From Seed To .........

Update: Lotus

2011-06-03T12:21:00.000-07:00

In an attempt to transfer one of my lotus plants, several of the leaves died. It's not fully dead yet so I'm still trying to nurse it.

However the other one of my lotus plants is thriving. I need to find a large pot and create and create a container pond with it.

Update: Lotus, White Pitcher, and Venus

2011-05-15T11:58:00.000-07:00

Lotus
Both lotus plants now have 4 leaves each and I see a fifth leaf coming up. I currently don't have my camera right now but when I do, I'll be providing pictures.

White Pitcher Plant
Only one of my White Pitcher Plants has survived. The last remaining one looks like it probably won't make it. I will do anything I can to keep it alive.

Venus Fly Trap
I currently have three Venus Fly traps growing.

Growing Water Lily Bulbs

2011-05-05T11:32:00.000-07:00

So far my water lily seeds haven't sprouted. I need to wait for the materials I need to replant them. For the time being, I bought a water lily bulb and I'm going to attempt to grow that.

According to the instructions in the back of the package, I need to place 3/4 of the bulb in substrate (aka river rocks) then submerge it in water. The package says that the water lily is guaranteed to grow within 30 days. We'll see how the next 30 days go.

Water Lily Bulb

Water Lily Bulb in the substrate. My finger is pointing to the bulb

Loofa Seeds Die

2011-04-29T08:30:00.000-07:00

I went to check on the loofa seeds and they are all dead. I'm assuming due to the sudden hot weather in my area the greenhouse got too hot for them. Unfortunately, I don't have enough seeds to redo this experiment. So I'm going to grow my 3 remaining seeds in a paper towel then transfer them to pots. Their growth will still be documented. I will be attempting this experiment next year.

Loofa Seeds Already Sprouting

2011-04-26T13:18:00.000-07:00

It's only been 2 days and 5 of the loofa seeds have sprouted to the point where they need to be transplanted into the seed trays. I have planted all 5 sprouted seeds into the seed tray. I'm going to give the 6th one another week. If it doesn't sprout after a week I'm going to use another seed in the paper towel.

Growing Loofa From Seeds

2011-04-24T21:30:00.000-07:00

I'm growing loofas and I"m doing more experiments. I had 12 loofa seeds soaked overnight. Using my 12 compartment seed trays, I placed 6 seeds in the seed starter and the other 6 in a paper towel. The seed tray is outside in a makeshift greenhouse while the paper towel is in a plastic bag on a warm surface (the top of my cable box). We'll see an about a week or so which one is faster.

Growing Asparagus From Seed

2011-04-21T13:22:00.000-07:00

I'm doing a little experiment with growing asparagus. Last night I soaked 12 seeds in water. Today I planted 6 of them in seed starter and the other 6 in a wet paper towel. We'll see which one is faster and if it makes any difference.

Update: White Pitcher Plants, Venus Fly Traps

2011-04-21T13:18:00.000-07:00

White Pitcher Plant & Venus Fly Traps

Last time I said that I thought I saw 2 white pitcher plants growing, one of them even had a seed attached. Well the one that had a seed attached was actually a Venus Fly Trap. Another plant started growing in the same compartment and a seed started growing in the Venus Fly Trap section. The plant that was growing last week matches the one in the Venus Fly Trap.

Update: Lotus and Pitcher Plants

2011-04-16T12:23:00.000-07:00

White Pitcher Plant

That grass like thing that I showed a few months prior is still here with no change. However I have noticed something with the other 2 white pitcher plants. I see a little green stem coming out in both compartments, one of them also has a seed attached. I tried to take a picture of them but they are too small. Hopefully in a few weeks they'll be big enough.

As a side note I will be spraying the pitcher plants and Venus fly traps with my homemade fungicide.

Lotus
One lotus plant already has one leaf that has opened completely. The other plant, the leaf is almost completely open. Both plants appear to have second leaves coming in.

Lotus Leaf

Update: Lotus

2011-04-06T10:52:00.000-07:00

The lotuses are now peeking above the water. Hopefully in a few days the leaves will show.

Lotus Plant

Other Lotus Plant

I have noticed a minor mosquito problem since I started growing the lotuses outside. On top of that, I've noticed a lot of bugs (probably mosquitoes) floating on top of the water. I bought some gold fish and placed them in the bucket with my plants. The bugs in the bucket have gone down so hopefully so will the mosquito problem.

Vegetable Garden

2011-04-02T22:38:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I started the seeds for my vegetable garden. I'm growing tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, several different types of squash and several herbs.

I have a few experiments planned for the tomatoes. I do have several experiments planned for next year for the other vegetables.

I will be showing pictures of my garden though.

Replanting Kiwi Seeds

2011-04-01T09:44:00.000-07:00

As you might recall, our kiwi plants died in the great heat die off. Well today I replanted them, just in a different matter.

Last time we scattered a bunch of kiwi seeds over seed starter and they virtually all grew. This time we are using the 12 compartment seed tray again but planting 2 seeds per compartment. The plants will be thinned later on.

