2024 IHF Field Notes

Celosia -- Celosia argentea plumosa -- Chief Mix

 
 
 
 
 

Sown 3/31
Germination 4/3

Germination counts
4/3, 3pm: 3
4/4, 7am: 6
4/4, 1pm: 8
4/5, 7am: 15
4/6, 9am: 17
4/7, 2pm: 21
4/8, 6pm: 23
4/9, 2pm: 34
4/10, 1pm: 43
4/11, 8am: 46
4/12, 3pm: 53
4/13, 9am: 55
4/14, 8am: 58
4/16, 9am: 61

3/30 -- Sowed these into a 72, using Johnny's Germination Mix, 128 total so a bunch of the cells were doubled up. Surface sowed them and then VERY lightly sprinkled some additional mix over the top, per the instructions, to keep the seeds in place. A couple of differences from last year - used the germ mix instead of potting mix because the seeds are so tiny. And I decided to not do any vermiculite, as the type of it I got last year was maybe a bit too chunky? Might have blocked the light needed for germination. Shouldn't be an issue this year, I hope! These ended up on the heat mat set to 75 degrees.

4/5 -- Despite the differences at the start between this year and last year - I'm getting similar germination performance, at least to this point. 16 germinated to this point. The good news is, while that number is terribly unimpressive, it's still better than last year. We're at 16 after five full days in the tray - last year at this same point, we had 6 germinated. And we got a lot more of them from there. So keeping the faith for now on these!

4/14 -- And just like last year - these came on late. Definitely seems to be a thing with Celosia! Week two germination was way stronger than week one. Still a pretty poor rate of germination overall - still below 50%, and I don't think I'm going to get too many more of these at this point, but I have enough of them to be happy.

4/21 -- These are plodding along, very similar to last year, but the numbers continue to increase, which is nice to see. Honestly don't know how many of these will end up being viable at this point, but we'll find out in a few weeks time. I'd say ao over/under of 50 is appropriate.

4/28 -- Moved a few doubles around this week, ended up with a seedling count of 54. Not necessarily expecting all of these to make it, some of them were pretty small, but wanted to get to one per cell here for the stretch run.

5/11 -- These are growing well, I don't feel they're ready for planting out yet but they're getting bigger.