Remember those cyclamen seedlings grown from the seed collected from my indoor plants? If not read here.
Well the moment came on Saturday when I decided that I really had to take action. The seedlings were starting to become leggy and the seeds in the second pot were also germinating like cress.
The seedlings had to be pricked out so now came the moment of truth - how many seedlings would I keep? The individual seedlings each had a tiny immature corm.
I decided that once pricked out the seedlings would be popped under our indoor light garden. With that in mind I decided to prick out a half tray from each pot of seedlings. This would give me 12 of each sowing.
So did I stop there - what do you think - of course I didn't. There were still lots of healthy looking seedlings and so I pricked out another dozen of each into a full size seed tray which will be kept inside a propagator in the garden greenhouse. The smaller seedlings are from the second sowing.
There's no heating to the propagator - it is basically just a large tray with a plastic domed lid but it should provide a little added protection. I don't know how the seedlings in the greenhouse will cope with the cooler conditions - time will tell and either way I will learn something.
In the end I pricked out just about all of the seedlings - you knew I would didn't you?
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I knew you wouldn't resist. Hope they all do well for you, though goodness knows where you'll put them all if they do.
ReplyDeleteI wish goodness woul let me in on the secret, Jo.
DeleteThis tale has a familiar ring to it - just what I'd as well!
ReplyDeleteIf our dog had puppies I'd have to keep all of them too.
DeleteWe once ended up with a couple of zebra finches - one flew into our garden so we had to buy it a friend. We were told in a small cage in the house they wouldn't breed. They did and in the first year we ended up with 12 birds. Did we give some away - no we bought a large cage, After that we had to remove any eggs as most of the birds were now brothers and sisters.
By rescuing one bird we ended up with birds to look after for years.
Wow. That's a lot of seedlings and the corms are so beautiful, like beads. I hope they all survive and grow, and maybe you have a large bed of just cyclamens - like a field. Okay, my imagination just went wild! :)
ReplyDeleteThe trouble is that they are for house plants Tina!
DeleteI didn't know that it is possible to propagate a cyclamen from seeds! I only know how to divide the bulb. Your seedlings are awesome! I must try some day when I get some seeds :)
ReplyDeleteWhen I bought the seeds, Dewberry I expected growing them would be more difficult but when the collected seeds germinated I was amazed. I'm not sure whether they will be true to the original plants or not - we will see.
DeleteSue, I hope you will show us these plants in a month or two. I'm very curious about them. It would be nice if they had different colours than the mother plant; you would get lots of various flowers to look at :)
ReplyDeleteI'll definitely keep you updated, Dewberry
DeleteThat's handful of them! Soon we will see your grown up plant!
ReplyDeleteMaybe not that soon Malar
DeleteHah! Knew it, you are as bad as I am. I always promise myself that I will be brutal and only prick out what I know I need, and then this little voice starts whispering, but what if some of them die, and hey, don't they all deserve a chance? Which is why my greenhouse always gets full to overflowing by May. Do you think there is a self help group for hopeless cases like us?!
ReplyDeleteI think we are maybe beyond self help, janet
DeleteWow..those seedlings are looking really healthy Sue..have you decided what you will do with them all yet??
ReplyDeleteI haven't Tanya - in fact I'm writing another update now to be published next week.
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