Last time it only took 2 weeks for the seeds to grow. Let's see how things go this time.

Lotus Seeds Planted

2011-03-29T16:59:00.000-07:00

I put some garden soil in 2 buckets and filled it with rain water that I collected. I waited a few days but the water has not settled yet but I went ahead and dropped the seeds in. We'll see in a few days how the seeds are doing.

The soil I used is store bought garden soil. Online I saw some people just dug some soil out of their backyard. Unfortunately, my backyard is full of grass. If these seeds fail, on my next attempt, that is what I'll be doing.

Both Lotus Seeds Growing

2011-03-27T11:51:00.000-07:00

Both of my Lotus seeds have sprouts which means that I will need to plant them soon.

Both of my Lotus seeds are growing

Next Step

I have 2 buckets. I'm going to fill them with garden soil up until 3 inches from the top. I will then fill it with water. I'm going to let the soil settle overnight and in the morning I will plant the seeds.

Sprouting Lotus Seed

2011-03-25T10:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I reported that one of the Lotus seeds had split and I saw some green. Actually whenever I checked up on the Lotus seed every few hours. Everytime I checked up on it, it had grown a little more.
Well this morning when I checked on the Lotus seeds, there's a little green sprout coming out. This means in a few days I will have to plant that seed in a bucket.

Little sprout coming out of the Lotus seed

Update: Lotus

2011-03-24T10:33:00.000-07:00

Today I went to check on my Lotuses and one of them has a split with some green showing. Nothing has sprouted out yet but hopefully something will in the next day or 2.

Update: Lotus, Pitcher, and Venus

2011-03-23T16:19:00.000-07:00

I checked the weather reports and it looks like it's not going to be warm enough for at least another week. I saw my electronic heating pad in my room and decided to use it to heat up some of my plants. The water lilies were too flooded so I only got to heat the lotus, pitcher plant, and venus fly trap seeds.

I placed the lotus jar and pitcher plant, venus fly trap seed tray on the heating pad and turned it on. There's a safety feature on the heating pad that only allows it to be on for 2 hours. So I had to turn it on several times a day.

So far nothing but I have seen more humidity in the seed tray.

The Lotus jar and Seed Tray

Pitcher Plant

Before I put the seed tray on the heating pad I noticed something that looked like a blade of grass growing out of one of the white pitcher plant compartments. This is the same seed starter that I'm using for my vegetables and flowers that I'm growing. I have noticed weeds growing in those seed trays. However, none of the weeds have looked like a blade of grass. I don't know what the germination of a pitcher plant looks like so I'm going to leave the the "blade of grass" in for now.

Start of a Pitcher Plant?

Possible Delay In Germination

2011-03-21T13:49:00.000-07:00

There is possibly going to be a delay in the lotus, water lily, pitcher plant, and venus fly trap seeds. These seeds require warm temperatures and lately it's been cold. Today is the first day of spring and it's still pretty cold so that seems to be delaying my plants.
According to what I read online lotus seeds are suppose to start sprouting within 4 to 5 days. Well it's been 6 days and there's not even a split in the seed yet.

Growing Water Lily Seeds

2011-03-17T12:59:00.000-07:00

I went online and bought some Hardy Water Lily seeds.
The colors are

Pink
Hot Pink
Sensation Pink
Blue
Yellow
White

I'm trying to grow them in a rather unconventional method.
I'm using one of my 12 compartment seed trays. I filled each compartment halfway with gardening soil. Then I slowly flooded the compartment with rainwater. I let the soil settle overnight.
I grew 2 seeds of each color, one seed in each compartment. According to the person who I bought the seeds from, it should take 3 to 4 weeks for the seeds to sprout. Since this method is not your typical method it may or may not work but if it does, it is easier for me. We'll see how things go 3 to 4 weeks from now.

Update: Lotus seeds

2011-03-17T12:44:00.000-07:00

There's not much to update except for that now my other lotus seed is lumpy too. So I should be seeing a green shoot within a few days.

Growing Lotus Seeds

2011-03-15T16:40:00.000-07:00

I went online and bought 5 lotus seeds. I'm currently growing 2 of them.

Lotus seeds needs to be scarified in order to germinate. Online I found 2 methods. One is to use a knife and cut a slit until you see the white parts. Another is to file the outer coating until the white part shows. I tried the filing method, I gave up after an hour. Cutting a slit is tough but much easier than filing down. (In nature lotus seeds spend 50 to 100 years at the bottom of a pond before they germinate. You can see how tough that coat is)

To get the seeds to germinate you're suppose to soak the seeds in distilled or rain water. I put the seeds in a jar and covered them with rain water that I collected. Place the seeds in a warm location and change the water every few hours when it gets cloudy.

My Seeds

My Seeds Scarified

It's only been a few hours since I started the seeds but I have noticed something. From what I read online the outside coating gets lumpy due to water absorption. That happens after a few days. The one that I filed down is already lumpy. We'll see if that speeds it up in a few days.

