Update on Plants from Seed

All those tiny seedlings I posted pictures of are growing up. Here are the primroses again, now in 3" pots and below that is the original picture.

Here are the lisianthus now in 3" pots and their original picture.

The plugs in the original pictures are about the diameter of a quarter.

Perennial Flowers from Seed

One of the advantages of growing perennials from seed is you get a lot more bang for the buck.  Even small starter perennials you get at Colemans's, Alexander's,  or the Farmer's Market will cost $1.50-$3 per plant.  Large perennials cost $5 to $15.  The big ones make sense if you need instant results - like you're trying to sell your house - but growing plants from seed allow you to be much more extravagant in how many plants you use.

Another advantage is the selection.  GeoSeed offered 8 different kinds of Primula acaulis this year, and that is besides the other 21 varieties they are offering of other species.   I chose Danova and paid $5.35 for a packet of 100 seeds.  They came up like radishes and I ended up having to thin them out.  Even after doing that I had 28 primrose plants for $5.35.  Of course, I am  not exactly sure where I will plant 28 primroses, but it is a nice problem to have and they only need to be about 8 inches apart so I will come up with something.

Danova seedlings sown on January 30th

Danova primroses

There are disadvantages to growing perennials from seed.  With many perennials you want a clone of a specific plant, not a seed grown strain.  For example, bearded iris, peonies and daylilies are almost always sold as clones of named varieties.  These plants will be exactly identical - your 'Festiva Maxima' peony will look exactly like every other 'Festiva Maxima' in the entire world.

Peonies, iris and most daylilies are only available as clones, but many other perennials such as dahlias, hardy asters, echinacea, hellebores, and hardy geraniums are available as both seed strains and particular clones. Whether or not this matters depends how similar the seed strains are to the named clones and how fussy you are about obtaining a particular plant.

Some plants are also not really worth germinating from seed.  For example, I love bleeding hearts (Dicentra spectabilis) but they are available everywhere for very little money.  The seed is difficult to germinate without stratifying it outside for months and they self sow quite readily outside so you soon have more than you need.

Lisianthus at Two Months

Here is a picture of how the lisianthus look two months after they were sown.  Much bigger than the head of a pin but compared to the speed many other things grow they are creeping along.  The biggest ones are about the diameter of a quarter, maybe a bit larger.

Fairly soon I will transplant them into small liners (72 cells per flat) and eventually they will go into larger liners (36 cells per flat).

Starting Lisianthus From Seed

When I first started growing cut flowers, I ordered lisianthus plugs (small plants) because the plants need to be started in January and February to have them flowering in August and September. I had read they were difficult to grow from seed but after a couple years I thought I'd give it a try since seeds were much more affordable and I knew I needed to start them really early.

It turns out that lisianthus are not difficult to start from seed under lights. The seedlings are tiny and grow very slowly but nothing complicated is involved. Because they grow so slowly, lisianthus plants are really expensive. They are also a terrific cut flower, so seed is the way to go if you want to save money and enjoy getting the garden season started indoors in January or February.

Lisianthus take about 6 months to flower from the time the seed is planted. Seed planted in early January will bloom in July and ones started in February will bloom in August. You may be able to plant them in March and have them bloom in September, but their development slows with colder weather, so January and February are safer.

Lights for Seed Starting
I have another post here about how to start seeds under lights. I use plug trays (you can buy them at Johnny's) for lisianthus rather than liners because the seedlings are so tiny they don't need to be transplanted for at least a couple months.

Varieties
Lisianthus have been bred to be short 6-8” bedding types or taller 1-2 foot varieties for cutting. The taller varieties will often say they reach 3 feet or more but they don't get that tall in a single season here in zone 5.

Choose the variety of seed depending on whether you want them for bedding or cutting. I have only grown the tall varieties for cutting. Some to look for are:

• Cinderella – a double lisianthus that comes in blue, ivory, lime, pink and yellow. To me, the yellow is off-white rather than yellow like a sunflower. Blue is a medium purple blue. Lime is a slightly greenish white. The pink is a good medium pink that does not look red or coral.
  
• Twinkle – a single lisianthus but available in a deep blue/purple color that is not available in any other lisianthus.
  
• Echo – Echo is an older variety that comes in a wide selection of colors and many picotee types. Picotees are white with color on the last ¼ inch of the petal.
  

