Greetings all,

Hoping someone can assist with what we are doing wrong with our seedlings which is causing them to die once planted out.

We germinate in a baby hothouse thingy we got from Bunnings. Seedlings all pop up and look fabulous in the usual time. We plant them out into the vegie patch, water in well and within two days they are all dying. This goes for all the beans, spinach, rocket everything.

Seedlings which we buy a little more established from Bunnings all do quite well (probably only lose 20%)…

Firey.

seedlings always need to be hardened off before moving from hot house to the outside world.

and how do you Harden them off RB

Rook

We germinate in a baby hothouse thingy we got from Bunnings. Seedlings all pop up and look fabulous in the usual time. We plant them out into the vegie patch, water in well and within two days they are all dying. This goes for all the beans, spinach, rocket everything.
———
i have my fair share of problems with homegrown seedlings too.

generally beans, rocket and spinach can be sown straight into soil.

with seedlings grown in a punnet try transferring them into individual small pots with extra fertiliser added to the potting mix. the plants should be the size of the commercial ones before planting out.

pepe said:

We germinate in a baby hothouse thingy we got from Bunnings. Seedlings all pop up and look fabulous in the usual time. We plant them out into the vegie patch, water in well and within two days they are all dying. This goes for all the beans, spinach, rocket everything.
———
with seedlings grown in a punnet try transferring them into individual small pots with extra fertiliser added to the potting mix. the plants should be the size of the commercial ones before planting out.

You said it so much better than I did, Pepe!

pepe said:

with seedlings grown in a punnet try transferring them into individual small pots with extra fertiliser added to the potting mix. the plants should be the size of the commercial ones before planting out.

that’s better…

Sow direct for those examples… beans, rocket and spinach.

HI PM!

Roughbarked, I suspected hardening them up would be the approach, how best do you suggest this can be done?

This is a leading question as we are in teh process of propogating some chilli plants which we would be devestated to lose.

hardening off is the process of acclimatising your seedlings from the hothouse conditions you germinated them in to the conditions they will be growing in, which is usually much more exposed. So you need to expose them to more light etc. a bit more each day until they are hardy enough to plant out.

mmkay.. so should they be repotted at the same time, or should they simply be put into larger pots in the first instance?

Given we paid comparitavly more for the chillis, we have used those biodegradable pots which you plant into the garden bed, however, using them for all seedlings would be far too expensive.

I’d put them out where they get the early morning (up to 9 am) sun, but not the heat of the day sun or the afternoon sun…can’t recall your general geographic location? Mine is the Central Highlands of Central Queensland…all roads lead here…lol nah seriously…and our “heat of the day” starts at 9 am these days, will be 8 am in a couple of weeks, and stays like that until 4 – 6 pm …

Chilis love sun: I have planted ours out when 4 – 6” high (purchased from the shops)…what sort of chili are they?

Why not make your own newpaper seedling pots?
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Newspaper-Seedling-Pots

I’m using old cleaned pots I buy small plants in, but as they break or I give seedlings away in them, I’ll start doing this.

I did that for the tomato seedlings (how’s yours going by the way, Happy? I’ve got one dud and the “precious” one is firming along nicely)…put a couple of half sheets of newspaper in, loaded up with a frozen cane toad and filled up with Searles vegetable mix…after this weekend (Twin Hill races) I’ll plant out into the garden bed as they are 4 inches high but the newspaper should minimise transplant shock…

We are on the Sunny (and very dry) Gold Coast…

The chillis are a wonderful assortment, Czech Black, Hanoi Market, Pepperoncini-Golden Greek, Brazilian Starfish, Scotch Bonnet and the infamous Naga Jolokia (why we are even growing this confuses me.. it’s not like we have wild elephants we need to scare off here in Benowa).

I shall work on hardening the new round of babies up ready for planting out.

Happy Potter said:

Why not make your own newpaper seedling pots?
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Newspaper-Seedling-Pots

I’m using old cleaned pots I buy small plants in, but as they break or I give seedlings away in them, I’ll start doing this.

I think this is a grand idea and will give it a go! thanks Happy Potter.