Venus Fly Traps and Pitcher Plants

2011-03-12T21:33:00.000-08:00

I got this urge to want to start growing water and swamp plants. So I went online and bought some water lily, lotus, Venus Fly Trap and Pitcher Plant seeds. Today I decided to plant my Venus Fly Trap and Pitcher Plant seeds.
These are the requirements I found online:

Use nutrient lacking soil such. I'm using peat moss.
Use only distilled or rain water. I placed a large trash can on the corner of my house and caught the rain.
Keep the area humid and warm. I'll be using a plastic dome which will serve as a greenhouse over the seed tray.

I have these 12 compartment seed trays. Online I bought 50 Purple Pitcher Plant seeds, 10 white pitcher plant seeds, and 10 Venus fly trap seeds.
Here's how I planted the seeds:

I filled the seed tray with seed starter.
Using a water sprayer filled with rain water, spray the soil until top appears soaked.
Slow pour rain water into each compartment. Keep pouring until water is dripping out of the bottom holes.
Plant the seeds. I'm planting 6 Purple pitcher plant seeds, 3 white pitcher plant, and 3 venus fly traps. Gently push the seeds in, but don't worry about covering them.
Cover them with the dome and place in a spot with a lot of sun light

According to the research I did online, it could take anywhere from 14 days to a few months for the seeds to sprout. I'll post when they sprout.

Slight Change

2011-03-12T20:24:00.000-08:00

I know that I haven't been on here for quite a while. But there will be some slight changes. I will be growing whatever I feel like growing. So enjoy!!!

Still Nursing

2010-08-10T13:45:00.000-07:00

There's not much to update. We are still trying to nurse our heat damaged plants back. Some are for sure not going to make it so we have to replant them. While others are on the edge and could go either way.

The Great Heat Die Off

2010-07-18T21:01:00.000-07:00

So here's what's been going on. I have been on vacation studying for my MCAT which I just took on Friday. So Trevor has been taking care of the plants. Well Trevor went camping for 3 days and we moved all the plants from his trailer to his house. Well during those 3 days California's weather went from slightly cool, 70 to 90F, to burning hot, 100 to 110. Since they were in a window, quite a few of them have heat damage and some of them didn't survive. The strawberries are for sure dead and have to be replanted. Since the raspberries and blackberries hadn't sprouted we don't know. So for the next few weeks our concentration will be on saving our plants.

Updates: Loquats, Pears, Apples

2010-07-11T14:47:00.000-07:00

We have good news on 2 of the plants and bad news on one of them.

Apples
I'll save the best for last so I'm starting off with the bad news, we have to redo all our apple plants. This only applies to plants, not seeds. Our Granny Smith seeds are still in the picture. One by one they just started dying. We think they might have died from a combination of root rot and fungus. Apparently living in the greenhouse was the perfect place for fungus to grow and we forgot to give them their weekly spray of fungicide.

Pears
Learning our lesson from the apples, we decided not to give the pears the greenhouse, and they are doing quite well. So far, 5 out of the 6 plants have sprouted.

Loquats
2 of the 6 loquat pits have sprouted. You can also see roots at the bottom of the clear container so more to come soon. So far what I have seen from the loquats are that they are slow growers.

Growing D'anjou Pear Seeds

2010-07-03T21:03:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago we took our seeds out of the refrigerator and put them in room tmeperature. The pears we got are D'anjou pears. Well they are finally sprouting. We placed them in the seed tray and hopfully they will see leaves soon.

Extracting Kiwi Seeds

2010-06-28T00:28:00.000-07:00

This is the method we used to get our kiwi seeds

You Will Need

Sharp Knife
Butter Knife
Bowl of water
Coffee Filter
Sieve
Bowl

Instructions

Cut the kiwi into quarters
Remove the middle white line
Gently scrap the seeds off with a butter knife
Rinse the seed covered knife in the bowl of water
Let most of the seeds settle to the bottom
Put a coffee filter in a sieve and the sieve in a bowl. Gently pour the water/seed mixture into the coffee filter. The coffee filter will drain the water but keep the seeds.
After the water drains leave it to dry overnight.
You should be able to easily scratch the seeds off of the coffee filter once it is dry. Now they are ready for use.

Just Some Picture Updates

2010-06-27T20:36:00.000-07:00

Pineapple

Pineapple in pot

Pineapple #1 with fruit left on

Pineapple #2 with fruit left on

Lemon

Lemon plants. The front one on the right was separated

Strawberry

Strawberry Plants

Close up of Strawberry plants

Blueberry

Blueberry plants

Growing Apricot From Seeds

2010-06-26T17:39:00.000-07:00

My neighbor has an apricot tree. Every year she let's us come over and pick as many apricots as we want. There's always too many to go around. This year I saved some pits and Trevor and I are going to grow them. Before I get into details there's no guarantee that the seeds will produce apricots. My plum tree is right behind, back to back from the apricot tree. The apricot flowers bloomed just before the plums but there was an overlap so there is a chance the seeds are of plucots (apricot and plum hybrid). We'll know in 3 to 5 years.

