/17.