Potting up long-taprooted seedlings

I spent this and last weekend potting up most of my seedlings. Some were more difficult than others.

For example, Pulsatilla and strawberry seedlings have extremely long and delicate taproots (in the picture, the roots are almost 4 inches long, while the above-ground portion of the prairie crocus less than 0.5 inches tall). Any side branches of the main taproot are pretty sparse. This makes transplanting them rather difficult. The long taproot tends to anchor the seedlings very solidly in the medium while the unit is in the cell, but once extracted, any medium crumbles away immediately. Damaging the roots or stem is easy if the extraction and repotting process isn’t done with care.

Next year, if I do sow these seeds, I’ll probably start them in-situ rather than in seedling packs.

I was weak

Impulse purchases from a flower stand next to the métro:

With a very few exceptions (well, one, and it's the lemon thyme in the second pic), I promised myself to only grow from seed this year. What makes this worse is that I have already started my own semps from seed :P

Hopefully my from-seed semps are not green or red when they grow up.

In bloom

Crocuses and scilla (?) are up at the neighbours'

Amidst the thickets in the park across the street, guerilla gardened TULIPS. How crazy is that?

Red gem marigold in the germination station couldn't wait to bloom

Violacea pallida from Vesey's described as brilliant white pointed petals with bright blue base ...

... Which is pretty much the opposite of what I got. Boo Veseys!

They were supposed to look like this.

Flowering Haworthia limifolia

I first noticed my Haworthia limifolia sending up a flower stalk back in mid-March and it has since grown into a silly-looking, wobbly antenna that's about two feet tall.

The stalk is topped with a tightly-bunched series of flower buds. Over the last couple of weeks, the buds at the bottom of the bunch have started to fall away, bloom, and finally fade as the stalk continues to grow taller.

Apparently, the attenuta species of Haworthia can yield a high-flying pup if you clip the flower stalk above the first set of faded flowers. Wonder if it will work for my limifolia...

Wordless Wednesday

Belated April Bloom Day

Red gem marigold is budding early in its seedling cellpak

Haworthia limifolia flower

More purple peacock broccoli

Such a cool little seedling! I got the seeds as part of Tree & Twig Heirloom Vegetable Farm's seed giveaway in November.

Cotyledon closeup

Peacock tail

A little damping off problem

Keeping the germination station just moist enough to avoid fungal growth is real tricky. I bottom water all of them, but some cells seem to get damper or dry out faster than others. There's no real pattern. Because of this, damping off inevitably has hit a handful of the cells.

Neat seedlings and their true leaves

Purple Peacock Broccoli

Red Russian Kale

Red Gem Marigold

French Marigold

A Freckled Wordless Wednesday