I found 2 methods of growing apricots on the Internet so it's experiment time.
First step is to crack the pits with a hammer or nut cracker. I used a hammer. I found putting a pit on it's side and hitting the edge works best.
We have 18 seeds so 9 of them will be put in between a moist paper towel in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. The other 9 are in a jar with moist soil in the refrigerator. The seeds need a 30 day stratification period so after 30 days in the fridge we will check for sprouting.

Update:Gala, Citrus, Pineapple

2010-06-23T23:38:00.000-07:00

Gala Apples
As I said a few days ago we have to redo the Gala apple seeds. Well we were scooping out the bad seed starter and apparently one more seed survived so we have 2 gala apple plants right now. We still plan on continuing with our experiment once we have enough seeds.

Citrus
So far the only citrus that has grown has been the grapefruit and the lemon. We dug up an orange seed a few days ago and there was a root so hopefully the orange will be sprouting soon.
We did notice a something a little "odd" with the lemons and grapefruit. In several compartments it looked like there were 2 or 3 trees growing. I remember when we were trying to germinate grapefruit seeds in the paper towel, the seed broke apart and each piece seemed to behave like a separate seed. So it's experiment time again.
Experiment
One of our lemon plants looked like there were 2 trees growing so we dug it up. It looked like 2 lemon trees growing out of one seed. They were easily separated and planted into seperate pots. For the next few weeks we are going to be keeping an eye on both plants. If both plants make it to their next set of leaves we will do the same thing to the grapefruits. (We currently have a compartment of grapefruits that looks like 3 are growing)

Pineapple
The pineapple growing in the pot is growing quite well. It hasn't increased in size but new leaves have grown. Unforunately, the one in water wasn't so lucky. The bottom part of the head fell off and we had to toss it. We have 2 more pineapples which we cut up today. We cut the heads off this time leaving the fruit and cutting off all the dead leaves and dead parts of the leaves.

Growing Blackberries and Raspberries

2010-06-23T17:06:00.000-07:00

Our blackberry seeds have been sitting in the refrigerator for 2 months while our raspberry seeds have been in there for a month. Now it is time to plant them.

Obtaining Seeds
Getting seeds is quite easy. You can either press the fruit towards the side of a glass bowl the fill the bowl with water. The fruit will float while the seeds sink. Scoop out the fruit. Place a coffee filter in a strainer and gently pour the water in. The coffee filter and strainer will prevent the seeds from seeping through.
The way we did it however, was a little bit more simplified. Whenever we ate raspberries or blackberries we had a paper towel handy. Anyone who has eaten these berries know that you get a lot of seeds stuck in your teeth. Gently remove the seed with your finger and wipe it on the paper towel. Leave the seeds overnight to dry. Place a coffee filter in a strainer and gently pick off the seeds. Rinse the seeds.

Growing Seeds
The seeds need to be stratified. Place them in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for at least a month. When you are ready to plant the seeds they will need to be scarified first.

Get a large sheet of sandpaper and place the seeds on.
Fold up a corner and rub the seeds between the 2 sheets.

Experiment
We will be doing an experiment when it comes to growing these seeds. I found this method to soften the outer part of the seed by soaking them in bleach for an hour. Then add 4 cups of water for every tablespoon of bleach used. Using the coffee filter-strainer method, drain the seeds. In a large bowl add 4 tbsp of baking soda and 1 cup water. Soak the seeds for a few minutes to neutralize any remaining bleach.
For the experiment half the seeds were soaked, while the other half weren't. For the blackberries, half of both kinds were planted in seed starter, while the other half are going to be in a paper towel. The raspberries were only planted in seed starter.
We will see if soaking the seeds in bleach will make their germination time any sooner.
I have heard anywhere from 4 weeks to 6 months for the seeds to grow so we'll you up to date.

Moving Pears

2010-06-21T19:08:00.000-07:00

So on May 14th we put some pear seeds in a moist paper towel, put that in a plastic bag, then put it in the fridge. It's been 5 weeks and no germination. So we have now moved the seeds to room temperature in hopes that they will grow. Whatever amount of stratification the seeds needed, hopefully they got it during the month they were in the fridge.

Growing Blueberries From Seed

2010-06-20T00:28:00.000-07:00

I bought some blueberry seeds from The Kentucky Blueberry Growers Association a few months ago. Their seeds are already stratified so you don't have to worry about doing that. A few weeks ago. April 25 to be precise, I start some seeds. Following the instructional video they have on YouTube, I used my miniature greenhouse. I filled it with seed starter, which is most peat moss, and sprinkled some seeds on top. To be on the safe side, I sprinkled a pinch of seed starter on top to cover the seeds. I used the greenhouse because according to the instructions given to me with the seeds, blueberries need a temperature of 70 to 80 degrees and need to stay moist. The greenhouse keeps those consistent. Heat and moisture are a perfect environment for fungus to grow so I gave it a spray of fungicide every week.
Four weeks later, on May 23, the first of the seeds germinated. More seeds are germinating everyday so I expect to have a full tray by the 6th month. Right now the blueberries are too small to take pictures of but they are growing nicely.