Pelleted Seed
Because lisianthus seed is fine as dust, you want to be sure the seed is pelleted. The packet or catalog description will say it is pelleted if it is. Pelleted seed comes in plastic vial inside the seed packet. Each tiny seed has been placed in a pellet about the size of the head of a pin. The pellet dissolves on contact with water, so be sure your hands are dry when you touch them.

Pelleted lisianthus seed

Obtaining Seed
Lisianthus seed is available from many mail order companies including Johnny's, Pinetree Garden Seeds and many others. You can probably also find it at any good seed supplier like Downtown Home and Garden.

Sowing the seed
I have always grown lisianthus the same way. I am sure other ways work but this is the one I know and trust.

Materials

• A good soil-less seed starting mix.
  
• A plug flat or a 72 cell per flat liner.
  
• A flat or other container to hold water
  
• A flat to hold the liner trays or plug flat
  
• A clear plastic humidity dome. These domes fit over a full flat.
• Spray bottle
  

Steps

1. Fill the number of plug or liner cells you need.
   
2. Put about an inch of water in the water tray and set the soil containers in the water. After a few hours they will absorb the water so the grow mix on the surface is moist. Remove the containers from the water and let them drain in the sink for a few minutes.
   
3. Sow the seed on the surface of the grow mix. Do not cover the seeds - they need light to germinate. Because the seed is pelleted, you can sow one seed per cell.
   
4. After sowing the seed, spray the pellets and soil surface with water. Part or all of the pellet may dissolve but don't worry if part of the pellet is still there.
   
5. Put the seed containers in their flat, cover the flat with the humidity dome and place under the lights. The lights should be just over the humidity done but not touching it.
   

Get in the habit of checking on the flat every day. The seeds will sprout in about 10 days. The seedlings are very, very small, about the size of the head of a pin at the most. You may need to re-moisten the surface of the soil mix from time to time with the spray bottle. It is fine to spray the seedlings. Sometimes part of the undissolved pellet will be on one of the first leaves and spraying will dissolve it.

About a 4 weeks after you start the seedlings they might be as large as 1/4 inch across. Prop up the corner of the humidity dome for a day to give the seedlings a chance to adapt to drier air and then remove it. After removing the humidity dome, check the moisture in the soil mix every day. If only one or two cells are drying out, you can moisten them with the spray bottle. If most of the cells are drying out, you can bottom water all of them by placing the plug flats or liners in an inch of water.

Algae or moss may grow on the soil mix surface. It won't harm anything but you can rub it away after the seedlings are up if you want.

Lisiathus six weeks after sowing in 200 cell plug tray. 

Transplanting to Larger Containers
Although they grow slowly, if started in plugs your lisianthus will need to be bumped up into small pots or larger liners eventually. When the roots are showing through the bottom of the plug, check to see if it is time to transplant . You can use the end of a pencil to push on the plug from the bottom. If the roots are reaching the outside of the plug, it is time to transplant. If started in liners you will be able to wait quite a while before transplanting.

Hardening Off
Lisianthus can tolerate cold weather. They are perennial in zones 7 or 8 and can survive winters hereif grown in a hoophouse and protected.
Before going from under the lights to their final locations in the garden, your lisianthus should be hardened off, This can be done as soon as there is mild daytime weather. If you have a cold frame you can put them in it when the nights will not be freezing and they will be fine. Once they have acclimated to cooler weather, they can tolerate frosts easily if protected by a cold frame. If you don't have a cold frame, move the plants in and out of the house during the day to get them used to bright sunlight and winds, but bring them inside at night if frost threatens.

Planting Outside
I am always paranoid about planting lisianthus outside too early because they take so long to grow that I don't want to risk losing them. If you are planting them in your yard, you can cover them up if it is going to get really cold. In that case it is probably fine to plant them outside in early May. If you can't cover them up in an emergency, mid-May is perhaps safer.

Starting Seeds Under Lights

After poring over catalogs all through January I usually find I want a greenhouse by February so I can
get an early start with all the seeds I've ordered. Growing plants from seed at home is not for everyone.
The plant selection at area nurseries and the farmer’s market has steadily improved in the past few
years and you can now find unusual tomatoes and peppers at Project Grow's plant sale. It is often easier to just purchase healthy greenhouse grown plants from area growers and forget it.

