June 12, 2012

Plants from Seed: Update

Posted by Ethne~

Well, Friends, remember my post from here where I thought I’d try starting my own plants from seed?  Well, here’s the result: FAIL!

Hmmmm...not looking good

The plants in the girls’ greenhouses grew ok, but then we moved and couldn’t get them planted fast enough so they wilted in the pink greenhouses.

I thought about saving these for the future but decided
to recycle them instead; I can only save so many possible
future projects for the girls

In my Coors beer box homemade greenhouse, my cups of dirt and seeds got mold on them within 24 hours.  I tried to pick it off with a toothpick, and while that worked, I couldn’t get it to go away indefinitely (ie., longer than a day).

This soil got covered with a white film of mold I couldn't get rid of

My seeds germinated, for the most part, but they didn’t last very long.  Some of them died in the move, and some just didn’t thrive.

In the end, I took all that remained of the seedlings and put them in one giant pot of soil.  I’ll see if they grow into anything from there.  Heaven knows that weeds take hold for their little lives, so a flower ought to.

Thus far, not too promising.

I purchased plants from Lowe’s, Menard’s and Ace Hardware, same as usual.  I didn’t break the bank, and it was way easier.

My purchased lavender and rosemary plants
The basil plant(s) in the back left - I paid for one plant but it branched
into 3-4 plants - SCORE!  The other is a begonia I just thought looked
nice planted with the basil

Lesson learned.

If you have any better luck or tips, particularly on the mold issue, feel free to comment.

2 comments:

Nicole said...

I have had good and bad luck with seedlings. You could have been over watering and they did not get enough air circulation. A fan in the room helps. You can use a mixture of water and hydrogen peroxide to mist that may kill mold. I stopped starting seeds when I got pregnant with Logan buy maybe next year it will be fun for him to try :)

Anonymous said...

I started some of my plants from seeds. I planted them in newspaper pots, so I could just plant them in the soil and the newspaper will "compost" around them. I have watermelons, lettuce, and cucumbers growing from seeds. I let them grow outside on a tray with a ziploc bag over them to form a greenhouse type effect. I've never grown a garden before, but this seemed to really work.
-Kyra