Granny Smith Apple Time

2010-06-19T21:39:00.000-07:00

We have a total of 13 Granny Smith apple seeds (not including the already sprouted one) and today we starting the whole planting process. Just like with the previous 2 seeds we placed them in a folded moist paper towel and placed them in a plastic bag. Since we got such a high germination rate with the Gala apples in room temperature, we're going to leave the seeds at room temperature. The Gala apples started sprouted in a week so it shouldn't take that long for the Granny Smith.
As for the Granny Smith apple seed that was already sprouted, it is doing quite well. We'll have updated photos up soon.
Something I have noticed so far with all our apples. They have all gone through the stratification process. Maybe not directly as seeds but definately as the apple. When we bring the apples home they go straight into the fridge. So in a few months Trevor and I will be trying a different experiment, "Is Stratification Absolutely Necessary For Apples?" In August or September we will be going to a nearby apple farm and picking apples directly from the tree. We are going to make sure they don't get refridgerated.

Update: Loquats

2010-06-16T11:47:00.000-07:00

The loquat pits have sprouted and have been planted. We had 9 pits and all 9 pits sprouted. Unforunately 3 of the roots broke because they got attached to the paper towel or because it was too fragile. We found a clear 6 compartment box which we planted the the 6 remaining pits in. Since the box is clear we'll be able to track the root growth and progress better.

Loquat pits germinated

We Are Going To Redo the Gala Apples

2010-06-15T23:31:00.000-07:00

We were wondering what was taking the Gala apple seeds so long to finally sprout so we decided to dig up some of the compartments. Apparently, the most recent bag of seed starter we bought is very low quality, it doesn't seem to want to absorb water. Due to that the seeds got no water and the roots dried up. We dug all 9 up and only one is still alive. We changed the seed starter for that one so hopefully it will still grow. We are going to get a new bag of seed starter and collect Gala apple seeds again. Since there are still a dozen or so Gala apples in the fridge, we still plan on going ahead with our comparison experiment. After we get 30 seeds we'll do the experiment side by side.

Avocado Update: Pits Have Shoots

2010-06-14T20:25:00.000-07:00

Well the avocado pits now have shoots. Apparently both shoots sprouted at about the same time. There was not even a day between them.

Water
I had to move the pit that was in water from the cup to a jar. There is a small shoot.

Avocado Pit in Water
Soil
The pit grown in soil has a longer shoot and the root found its way out of one of the drainage holes

Avocado Pit in Soil
Conclusion
Apparently, there is no difference whether you grow the avocado pit in water or in soil, just leave the skin on. But I did realize, putting the pit in water, it was much easier to see it's progress and when it needed more water.

Side by Side

What's Next?
Well I'm going to transfer the soil pit to a larger pot but I'm going to keep the water pit in water. I will make my decision when to transfer it to a pot when the jar is full of roots or when the shoot is 1 ft tall, which ever comes first. Like how most Internet instructions say, once it reaches 1 ft I will trim it down to 6 to 8 inches.

Update: Apples and Grapefruit

2010-06-10T14:42:00.000-07:00

Gala Apples
2 of the remaining Gala apple seeds are growing very nicely. They'll be planted soon.

Gala apple seeds germinating

Granny Smith
Well that Granny Smith seed that was starting to germinate within the apple has now started it's leaves.

Granny Smith Apple Plant

Grapefruit
Due to a really bad mold problem we had to throw away the grapefruit seeds in the paper towel. One no skin seed germinated though. The seed had seveal pieces and each seed sprouted a root.
On the otherhand, last week one of the no skin seeds in the pot germinated. A few days ago a skin one did too.

Left: No Skin Right:Skin

Growing Granny Smith Apples From Seed

2010-06-06T11:18:00.000-07:00

We're in the process of getting Granny Smith apple seeds when we found this:

Sprouted Granny Smith Apple Seed

Almost like the one we found in the Fuji apple. We currently don't have enough seeds to start planting but we have already planted this one and hopefully in the next few days it will germinate.

Gala Apple Seeds Germinating REALLY Well

2010-06-03T19:18:00.000-07:00

So 12 days ago we decided to see if gala apples could germinate in room temperature, apparently they can. So far out of the 16 seeds we placed in the paper towel, 11 have germinated. In the remaining 5, 2 seem to be at the start of germination. This is far more than the 30% I was told to expect.

Gala Apple seeds that have germinated

Just like the Fuji apples, we have another mold problem. The fungicide seemed to delay it but didn't stop it. So we choose 9 of the strongest seeds, starting off with the ones that have green, then the ones with the longest roots, and we planted them in the remaining 9 compartments of the 12 compartment seed tray. As for the remaining 7, we changed paper towels, soaking it with fungicide again, and placed them there. Doing my online research, I was told that it would take 4 to 6 weeks for apple seeds to germinate and there would be a 30% germination rate. At the rate things are going, it's been almost 2 weeks and I have an almost 70% germination rate. Just to satisfy my curiosity, I will keep the remaining seeds in the paper towel for the next 2 to 4 weeks (To complete the 4 to 6 week cycle) to see how many of them grow.

