Growing from Seed

[Arnie]

Hi

Does anyone know how propagate Dicentra (bleeding heart) from seed
I would be grateful for any advice on this please

Regards

Arnie

[alan refail]

Some useful information here, Arnie.

http://www.freegardeningplants.com/dicentra.html

[Arnie]

Hi Alan

Thanks for this information very helpful and sorry about delay in replying

Regards

Arnie

[Ricard with an H]

I hope you won't mind me latching-on to this thread rather than starting a new one called, 'Growing from seed (2)'

I had so many failures last year, some because of cold weather and some down to my inexperience. Sowing to many seeds and ending up with nothing because of seedling rotting.

This year, more particularly with flowers I assumed a 50% loss but got a 100% success. The only failure I had was with a salad leaf called sorrel, only 50%.

So, this year I already have a glut of flower seedlings and its hard-work and time-consuming potting them on. My little-gem lettuces all sprouted so I'll be looking to my neighbours rather than bin them, shame I don't have family close by and I don't even have that many neighbours.

As a result of my flower seedling glut I'm desperate for suitable places to plant them without compromising my vegetable plot. Suitable means more than just soil. Most plants I have experience with want to see the sun through most of the day.

Digging-digging and digging together with barrowing cow-poo and digging, I least I don't have to travel to my plot like some of you.

And I haven't even finished splitting wood yet.

I love it.

[peter]

Richard you have to be hard hearted, pot up only the best seedlings to the quantity you need plus 10% to 20% extra to allow for losses and gifts or trades.
You'll save a fortune in pots, potting compost and time.

[Geoff]

Now you've cracked germination the secret is to spend time at the start to save more at the end by sowing thinly or even individually. For example, all the brassicas I sow in 12 module trays usually two seeds per module, thin them to one then let them grow quite large before an easy move into 3½" pots. Big flower seeds I treat the same. Small flower seeds use only ½ or ¼ trays and sprinkle very thinly to make them easier to prick out. One of my most fiddly sowing sessions is the onion family. I use those flimsy square pots that 15 of fit in a standard tray and individually sow 6 seeds in a pot; trouble is with onions and shallots I sowed 19 trays which is an awful lot of seeds one at a time, but there is nothing more to do but plant the complete potfuls.

[Ricard with an H]

I'm almost embarrassed because whilst being a very practical man with many skills there has been nothing intuitive to me about growing things. If it hadn't been for the benefit of this forum I may have given up. Even buying plants from nurseries isn't the answer, the answer lies in the soil. (Did someone famous say that ?)

When I see photos of your plots I don't just admire the neat rows of produce I respect the work that has gone into the ground. Even those with perfect soil have to work at it every year, I'm just on my third day of digging and weeding a strip of soil only thirty metres long and 150cm wide at the most. I'm only half done and it seems unending, we have red campion here that is a prolific self seeder and whilst being a lovely wildflower in the right setting its a damn nuisance that take over anywhere that couch hasn't established.

If I throw seeds into the ground they just don't germinate fast enough to cope with slugs and weeds so germinating and potting on has to be the way.

In the meantime I have 500 healthy seedling Stocks to deal with together with another six large trays of other stuff, binning the ones I don't want will seem like murder.

[Westi]

I know exactly what you mean Richard. I do thin but haven't the heart to throw away the weaker ones so pot them on as well! I was also a bit of an numb nut this year & have an abundance of tomato plants. I merrily sowed what I had completely forgetting I ordered some different colored ones which promptly arrived so I had to sow them as well.

It will enable me to experiment to find a good tasting one but haven't enough room in the greenhouse so they will have to risk it outside on lottie with fingers crossed there is no blight.

Westi

[Primrose]

Ricard. Could you indulge in a little guerrilla gardening with some of your surplus flower seedlings and stick them in some rather neglected public places where they might give s little pleasure? I do this occasionally with unwanted flower seed packets I get, sowing them in the borders of public footpaths nearby. Am occasionally rewarded by some little treasures although they usually get overwhelmed by celandines or nettles,

[Ricard with an H]

Ricard. Could you indulge in a little guerrilla gardening with some of your surplus flower seedlings

Ahhhh, what a good idea, and its Richard to you.

Primrose, I have an acre plot so I'm not short of space. Its suitable space I need. Most of our acre is grass some of which has been taken by my kitchen garden, some to wildflower/untidy area and some space is taken by my wood-processing area which also has a comfrey plantation. Any ground I have put to use has been exceptional hard work because of the lack of decent top soil.

When the developers bought the farm so they could convert the barns they also stripped the fabulous topsoil away to use on another plot they were building so we were left with subsoil and stone.

I do have a few areas that I can co-opt into use and though I have an ever-increasing finite amount of work in me each year I am increasing my growing spaces each year.

The Pembrokeshire banks which are a classic earth bank with stones are perfect for any planting that needs very well drained conditions but those banks are also a haven for just about everything that grows wild around these parts so as soon as you cultivate an area it opens the flood-gates to invasive species that soon swamp most annuals and many perennials.

Right now I'm looking for a spot to plant six blackberry canes, plenty of choices for a sunny spot but I'm looking for less digging and hauling stones and rocks often the size of concrete blocks, often they are concrete blocks.

When I'm gardening, I'm nearest to god. Because I'm half-dead.

[FelixLeiter]

I don't give a second though to chucking out seedlings if I've raised too many. I don't see that it's any different from discarding weeds. They are, after all, plants out of place. I find, though, that most seed companies are so mean with the quantities of seeds in their packets that often there are only just enough seeds therein to meet my needs.

[Ricard with an H]

I don't give a second thought to chucking out seedlings if I've raised too many.

Its all new to me and very exciting when I see those little green shoots, particularly after a scary first year and an almost wipe-out last year due to cold and wilt.

All this concern revolves around my frustration at not being able to get a decent days work out of myself though to be honest I get more action out of the ailing body that quite a few I can think of who are 20, even 30 years younger.

Last year I almost bought a tiller so I could open-up more suitable ground but I have learnt that as soon as you do that its an endless process of weeding or that ground just gets re-inhabited very quickly. My five large raised beds that I created 2012 and 2013, each one around five square metres, are now easy to keep weed-free. Is this because they are raised ? Pieces of ground at ground-level I dug over and freed from weeds last year have been totally colonised this spring.

I suppose being surrounded by farmland increases the floating seeds, it amazes me how even my large clay pots start to get inhabited by stuff that can mean taking the whole planting out to get at the roots of whatever has taken-residence.

There are plusses to where I live, other than my dog I have never had problems with birds or other animals though this is my first year of strawberries and blackberries.