I did my seeds today. A big thank you to Kim for sending me some of his overflow of hips to work with because I only had a handful of hips from my own roses last year. I’m excited to see what this year’s seedlings will look like because Kim sent me all new varieties that I’d never had before. Should get something different I hope!
I went through the bags of old seeds from previous years and after looking through them and not finding anything that wasn’t very black I decided to toss them. I don’t usually do that. But some of these seeds I’ve had for 3 years now and for the most part none of them germinated very well last year. I figure there isn’t much hope of them germinating at this point so why waste the time and effort. I’ve already gotten some seedlings of these varieties over the last few years and for the most part they all look pretty much the same and much like their mothers. So out with the old in and in with the new!
I also found a bag of very moldy, very mushy, very old hips that had never been cleaned. I got these hips from Cliff Orent maybe 3 years ago? He sent me a ton of hips one year and I didn’t clean them all because 1. I couldn’t possibly handle that many and 2. I knew I was going to be doing a presentation at my rose society on doing seeds so I kept some to take to that presentation to give to people to try right away. Several people did take some and have been bringing in their babies to show me! It’s been a lot of fun and I think a few of them have started to try doing their own crosses now. Any way I brought the left over hips home and put them in the basement where they promptly got forgotten about. In prepping things up to start today I came across the bag and decided to clean some of them just as an experiment to see if any of them would germinate. Probably not but who knows? As I recall many of these were my best germinators that year. Cleaning them was not a job for the faint of heart I tell you! Eeeww and ick! But once I figure out that it was easiest to just toss them into the sieve whole and push the mush through under running water the seeds came out pretty quick. I’ll let you know what happens!
It’s definitely worth a try - especially if the seed coats are still hard. I agree with Kim, Cliff had an incredible collection of roses. Best wishes with them!
Good luck with those seeds Seil. Cliff did have a great collection of roses. My first seedlings popped through the sand this morning, Gemini x John Cabot and a Prairie Celebration x Everest Double Fragrance. Spring has sprung in my basement.
Liz, I like that PC x EDF…sounds yummy. I’ve never grown either…but the hardiness and disease resistance of PC combined with awesome fragrance and huge double blossoms?.. I can’t wait, vicariously, for the first bud to unfurl.
What temp are your seeds at? Are they sown or in baggies?
Thanks Joe, it is probably the cross that I am most excited about too. I keep the seeds in the fridge in baggies, no additional moisture or any substrate added, for around 3 months (Oct-Dec). They were planted in trays on the 28th. The bottom layer is an inch of organic Pro-mix and the top layer is about an inch of builder’s sand. The trays are under lights (~12 hour days) in my basement which is about low to mid 60’s temp during the day and cooler at night. I generally lift the seedlings out of these trays once the first true leaf develops and put them in a 3 inch pot. They will stay in this pot until May. Generally the oldest seedlings will get moved out to the cold frame in mid april. This is the first year that I kept last year’s seed trays and re-watered them. So far nothing from last year has come up. I’ll give them til the end of the month and then toss them. Hopefully I’ll need the space for seedlings…
Thanks everyone! All the seeds were hard and good color once I got them out of the mushy hips. I think that’s a good sign. They’re in damp paper towels in baggies in the veggie crisper of my fridge. Once they germinate they’ll go into seed starter soil in trays under lights in my basement. I wait for 2 sets of leaves before I transplant to 16oz. clear plastic cups. I tried to do it earlier but I’m a little ham fisted and broke too many at that smaller stage. The bigger ones seem to be sturdier for me to move. My biggest problem is getting them close enough to the lights to keep them from stretching out and becoming leggy. But last year I did better at getting the trays up closer to the lights by putting them on styrofoam blocks and packing boxes. The seedlings seemed to bush out quicker instead of just getting taller and taller. Everything is makeshift here so I have to come up with creative solutions all the time.
seil and lizlee, you both speak of lighting over your seed/seedlings can you expand on this please, things like what sort of light, do you have mist on the trays or a way of keeping them moist, any more info would be greatful, Regards David.