Update: Lemons

2010-05-31T04:00:00.000-07:00

Well, we were right, that lump we saw in the dirt was a lemon seed growing. Even more surprising, another seed also grew. So now we have 3 lemon tree plants.

3 Lemon plants growing

Growing Loquats From Seed

2010-05-30T18:49:00.000-07:00

Loquat is a tree that I have had experience with in the past. Fifteen years ago my parents purchased some loquats from a grocery store in Chinatown. We buried some pits in the backyard to grow our own tree. After 5 years it finally bared fruit. It is now over 20 ft tall and we get to enjoy loquats every summer.

This year I decided to save some of the pits for myself in an attempt to grow my own tree. Instead of putting the put in a pot of soil or burying it in the ground, I am putting the pits between some paper towels. Nine days ago I put 9 pits between a paper towel, and put the paper towel in a plastic Ziploc bag. Keeping the paper towel moist, put the bag in a nice sunny window.

Well today, one of the pits finally started to sprout. It wouldn't surprise me if in the next few days the other ones start as well. When the roots get a little longer the pits will be potted.

Update: Strawberries, Apples, Lemons

2010-05-27T21:32:00.000-07:00

Strawberry
They said it would take 7 to 28 days for the strawberries to germinate. Well it's been 9 days and upon inspection, I found 2 seeds that have germinated. They still have their seeds attached so they don't have their leaves yet, but this looks very promising. We'll see in the next 19 days how many of the remaining strawberry seeds germinate.

Fuji Apples
The Fuji apples are doing exceptionally well. The one in the middle already has 7 leaves while the one next to it has 5. Before long the plants are going to be too big for the minature greenhouse and are going to need to be potted.

Fuji Apple Plants

Gala Apples
So far only one seed has a root but it's still early.

Lemon
The lemon plant now has 2 visible leaves. We also found a bump in one of the other compartments which appears to be a seed so hopefully we will have another lemon plant real soon.

Lemon Plant's First Leaves

Plants To Listen For Soon
Blueberries, Honey Tangerines, Nectarines, Peaches.
In a previous post I mentioned that after we find out with the Gala apples that if apple seeds can grow in room temperature we'll do a comparison with the Granny Smiths. I have now realized that we have about half a dozen Gala apples but only 3 Granny Smith so well be conducting the experiment with the Gala apples. Just like the pineapples I will be comparing days of growth.

Growing Pineapple

2010-05-24T19:11:00.000-07:00

Pineapple is going to be one of the few things not being grown from seed.

We have all probably heard of the way to make a pineapple plant. Cut or pull the head with the leaves off. Make sure all the fruit is cut off. Tear some of the bottom leaves off, then put it in a cup of water or in moist soil and wait for roots to grow.

Just like my avocado experiment I am conducting an experiment to see which method is faster. Unlike my avocado experiment I cannot start both heads at the same time. Instead I will be comparing growth on experiment days. (eg. Day 7 of pineapple in water compared to Day 7 of pineapple in soil)

On Saturday I started a pineapple head in water. Today I started a pineapple head in a pot of soil. The one in water has a 2 day head start. I will keep them watered and check on their progress at least once a week.

Growing Grapefruit From Seeds

2010-05-24T18:34:00.000-07:00

Today we planted our grapefruit seeds, we are also running an experiment to see which method is ideal.

I have heard to either germinate them in soil, or between wet paper towels. Also I have heard of leaving the skin on and peeling it off.

Peeling off the skin is fairly easy. Look for the small point on top of the seed and bend it. A part of skin will come off as you peel it downward. It should leave small flaps at the top. Use those flaps to peel the rest of the skin off.

Over this past week we have been able to get 14 seeds. Using our greenhouse seed trays, and wet paper towels in a Ziploc bag:

3 were planted in soil with skin
3 were planted in soil without skin
4 were placed between wet paper towels with skin
4 were placed between wet paper towels without skin

It will take 7 to 28 days for the seeds to germinate.

We will be repeating this experiment with the honey tangerine seeds but on a larger scale. We were able to get 20 seeds from just one fruit today and we have one more left.

Growing Gala Apples From Seed

2010-05-22T19:45:00.000-07:00

We bought some Gala apples a few days ago and were able to get some seeds. Today we decided to plant them. We are using a similar procedure as we did with the Fuji apples but with some changes.

The seeds are between a folded moist paper towel in a plastic bag, but this time we have decided to see if the seeds will germinate at room temperature. This is mostly due to the fact that the seeds started sprouting much quicker once they were in the soil and exposed to heat. Due to the mold problem that we had with the Fuji apples, the paper towels are moist with our homemade fungicide. The fungicide is 99% water but hopefully this time it will mean no mold.

The next apple on our list is Granny Smith. If the seeds germinate at room temperature for the Gala, we will probably run a comparison with the Granny Smith. Does the cold have any effect on the germination of apple seeds?

Kiwis and Apples

2010-05-21T20:40:00.000-07:00

Kiwis
Last week I was quite surprised on how many of the kiwis have sprouted. Well this week, most of the seeds had their first leaves.

