2023 Field Notes

 
 
 
 
 

Sown 4/2
Germination 4/5 (3 days)

Germination counts
4/5, 4pm: 1/19 (20)
4/6, 7am: 2/35 (37)
4/6, 2pm: 4/55 (59)
4/7, 7am: 5/72 (77)
4/7, 6pm: 5/77 (82)
4/8, 8am: 7/87 (94)
4/8, 6pm: 8/92 (100)
4/9, 8am: 8/96 (104)
4/10, 9pm: 8/99 (107)
4/11, 8pm: 8/100 (108)
4/12, 6pm: 10/101 (111)
Final Count After Thinning: 79

Split germination numbers above are for tray 1 (12 seeds) and tray 2 (full tray, double seeds 144)

4/4 -- Sown into a 72. Used potting mix, covered seeds with 1/8" mix as per instructions. Did use up two additional rows on the second Aster tray since I had the space. These seeds were interesting - slightly clingy to each other, which didn't present any problems but was curious. I ordered 250 of these seeds so I was also able to do two per cell easily here. Bottom watered immediately and will keep bottom watering as needed.

4/6 -- Germination! Spotted 20+ of these this afternoon, in both trays. They're red and quite nice looking. Seem to have mostly germinated at the edges of the trays at the outset.

4/9 -- The full tray of these is doing quite well, coming up to 100 germinated so far (out of 144 total seeds).

4/11 -- Officially hit 100 today. Since I did two per cell, germination rate on the main tray so far is 100/144 for 69%. If you include the space on the other tray, it's 108/156, same percentage. I have plenty of these, that's for sure.

4/15 -- These seem to be done germinating and look just fine. 111/156 germination for 72%.

4/24 -- Big thinning effort with these yesterday - pulled 37 out of the primary tray to give the biggest and best seedlings room to roam. That leaves me with 68 total in the full 72, and 11 more in the tray shared with Aster.

4/30 -- Boring update! No issues here, everything is growing nicely.

5/22 -- Transplanted 50 of these into a 4x8 bed, using 9 inch grid spacing. This is actually a touch further apart than the Johnny's recommendation of 6-8 inch spacing. These took to the transplant well. Watered then in with the high phosphorus fertilizer.

5/26 -- One (and just one) of these went missing sometime this week. Noticed it yesterday and replaced the plant. Thought I might have missed a spot (I have been planting a LOT of plants) but I found roots! I hope whatever ate that plant did not enjoy the experience.

5/28 -- Another single one of these went missing again yesterday - replaced it once again. It was in the same general area of the first missing seedling. Interesting...

5/30 -- Another one! This time it was cut at the base, the top of the plant left dead right next to the stem. I don't get it! I'm running low on substitutes, because I planted another 12 of these in an open spot in one of my rows to finish off the row yesterday.

6/4 -- Two more of these nipped by something, this time amongst the 12 extras I planted. I did somehow still have two substitutes. The ones in the bed haven't been touched for a few days, so that's good.

6/13 -- A couple more of these have gotten nibbled and replaced, but on the whole that has calmed down. And just today, I noticed the first flower on one of these! Hopefully the first of many to come.

6/25 -- Lots of these have a flower or two on them now, in a variety of colors. Pretty small, though, and the plants aren't growing as well as everything else. We'll see if what is on them are starter flowers (like a lot of the other plants have) or an issue.

7/2 -- These look OK on the whole. Plants have started getting a little bigger but these are definitely a slight disappointment to this point in the season. Flowers on most but they're pretty small. We'll see if things get more interesting.

8/5 -- One month later, I would definitely not classify these as a disappointment. The bed they are in might be my favorite one in the garden - absolutely full of these plants, tons of flowers, it looks really cool and the bees seem to love them too. I will say, they're tricky as a cut flower - I feel like I would need a LOT of them to make an impact on any arrangement. But for what they are for me this year, a full bed of color, they work very well.

8/25 -- Still going strong here, nothing interesting to report!

9/2 -- Same update here, still going strong, no signs of these slowing down or fading out.