Polyembronic Mandarin Seedlings

When a seed sends out its first shoot and it rises above the soil level, germination is over and seedling development has begun. This is a particularly vulnerable time for the plant – it is running out of stored resources and needs to start collecting its own food. In this period of rapid growth it is also particularly at risk from pests and diseases.

Ideally you should check on your seedlings every day, to make sure that they have enough water and are growing well. Regular attention makes it easier to spot problems while they are minor and still easy to correct; issues that have remained undetected for a few days may well be easier to spot, and most will still be correctable.

Emma the Space Gardener is back with a round-up of recent space gardening news. Exciting stuff has been happening on the ISS, where green-fingered space gardener Mike Hopkins has been pricking out seedlings and harvesting crops from Veggie.

The pre-Columbian Indians of the Andes domesticated more starchy root crops than any other culture, but only the potato caught on as a staple worldwide.“The others have seldom been tried outside South America, yet they are still found in the Andes and represent some of the most interesting of all root crops.…” said a 1989 report called “Lost Crops of the Incas: Little-Known Plants of the Andes with Promise for Worldwide Cultivation” from the National Research Council.“They come in myriad colors, shapes, and sizes,” the report added. “T

The evolving rainbow of peas at Peace Seedlings—with more colors to come—got its start with decades of breeding by Alan Kapuler, Dylana’s father, a longtime public-domain plant breeder and the founder of Peace Seeds.(More on him, and on some of the other combined Kapuler treasures, from marigolds and zinnias to edible Andean tubers like oca and yacon, to a rainbow of beautiful beets, is at the end of this story.)“We’re doing a lot of crosses and selecting ourselves now, too,” says Dylana of the work she and partner Mario DiBenedetto continue in collaboration with Alan and his wife, Linda, in Corvallis, Orego

No surprise that Corvallis, Oregon-based Peace Seedlings is an offshoot of his work, the undertaking of Alan and Linda Kapuler’s youngest daughter, Dylana, and her partner, Mario DiBenedetto.I got my new-favorite beet, 3 Root Grex, from Peace last season; you might recall my article about that multi-colored wonder. Now

IGOT SHUT OUT IN 2011 after I read about the beet called 3 Root Grex in the Fedco Seed catalog and added the item to my list too late—sold out! The next year I made sure to order fast, but in the meantime I’d dreamed of the beet—or shall I say beets, since it’s a group of three colors from the same parents—craving it more because of the delay in satisfaction.

I BOUGHT A PACKET of ‘Sugar Magnolia’ from Oregon-based Peace Seedlings a few months back, just one of what the company calls it many “woddities” (as in wonderful oddities). The first purple-podded snap pea to be introduced is the result of 15 years of breeding by Dr. Alan Kapuler, father to one of the Peace Seedlings proprietors. This is a vigorous grower—to about 8 feet—and has beautiful purple flowers, too.  The pods are tasty; sweet enough, if not the sweetest of all, maybe, but so stunning in a salad, in particular, that I am hooked.  I expect this variety will continue to evolve under Kapuler’s watchful eye, and I’ll be watching, too. (My recent interview with Peace Seedlings.)a big, sweet snow pea, ‘schweizer riesen’IF I COULD ONLY GROW one pea (perish that thought!) I suspect it would be ‘Schweizer Riesen,’ a Swiss heirloom snow pea that produces oversized green peas (above) on vigorous, tall, purple-flowered vines (below). I’ve never been much of a snow-pea person, but this one changed me, when I was introduced to it a couple of years ago by the biodynamic seed company called Turtle Tree Seed, whe

MAYBE YOU’RE WONDERING this about now: Why do vegetable seedlings stretch and grow spindly sometimes, and how can you prevent such leggy seedlings? That was how I began a note to Dr. Thomas Bjorkman, Professor of Crop Physiology at Cornell, seeking an answer to a question I’m asked a lot.

I’ve rounded up some of the best to tackle in the monthly Q&A segment with help from my friend Ken Druse. Ken, an award-winning garden photographer and author of more books than I can count, including “The New Shade Garden” and “Making More Plants,” produced his own “Real Dirt” podcast for 10 years, all available on KenDruse dot com (and still available on iTunes, too).Read along as you listen to the March 6, 2107 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here). This is the second segment of the March Q&A program—find the first

Ok Folks! Here they are as promised!I used the top portion of the 3 liter soda bottles that I had left over from when I made the hanging planters last week.I knew they would come in handy for something.I got my inspiration from a teacher on hometalk that had her students grow carrots in 3 liter soda bottles.Last year I made the mistake of trying to grow my lettuce seedlings inside my house and my 20 lb cat decided to walk right through them and smooshed them all.Live and Learn!I have very limited sunshine in my yard because we have a lot of mature trees.These seedling rain chains will allow me to move them around the yard to follow the sun.I'm not a serious gardener but I do like to watch things grow.Plants are like our babies after all!This is an experiment.My husband wants to use them to grow strawberries but I already planted the strawberry plants somewhere else.I know that the pics are hard to see but tomorrow I will have the dirt and the seeds in the holders and I promise to take more pics so you can get a better idea of what I am trying to do.Hopefully I will have some carrot seedlings soon that I can transplant.This was extremely easy.Children would get a big kick out of doing this.I'm channeling my inner child! Ok. Not sure if this is the place to post instructions but I will give it a try.

Seedlings can be quite delicate and vulnerable to changes in their environment. Just like toddlers, they need to be carefully tended to in order to grow up strong and healthy. So, if you are worried about – How to Fix Yellow Leaves on Seedlings, then don’t be! We have the solutions for you!