Still, some people prefer to start things at home because they can’t find certain varieties, or they just enjoy starting plants from seed. For me, there is something special about any plant, from a primrose to a tomato, that I started from a seed.

My first attempt at starting plants from seed was disappointing. The seeds started readily enough but then grew tall and spindly, leaning toward the window. Some seedlings grew fuzzy fungus around their
bases and keeled over before they were even two inches high. By the time I placed the seedlings outside the first breeze flattened the few top-heavy survivors.

If you have had failures like these, or been afraid to try because you’ve feared these kind of results,
take heart, because you can learn from my mistakes. I have since successfully started everything from strawberries to leeks and dozens of kind of flowers from seed under lights. I’m sure there are other, better ways to proceed but this is what has worked well for me.

Soil
It is important that whatever you use be light, well-drained, moisture retentive and sterile. Unsterile soil harbors nasty fungal diseases and also weed seeds which make it difficult to recognize your seedlings. Rather than bake soil in the oven (it stinks to high heaven) I find it easier to use commercial seed starting mixes like Jiffy-Mix or Hoffman’s. You can also mix your own using peat moss, perlite and vermiculite.

Containers
You can use clay pots or plastic food containers or anything you have but it must have drainage holes. If the containers previously contained plants you must wash them (the paranoid say with bleach) to avoid the risk of disease. I usually find it easier to go the ecologically unsound route and buy sheets of plastic six or 4 packs, or liners. You can buy a whole sheet of these (12 six packs, 72 cells per sheet, 12 four packs, 48 cells per sheet) for a couple dollars. This will also tend to help you pack the most seedlings per square inch of indoor growing space. Liners can be purchased locally at Downtown Home and Garden or online.

Light
I’ve never lived anywhere that had nice sunny windows, and Michigan has no sun in February anyway,
so I use artificial lights. You don’t need to do anything fancy here. I use “shop light” fluorescent fixtures and the cheapest available bulbs - cool white 40 watt. You can get these at Home Depot or Lowe's. Newer fixtures come with thinner 34 watt bulbs to save energy. However, you want to maximize the light output, so you want 40 watt bulbs.

You want to mount the fixture on light- weight chains so you can raise it easily as the seedlings grow. The light should only be about two or three inches from the tops of the plants. I know this seems really close but remember that most plants want full sun and fluorescent tubea are very dim by comparison.

Fluorescent bulbs put out significantly less light as they age, so if you decide to borrow a fixture out of
the laundry room or garage, you may want to replace the bulbs. If used only for starting plants, the bulbs should be replaced every few years.

The lights should be operated about 16 hours a day. I use a grounded (3 prong) timer to turn them on and off. On the other hand, my father, who figures that if 16 hours of light is good, then 24 should be better, starts seeds under fluorescent lights that are never turned off
and has fine results.

Sowing the seeds
Fill the containers with grow mix and moisten it. You want the mix moist but not sodden. I find it
easiest to bottom water the container and let it absorb the water and then sow the seeds. Fine seed that
needs to be surface sown can be moistened after sowing with a spray bottle. Under the controlled
conditions that we are creating the germination rate will be much higher than when sowing outside so
don’t over sow.

Temperature and humidity
Seedlings usually sprout best with warmer temperatures and high humidity. I have had best luck using
clear plastic domes that fit over a single flat. (also available at Downtown Home and Garden). They
are easy to take on and off and last for years. Follow packet directions, but most seeds will sprout
nicely at around 70 degrees. I usually set the flat under the lights immediately so that the seedlings will
be exposed to light as soon as they emerge.

After the seeds sprout and have true leaves, prop the dome open for a day or two to accustom the plants
to less humidity before removing the dome.

Watering and fertilizing
Plants should not be fertilized until they have at least two sets of true leaves. Fish emulsion diluted to
half or a third strength works well. You may also be able to find other organic fertilizers which don't smell quite so bad.

Hardening Off
At least a week before the plants are to be planted outside they need to be accustomed to outdoor
conditions. This is called hardening off. If you don’t have a cold frame, choose a mild day when it is
not blazing hot or pouring rain, and leave the plants outside for an afternoon. An overcast day provides
less of a shock. Each day, increase the amount of time they are outside. This will give the plants time
to acclimate to outdoor conditions before being set out in the garden. I have two small cold frames and
try to get the plants outside as soon as there are warm days. At first, wind is as much a danger than
anything else and a cold frame really helps.