Starting dahlia seeds

calico20hill · 2023-03-05T22:07:16+00:00

I am excited to see plants growing form Rock Run Ashley seeds I collected last year. I don't think I have tried seedlings from it before. I started quite...

Bessie

Krista I used very slightly soapy water as a surfactant. Some seed looked sorta dry, and there was some fungus. The hydrogen peroxide solution is for increased oxygen to the seeds ( it's not a disinfectant). I found the recipe for the hydrogen peroxide online in a YouTube video for seed starting. The channel specializes in tissue culture.

Krista

Bessie Oh neat, thank you for this information!

DarcyD

Interesting, Bessie! I love experiments. Big jump on day 10. Do you attribute that to rewetting them?

Oh, if I used my oven my 16 yo would likely turn it on to cook a pizza and my seeds would be toast. I usually just set mine on the counter. Last year I started WAY too many for me to handle at one time. This year, I will stagger them.

Bessie

DarcyD I think the jump on day 10 was from rewetting the trays. I have a bright colored post-it note over the start button of the oven. I've been using an oven for over 30 years for seed germination. I didn't mention the current experiments using garlic juice and cinnamon to suppress fungus growth😁. I'm not a well disciplined scientist(usually no "control"). I continue to wet the seed trays when they look a bit dry, and drain off excess moisture. Today, Day 11, there are 16 seeds germinating. My current plan is to have the seedlings do a 12 hour "time share" sitting under the lights. I'm fascinated that one variety, had no seed sprouted until today, now has three seeds germinating.

DarcyD

Bessie
SO interesting!! Probably 12 years ago I started experimenting with cinnamon too. It definitely held fungus down. Garlic juice!?! Do keep up informed pretty please.

MissyWeitzel

Bessie one of the Instagram accounts I follow is Nettles & Petals and Jamie had a post a few days back about soaking his chili pepper seeds in a weak Chamomile tea for 30 min before sowing as it works as a natural antifungal and antiseptic. This helps break down the germination inhibiting outer layer of the seed but also reduces mold spores and bacteria.

Of course this took me down a bit of a rabbit hole and I saw other gardener sources suggest making an antifungal spray out of Chamomile tea.

I was thinking about trying it myself because I'm starting cuttings and didn't buy any vermiculite yet. Maybe it would work for your seedlings?

Bessie

MissyWeitzel I think the cinnamon has indeed helped keep fungal growth at a minimum on the Dahlia seed trays. I need a controlled study 🤓.

Cosey

I was sorting seeds today and discovered a seedling gives me striped seeds! They look like little sunflower husks!

Each year these beautiful plants keep surprising me with details.

calico20hill

I wonder if you will get striped flowers from those?

I really want to start seeds but I keep slapping my hands and telling them to wait until March. By March there is enough solar gain to make the greenhouse work more efficiently.

Cosey

calico20hill I won't get to find out. I finished packing seeds for my seed sale and these were found in the Beeline seed mix. I did retain 5 plants from the 2023 seedling stock. They were the last of my original seeds sourced from Dr Hammett. Overall, I found 4 really nice plants from previous seasons and the 5 from last year which will continue to be evaluated. Most of the culling has been natural by way of poor tubers.

I'll pay attention at the end of 2024 to see if I kept the striped seed maker.

calico20hill

So far I have resisted the urge to start dahlia seeds but today the clouds went away and it is 85 degrees in the greenhouse. So I started a flat of 4" pots of seedlings, using up the least prescious of the seeds. Some of them were older packages, etc, I will do another sowing when the weather is more settled . I wan't able to save many seeds this past year. THe weather did not let the seeds mature. Here is hoping for a better seed collecting season this next year!

MissyWeitzel

calico20hill I'm trying really hard to resist the urge to start seedlings myself. I know it is way too early in Michigan but I actually have time to do it now and in 4-6 weeks I will be SO much busier with other things! I'm trying to decide if it is worse to start them earlier and have to pot them up and deal with larger plants or risk not starting them at all because I am too busy with other things. Growing out all these seeds I intentionally collected and working on getting better about my focus feels like a really important part of what I want to do for the future but it also feels like a long game and hard to decide right now what percentage of my grow space to dedicate to it. Don't get me wrong - I absolutely love growing named varieties and having a dahlia business and selling cut flowers and I want to do it for as long as I am physically able, but in a way I am a bit jealous of people who have a lot of space to grow dahlias and don't have a dahlia business and can just mainly do seedlings if they want to. I see some growers doing both remarkably well and I hope to also, someday! And then there's like the upper echelon of hybridizer growers who have a successful business selling just their own "dahlia masterpieces" and wow, I know that was a lot of work and dedication. I am off on a tangent now, but yeah, I am a dreamer amd a doer and I have little patience and often I'm not all that practical. It's hard telling myself no! 😅

calico20hill

I solved my dilemma. LOL. I went through and picked all the oldest seeds and started them. I am sure some will produce pay-back and the others won't be taking up space in my seedbox any more! I am also trying to decrease the list of tubers that I grow so that I will have more room to try out seedlings. I have only 6 raised bed rows. I can crowd them a certain amount but I don't want to crowd out the good ones. Any that I decide to keep has to be worth it!

I would love to be back in the days of growing a thousand plants but with no market and not wanting to do the selling it wouldn't be the fun that I remember. I mean, I could plant my whole acre of hillside above the house with them but the water bill and the digging in clay would be prohibitive.

Bessie

Update: A few days shy of 4 weeks since starting saved seeds from 2023. Here they're pictured outside getting some sun after beening inside during a few days of rain. They'll be covered with floating row cloth. I haven't done a final tally of germination, but will report back in detail. There's approximately 200 seedlings in the photo below, with about 25 not shown, that are in a separate failure to thrive quarantine area. Three seed lots germinated most prolificly; Hollyhill Daydream, Cafe au Lait, and seedling 23029. Bahama Mama and Ferncliff Copper get Honorable mention for having sprouted some seeds. I've been fertilizing with 1/3 strength Miracle Grow for the past two weeks ever since some of the faster growing seedlings showed magnesium deficiency.

Teddahlia

No wonder Luther Burbank moved to that area to breed his plants. We are still expecting many freezing nights here and sprouting seeds is a month away.

Bessie

Teddahlia I have the advantage of using 4 very nice grow lights that my sister no longer used, and gave to me. Also, it helps immensely to be retired and have the time to move them outside when the weather permits.

Bessie

Seedling potting up day (I've been too sick with H1N1 flu to do this when I should have a week or two ago). This Cafe au Lait seedling(germination 1/27/24) wins the prize for stockiness and robustness. It's 8" tall and has whorls of leaves that are increasing in number as they move up the stem. I'd guess maybe there's some genetic doubling or tripling going on. No other seedling comes close to the way this thing is growing. It was grown in a 3 ounce paper cup under lights with all the other seedlings.

Top view

SteveM

Bessie I suspect the same as Ted. If the stems flattens I would guess a fasciation mutation. It will be interesting to see what the bloom looks like (if it blooms).

Bessie

Bessie update on Dahlia seedling showing fasciation...
Two sprouts came up from below the soil line. Both showed similar behavior to the now very thick main sprout. I don't think there's any way a flower will be formed. It might be interesting to see if the plant forms tubers, and if the tubers will also have plants with the fasciation.

Teddahlia

It may have the genetic defect of losing the ability to make stems.

Bessie

Teddahlia I'll keep an eye out for that. I've never heard of losing the ability to make stems.😲

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