Germinated kiwi seeds

They will continue to grow inside the greenhouse seed tray until the roots get too crowded or the plants get too big.

Apples (Fuji)
The apple seed that already sprouted is starting to grow it's third and forth leaves. In another compartment another seed has sprouted and is in the beginning stages of growing more leaves. Apparently it is the compartment where we placed 2 seeds. Upon closer inspection we noticed that the other seed is also growing.

Apple seeds growing

The next apple seeds we will be planting are Gala apples. This time they will not be place fridge. They will be placed between wet paper towels in a plastic bag but at room temperature.

Growing Citrus From Seeds

2010-05-21T20:17:00.000-07:00

The citrus Trevor and I will be experimenting with are lemons, limes, oranges, mandarins, tangerines, and grapefruits.

3 weeks ago we went out to eat at a local restaurant. We ordered water and hot tea. My water came with a lemon wedge and so did Trevor's tea. Both lemons had seeds so we carefully picked them out and wrapped them up in a napkin. We got 6 usable seeds total.
A few days later we washed them and planted them in my greenhouse seed tray. Because of the sugar content of fruit, they were given a spray of fungicide every few days. We put them in a sunny window and waited. Today during our watering we noticed that one of the lemon seeds had germinated.

Sprouted Lemon seed

Today we also decided to plant our mandarin and orange seeds.
Most of the mandarins and oranges grown in my area are seedless but we were able to obtain one good mandarin seed, and 5 good orange seeds. We believe the oranges to be Valencia oranges. In the remaining 6 compartments of the greenhouse we planted the orange and mandarin seeds using the same process as the lemons.
They say it takes 1 to 4 weeks for citrus seeds to grow so we'll keep you updated.
In the mean time, we are currently collecting grapefruit and tangerine seeds. We seem to be getting a lot more of these seeds than we had with the lemon so we'll be running a few experiments to see which method grows faster.

Growing Cherries From Seeds

2010-05-20T23:19:00.000-07:00

Our supermarkets are now flooded with cherries so we are going to start growing cherries. We will be trying several methods of growing cherries to see which one is the fastest.
Obtaining pits is simple. Just eat a few cherries and save the pits. Make sure you wash the pits very well and not leave any fruit residue. The sugars can cause molding and fungus.
Outside
Using our 12 compartment seed trays, using potting soil, 6 compartments have pits, the other 6 compartments contain cherry seeds. We cracked several pits open with hammers to obtain the seed. Unlike previous seeds, they are not inside a greenhouse. Doing some research online, I have found that the greenhouse is too hot for the cherry and may harm it.

Seed tray with cherry pits and seeds. One side is pits, the other side is seeds.

In The Refrigerator
One method I have been reading online is to get a jar or bag and fill it with moist soil and seeds. Keep the soil moist and leave it in the refrigerator for up to 90 days. During those 90 days check to see if any sprouting has occurred.
Trevor and I are using jars. One jar will have 20 pits, the other jar will have 20 seeds. We will see which one grows faster.

Me spraying the cherry tray

Growing Asparagus From Seed

2010-05-19T10:50:00.000-07:00

Asparagus is one of those plants that produce vegetables for 10 to 20 years. They are usually grown from root crowns but I bought some asparagus seeds online and I'm going to give them a shot. I will have to wait an extra 1 to 2 years before I get asparagus but I'm willing to give it a shot.

I placed 6 asparagus seeds between a wet folded paper towel and I put the paper towel in a Ziploc bag. I had to wait up to 3 weeks before the seeds germinated. The first seed germinated within 2 weeks.

In my 12 compartment seed tray I placed the 6 seeds that I germinated between paper towels. As an experiment, I placed 6 seeds in the other 6 compartments. I'm just going to see if the paper towel speeds up the seeds compared to planting them directly in soil.

Growing Strawberries From Seed

2010-05-18T10:10:00.000-07:00

Next up on the list is strawberries.

Getting Strawberry Seeds
You can gently pick the seeds off the strawberry or you can slice up several strawberries and throw them into a blender. Add enough water so they are just barely covered and puree the strawberries for about 10 seconds. Wait a few minutes afterwards. The "bad" seeds and the fruit will float to the top while the good seeds will sink to the bottom. Scoop out the top layer of strawberry. Put a coffee filter in a sieve and the sieve over a bowl. Pour out the remaining seed water mixture. Rinse and repeat with the remaining seeds. Let the coffee filter dry over night. Now you have your strawberry seeds.
Growing Seeds

Place the seeds in a folded paper towel then into a Ziploc bag. From what I read online the seeds need to be put in the freezer anywhere from 3 weeks to 4 months. A majority of the sites said 1 month so I froze the seeds for 1 month to stratify them.
After a month place the seeds in lukewarm water for 1 to 3 days. This softens the outer coating. To keep the water warm place the container on top of a refrigerator or anywhere else that feels warm.
We used a 12 compartment seed tray greenhouse. Fill that with seed starter. Over a sink, gently pour the water containing seeds over the soil. Try to evenly spread it. You will also have to rinse the remaining seed out.
Place the greenhouse cover and put in a sunny window.
They say it takes 7 to 21 days for a strawberry seed to germinate so we'll keep you up to date.

