Sawyer's 2013 Glog - Last Harvest/First Sauce

Chaosbites · Apr 9, 2013

My rocotos were very slow to move once they germinated. Hopefully, there is someone out there with more than my "mine did that too" to kick these furry guys into high gear.

I didn't know grains grew that fast.

Michelle

romy6 · Apr 9, 2013

John. Plants look great. Never had luck with any pubes im my humid area but have had many seedling shut down. Most of the time it is from soggy roots or too muck NPK. I suggest moving them into some new soil and when doing so remove all the dirt from around the roots.

Sawyer · Apr 9, 2013

Thanks, Jamie. I don't think they are too wet, but too much NPK could definitely be a factor. When everything else started germinating, I switched from straight water to dilute nutes. I'll do as you suggest and we'll see what happens.

Dot Com · Apr 9, 2013

nitwit knows a thing or two about rocotos. One of my first plants was a yellow rocoto which seeds I acquired from him thanks to his generosity.

stc3248 · Apr 10, 2013

Sorry...I don't usually use that technique. I have had the same issue you're having when I tried it. I have had some success with it, but better results from seeds in soil. I tried both standard and paper towel germing Manzanos last year and the soil ones popped first. I suspect what may have happened is they rotted in the seed shell before they pushed up. Good luck.

Dot Com · Apr 10, 2013

can't remember how I sprouted mine. Probably paper towel method. Now i use jiffy pellets for all my germinating. Those rocoto seed shells are rather hard, at least the ones i used were but they surprised me and sprouted without me having to pre-soak them.

stickman · Apr 11, 2013

stc3248 said:
Sorry...I don't usually use that technique. I have had the same issue you're having when I tried it. I have had some success with it, but better results from seeds in soil. I tried both standard and paper towel germing Manzanos last year and the soil ones popped first. I suspect what may have happened is they rotted in the seed shell before they pushed up. Good luck.

I think Shane may be onto something... I tried the coffee filter method and presoaked the seeds, and after 60 seeds sowed I only got one to germinate. Doing a postmortem on the cells in the seed flats and I found a number of seeds with the roots poking out but the cotyledons rotted.

annie57 · Apr 12, 2013

stickman said:
I think Shane may be onto something... I tried the coffee filter method and presoaked the seeds, and after 60 seeds sowed I only got one to germinate. Doing a postmortem on the cells in the seed flats and I found a number of seeds with the roots poking out but the cotyledons rotted.

Ditto, Rick. I do soak em a little while, but into soil immediately. Have found similar results; like to dig around what didn't germ to find out results of that too! And some gorgeous plants, Arkansawyer!!! LOVE the grain experiment. SMART!

Sawyer · Apr 12, 2013

Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions and encouragement. I've been otherwise occupied the last few days and haven't had a chance to follow up on this. I've barely kept all the plants watered, fed, warm, and insect-free. Do seem to be winning the battle against fungus gnats, at least I see a lot fewer adults flying around. I've been using mosquito dunk and coffee spray. Had one plant get a batch of aphids, so sprayed everything on that one shelf with pyrethrin/sulfur. Hopefully this weekend I'll have a chance to do a postmortem on the rocoto seeds. It is disappointing that out of four different sowing methods, none of them resulted in even a single seedling.

It's 35ºF here now at 12:40 AM, on it's way to 28ªF before morning. Second morning below freezing in a row. The peppers and other starts are inside, but I may lose this year's apple, pear, plum, and quince crops.

JJJessee · Apr 12, 2013

bummer on the fruit crop

Apples stand a fair chance here since March held everything back. Peaches have bloomed, they're crusin' for a brusin' as usual.

Ferby · Apr 12, 2013

Sawyer said:
It is disappointing that out of four different sowing methods, none of them resulted in even a single seedling.

It sounds like you have perfect conditions. Maybe the seeds are the problem?

Pr0digal_son · Apr 12, 2013

I had no problems getting pubes to sprout or grow. These days I just sow directly in soiless mix after a night of soaking.Not sure what kind of mix you are using but I screen all heavy debris from any mix I use for starting seeds. I did have issues with older leaves looking skanky and pale,seems like a fine line between under/over feeding. I have mine in a mix that has nutes already included and they seem fine taking care of themselves now. The hardest part now is pinching flowers off of them,they really want to put them out at a young age.

Sawyer · Apr 12, 2013

JJJessee said:
bummer on the fruit crop
Apples stand a fair chance here since March held everything back. Peaches have bloomed, they're crusin' for a brusin' as usual.