Dinetta said:

I did that for the tomato seedlings (how’s yours going by the way, Happy? I’ve got one dud and the “precious” one is firming along nicely)…put a couple of half sheets of newspaper in, loaded up with a frozen cane toad and filled up with Searles vegetable mix…after this weekend (Twin Hill races) I’ll plant out into the garden bed as they are 4 inches high but the newspaper should minimise transplant shock…

may I ask what the frozen cane toad does?

Firestorm said:

We are on the Sunny (and very dry) Gold Coast…

The chillis are a wonderful assortment, Czech Black, Hanoi Market, Pepperoncini-Golden Greek, Brazilian Starfish, Scotch Bonnet and the infamous Naga Jolokia (why we are even growing this confuses me.. it’s not like we have wild elephants we need to scare off here in Benowa).

I shall work on hardening the new round of babies up ready for planting out.

Well you’ve got the right climate…I’ve heard about the Naga Jolokia…I think Collie put the link up one night…amazing chili that…I like the sound of the Pepperoncini-Golden Greek, is it a fairly mild one (albeit tasty)??

Firestorm said:

Dinetta said:

I did that for the tomato seedlings (how’s yours going by the way, Happy? I’ve got one dud and the “precious” one is firming along nicely)…put a couple of half sheets of newspaper in, loaded up with a frozen cane toad and filled up with Searles vegetable mix…after this weekend (Twin Hill races) I’ll plant out into the garden bed as they are 4 inches high but the newspaper should minimise transplant shock…

may I ask what the frozen cane toad does?

He/she provides me with blood and bone…putting them in the bottom of pots is what they do to recycle them in nurseries in the NT…

Golden Greeks are quite nice stuffed or on pizzas.. The Naga, quite frankly terrifies me.. I mean the darn thing needs to be picked with gloves on and then treated with great respect until you stupidly put it in your mouth… whatever… I certainly won’t be eating it..

Would never have thought of that use for cane toads.. how do you stop them from smelling rotten, or does the fact that they are in the bottom of the pot seal the stink off. obviously their poison doesn’t leach into the soil…

Firestorm said:

Golden Greeks are quite nice stuffed or on pizzas.. The Naga, quite frankly terrifies me.. I mean the darn thing needs to be picked with gloves on and then treated with great respect until you stupidly put it in your mouth… whatever… I certainly won’t be eating it..

Would never have thought of that use for cane toads.. how do you stop them from smelling rotten, or does the fact that they are in the bottom of the pot seal the stink off. obviously their poison doesn’t leach into the soil…

Thanks for the info on the Golden Greeks…I have a problem with normal chilis, they tend to blister the inside of my upper lip…the Naga is in a class of its’ own…

Strangely, the cane toads don’t really stink when composting…they do pong after suiciding on the electric fence but …

Originally I was one of those who said the cane toads stunk out a freezer so badly we ended up dumping and replacing it…however I have since given them another chance and they don’t pong when frozen…I was wrong…whatever it was that stunk I wish I knew because it’s not going in our freezer ever again…

They need to be alive to create their poison. Once they are dead the poison quickly degrades. I have got the pots outdoors but still they don’t pong. Also I buried the excess into the proposed vegetable garden and ditto…they melt away to nothing, as I have dug over some of that bed and there weren’t even any bones…

Not sure I would use them in the bottom of a pot that doesn’t have newspaper…but we think the one pot without a canetoad has the tomato plant that’s been a 2 leaf for about 3 weeks now…

Happy Potter said:

Why not make your own newpaper seedling pots?
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Newspaper-Seedling-Pots

I’m using old cleaned pots I buy small plants in, but as they break or I give seedlings away in them, I’ll start doing this.

Now, exactly when do you plan to make seedling pots. I figure that at about 11:45pm you might have a spare hour? LOL.

pomolo said:

Happy Potter said:

Why not make your own newpaper seedling pots?
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Newspaper-Seedling-Pots

I’m using old cleaned pots I buy small plants in, but as they break or I give seedlings away in them, I’ll start doing this.

Now, exactly when do you plan to make seedling pots. I figure that at about 11:45pm you might have a spare hour? LOL.

Heavens. At that time I’m asleep for an hour already.
I figure I’ll never stop buying plants in small tubs, so I may never have to make seedling pots lol