For the seeds being soaked in water we place the container on top of Trevor's computer. At one point it seemed the water was getting so hot that it was evaporating. Getting too hot might have killed the seeds but we won't know for sure for another 7 to 21 days. If these seeds fail to germinate we will be replanting them. Next time instead of soaking them in water we will try scratching them with sandpaper.

Avocado Pit Experiment

2010-05-17T03:30:00.000-07:00

Back in November I decided to start a little experiment to test different growing methods of avocado pits. Browsing the Internet the 2 most popular methods are suspending the avocado pit by toothpicks in water, or planting it halfway in potting soil. Several websites also suggest peeling off the skin. I got 4 avocado pits and tested the 4 methods.

You can read my intro and an update on Hubpages.

After several months the pits where the skin was peeled off made no growth so I tossed them. The ones with skin both had roots. The one in water had a small root but it had cracked significantly while the one in soil had a much longer root but not much cracking.

Next step is to see which will grow a shoot first. I will keep you updated as soon as I get results.

Homemade Fungicide

2010-05-15T23:35:00.000-07:00

I found this recipe online. We are still experimenting with it. It is starting to show promising results but time will tell

Ingredients

2 tbsp Baking Soda
2 tbsp Hydrogen Peroxide
1 gallon Water
Liquid Dish Washing Soap (Only if you plan on spraying this on leaves)

Instructions

In a dry, clean gallon jug mix baking soda and peroxide.
Move it around until baking soda is wet with peroxide
Add water.
Shake until everything is dissolved.
If this is for leaves, add to spray bottle and add one drop of dish washing soap for every quart. Shake well.

Growing Apples From Seeds

2010-05-14T18:47:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we started our attempt to grow apple trees from seeds. Using a 12 compartment seed tray Trevor and I are going to plant 3 of 4 different types of apples: Fuji, Gala, Granny Smith, and Arkansas Black.
A few weeks ago we bought some Fuji apples and took out the seeds. One seed in the apple already had a pretty long root coming out of it so we planted it in one of the compartments with seed starter. After doing some research online we decided to place the seeds in a wet, folded paper towel, in a plastic bag, in the refrigerator. It would take about 4 to 6 weeks before the seeds would germinate. Apple seeds also have a germination rate of 30% so we needed at least 10, luckily we were able to get 15. The seed that was already planted was also placed in the fridge.

Well 3 days ago we came across a problem, mold. There were little black spots of mold growing all over the paper towel. Apparently we hadn't washed all the sugar and apple parts off the seeds. We doused the paper towel in fungicide and sprayed some more in the bag. Since the already planted seed had shown no progress, we decided to remove the already planted seed from the fridge to a sunny window. A greenhouse was also placed on top.

Today the mold problem was worse than before. Luckily 3 of the seeds had already shown promising growth. One had a significant root, another showed the beginnings of a root, while a third showed the beginnings of a root and leaves. As we went to get the apple seed tray we noticed that the seed had already sprouted leaves. Quite a bit of growth after 3 days.

Apple plant

The seed that had a significant root was placed in a compartment while the other 2 were put in the same compartment. If both seeds grow one will be pulled out.

Today we also decided to start some pear seeds. Pears are in the same category as apples so they will be planted the same way. We did make one modification. Instead of soaking the paper towel in water, we soaked the paper towel in our homemade fungicide. The fungicide is 99% water anyway. Hopefully this time we won't have a mold problem.

Native Apple Tree 20 Seeds - Be Johnny Appleseed -Malus

Growing kiwis from seed

2010-05-11T18:02:00.000-07:00

I decided to grow some kiwis. According to my online research, kiwis grow on vines, kind of like grapes, and there are male and female kiwis. You need at least one male vine to fertilize all the female vines.

Online I found 2 techniques on growing kiwis from seed. (In a later blog I will show how to get seeds from kiwis) One method is to place the seeds in the fridge for 4 months to stratify them, then plant them in some peat moss. The other method is the same except the seeds don't need to be placed in the fridge. Two weeks ago my boyfriend, Trevor, and I decided to try both methods. We got 2 kiwis. The seeds from one kiwi went into the fridge while the others were planted in a miniature seed tray greenhouse. We made sure the greenhouse soil was always moist and we sprayed it once a week with fungicide. (The greenhouse is very warm and moist, perfect conditions for fungus to grow)

Today I decided to give the kiwis their weekly fungicide spray and was amazed at how many kiwi seeds had already germinated. None of them have leaves yet, all still have their seeds attached but hopefully by this time next week there will be a tray full of kiwi sprouts.

Introduction

2010-05-11T17:58:00.000-07:00

I have this passion for gardening. Every spring I try to grow some vegetables and I'm always experimenting with new flowers and such.

Now I've decided to experiment with growing trees and bushes from seeds. Usually you would cut off a branch or dig up a sucker and you'd have your own. Well I'm going to experiment with different techniques I've found on the internet and see how they work.