Share The Seeds
Gardening Area => Seeds and Germination => Topic started by: Radium on June 05, 2015, 09:50:51 PM
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I use disposable drinking cups as seed planters, but I always only sow 1 seed per cup, and since no species has %100 GM, I get lots of cups with nothing happening, and since I'm growing more than 20 species, devoting more than 1 cup to each species cannot be done due to my limited space.
Another idea is sowing more than 1 seed in each cup, which I saw someone done it here:
http://www.diyncrafts.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/14-kcup-seed-starters.jpg (http://www.diyncrafts.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/14-kcup-seed-starters.jpg)
But, that raises a question to me:
How am I supposed to pick and space out the seedlings within the same cup when trying to replant them into the yard, without accidentally killing the seedlings?
And, is there anything wrong if I don't space them out, and just leave them to grow while they're hugging? will that decrease growth potential or cause any other problems?
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I feel like this is a dilemma that everyone here has had or will deal with at some point or another, when I was sowing my sun openers I had an entire field of tiny H. salicifolia seedling sprouting up all at once (half 'how much to sow per area?', half I accidentally dumped a whole bunch into one spot). I would use the germination rate as a guide for how many you'd put into each pot, especially if you're gonna use those small K-cups (cool find). So if the seeds are roughly 50% germination rate, maybe two per cup? If you space them out so each has their own respective 1/2 of the pot, if they both sprout, once they get big enough to transplant they should both survive. It's also completely dependent on the species, some love being crowded, others hate competition. Also another thing you can do if you have enough seeds to spare is to just sow a bunch and then once they geminate 'thin the herd' leaving the bigger and stronger ones to survive to transplant size, so if the germination rate is 50% you could sow 4-6 or however many you want per pot, then you would expect to see 2-3 sprout up, and then you can pick which you want to keep.
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Hmm, so it looks like there's no way to save everyone here.
BTW I found this article very useful, it's full of great ideas about repurposing and garden hacks:
100 Expert Gardening Tips, Ideas and Projects that Every Gardener Should Know (http://www.diyncrafts.com/12126/home/gardening/100-expert-gardening-tips-ideas-and-projects-that-every-gardener-should-know)
(http://www.diyncrafts.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/gardening-tips-ideas-hacks.jpg)