Well, it was only 34ºF at 6AM this morning, so maybe everything will be ok, if it survived yesterday's low temps.

Ferby said:
It sounds like you have perfect conditions. Maybe the seeds are the problem?

That could be. It's happened before.

Pr0digal_son said:
I had no problems getting pubes to sprout or grow. These days I just sow directly in soiless mix after a night of soaking.Not sure what kind of mix you are using but I screen all heavy debris from any mix I use for starting seeds. I did have issues with older leaves looking skanky and pale,seems like a fine line between under/over feeding. I have mine in a mix that has nutes already included and they seem fine taking care of themselves now. The hardest part now is pinching flowers off of them,they really want to put them out at a young age.

I use Sunshine Mix #1. It's worked well for pretty much everything else, so I don't think that's it. As Emil suggested, maybe it's bad seed. The only thing I've done differently from normal seed germination is that I keep them moist with a very dilute mix of nutrients. Jamie suggested moving them to new mix and watering with straight water. I'll try that this weekend, but it may be too late.

WalkGood · Apr 12, 2013

I agree with Emil, it's not you ... it's the seed. I have no doubt in your abilities

I don't pay attention to forecasts here, they say it's sunny out in the middle of a rain storm or visa versa. Take it to the next level and start your own forcasting based on trend analysis, doppler radar and weather satellites, that's how we predict swell forcasts here as the weather guys are worthless. Oh we use sea buoy's too ...

Devv · Apr 12, 2013

I don't know if this is possible for you to do but a sprinkler on the buds you want to protect will help. I had 26 one morning with a fully planted garden and saved them by running the sprinkler. It's not the temps but the frost which dehydrates the tender growth.

Catching up here, I had my best luck soaking overnight and sticking in the dirt, like 99%. Tried paper towels in plate covered with plastic wrap, 35%.

As for the weather men, I wish I could get paid for guessing!

Good luck my friend,

Scott

Dot Com · Apr 12, 2013

stickman said:
I think Shane may be onto something... I tried the coffee filter method and presoaked the seeds, and after 60 seeds sowed I only got one to germinate. Doing a postmortem on the cells in the seed flats and I found a number of seeds with the roots poking out but the cotyledons rotted.

they must have a micro fissure going along the seed cap because mine, which were hard as rocks, sprouted w/o me doing anything other than keeping the paper towel slightly moist. I was sure they weren't going to sprout but they sprouted anyway

DocNrock · Apr 13, 2013

I feel your pain on the pubescens. I went through quite a few seeds to get three seedlings: Red, Orange, and Yellow Rocoto. Like was said, I think the issue must have been with the seed stock itself, because everything else I have growing obviously germinated just fine. Many of the seeds just rotted in the Rapid Rooters. A few put out a radicle and stalled at that point. A Red Rocoto seedling came up and stalled for quite some time, then all of a sudden started growing...fast. The Orange and Yellow came from different seed stock and popped and grew quickly. Good luck with them. It's frustrating when you really want a particular variety and no matter what you do it won't pop and/or grow.

It's funny...I've heard the saying about watching corn grow. But I had no idea you could hear it grow! Keep up the great work, man!

KiNGDeNNiZ · Apr 13, 2013

Nice setup. You'll have a lot of hits and misses. Keep your head up

Sawyer · Apr 13, 2013

Thanks, everyone, for your input. I still haven't done a postmortem on the rocoto seeds, but I'm assuming they rotted in the shell. My potting bench is filled with flats for the second (third?) wave of planting, mostly vegetables, herbs, and natives, so I have to clear that to make room for the autopsy.

Scott, I am familiar with using sprinklers to avoid frost damage, but I'm not set up for that right now. In any case, I took a stroll around the place yesterday and it looks like I may have dodged a bullet. Only one apple tree was in full bloom and the petals didn't look damaged. The others are just showing flower buds, I was mistaken in thinking they had already bloomed. The biggest pear tree is in full bloom, but I let the bamboo invade its space and that is providing cover. (Sometimes procrastination helps, but now I've got to clear out that mess.) I can't really tell about the blueberry blooms; they always look a little funky to me anyway. I'll have to keep an eye on them to see if they set fruit or drop off. Fingers crossed.

I'll have some new pictures to show later today or tomorrow. One in particular you all will get a kick out of.

Devv · Apr 13, 2013

Good news that they made it!

We're due for another Norther here on Thursday...what the heck?