David, there is nothing special about my lighting, shop lights with inflorescent grow bulbs that you can find at most hardware stores. I hang them as close to the trays as I can. As far as moisture goes, it is your enemy as far as I’m concerned. Too much leads to damping off. My trays have drain holes in them and are set up so that they are not sitting in water. I water from the top with a sprinkling can when the sand starts to show signs of drying. I never have the sand saturated. The trays are not covered so that I can get good air flow across them.
This is what works for me, but I am sure that there are other methods out there that are just as good if not better.
Plain cool white fluorescent gives the best plant growth, no need for expensive tubes. Generally one shop light will do two standard 9 x 18 nursery trays just fine. Styro blocks of 1-2 inch thickness for support with a foot clearance between light and shelf after all layers of blocks are removed lets plants get up to 10 inch high, whihc climbers will do in 2 months or less. So you need about 6 inch of blocks to start with.
David, are you starting your seeds inside the house or in that marvelous green house you sent photos of? If they’re out in the green house and it gets sun, you don’t need anything else.
Kim, with the seeds that you sent over, what I am trying is Mr Radler’s method with half of each variety(keeping other as back up). All eggs in one basket when learning is not good. The greenhouse(HOT) has the propagation bench with misters and some seed(disposable if does not work) in flats only at present. Your seed (half) is still in the fridge at present, have not seen germination yet, but checked daily.
Kim and all others, this is an open question.
With some of the seed which I have more than one, is it possible to start them in trays/flats inside our house(where we live) as the temps are 77F/25c down to 64.4F/18c overnight. All responses taken. Regards David
Your spring has pretty much finished up and you are full on into summer now, am I right? If so, you can probably get some germinations, but they may have to be protected some from the full days sun, until they can get a little growth and more than a bit of root going for themselves. I would think that the greenhouse might be too extreme, but with some shade cloth and good air circulation it should be workable.
My response about lights was assuming that you were working indoors in a basement or such. I have been germinating seeds and growing them at all times of year by the described method. In my germination testing with salts, I follow the seeds for a year of continued cold stratification and have some coming out each month. For most CV I am pitching the seedlings, but for a few like Rainbow Knock Out or Sunrise-Sunset, I actually want the progeny. So some are getting planted in mid-summer, some in early autumn. At a few (2-3) months age I transition them (those worth keeping after blooming) to a cold greenhouse. Then after another month or so, perhaps outside if weather stays as mild as it has this winter. I put out 10 pots or so since Christmas and it hasn’t gone below 20 F. If they can’t take that, I can’t use them anyway.
Larry, I am sorry if the way I worded my response wrong. I am gathering all ways to get seed to grow, whether in shadehouse, garage, my own house environment, very small polycarbonate house, plastic igloo(20ft x40ft). All I am doing is trying to absorb information, Regards David.
David, I use just regular florescent tube lights and some regular flood/spot light bulbs in shop fixtures (you know the ones that look like the Tin Man’s hat?). I have a shelving unit and I hang the short 2 or 3 foot florescent fixtures from the bottom of the shelves to light the shelf below. For the top shelf I hang single bulb shop lights with flood or spot lights. I tried Grow Lights but they were SO expensive and they burnt out in no time at all!
No misters here, just me and a watering can. I do use the covers on the seed starter trays and check them daily for moisture. You can usually tell when they need more water because there won’t be any condensation on the clear covers when they get too dry. The covers come off when the seedlings start to touch it but usually by then they have enough sets of leaves to transplant up into cups. The cups go on trays (actually the lids from 18 gal. totes!) on the table next to the shelving unit and that is hung with more shop lights . Those trays are the ones that need to go up on blocks and boxes to get them closer to the lights. I’ve tried to hang the lights lower but the cords are too short. The whole thing looks like an octopus of cords and lights by the time I’m done! But it’s worked so far.
I try to get the seedlings outside as early as possible. As soon as I see that the night time temps are staying consistently above freezing I start taking them outside to my covered patio at first. That’s usually the beginning of April here and when my outside roses start to wake up. And then I gradually put them into full sun. The sooner I can get them outside the better. They do so much better outside in real sunshine and natural humidities.
No matter what method you use you’re always going to lose some at every stage along the way. I figure those are just the weaklings and I don’t want them anyway. Survival of the fittest!