What Would be the Ideal Micro?

[KarenO]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

This thread is making me jealous. I am going to go sow some Aztek. I'm thinking at my market in April, I could get a premium price for nearly-mature plants in 2 gallon pots, $15 or so. At that time of year, the farm store across the street charges $19 for a Big Boy in a 2-gallon pot that is barely blooming...and has been treated with a growth regulator.

people will buy them I think. the little dwarfs are very attractive plants and easily grown on a patio even by a non gardener if already well started
KarenO

[dfollett]

Originally Posted by KarenO

Chose three to grow out. These 3 first up.
Have you noticed variability in the germination time? I noticed between 5 and 28! Days for seeds sown the same day in the same pot. I kept the last puppy dogs tail to germinate and it has just got its first leaves. i will grow it out to to see if it is different in other ways as well.
Seed labelled 11X-F4-6-1 determinate purple cherry.
KarenO

I can’t speak to germination time. The way I have things setup, I do not do anything individually. I do everything en mass. I plant large numbers of seeds and cull very heavily. If there happen to be some just sprouting as I am potting up those that are ready from a flat , they get ignored and tossed. Even with the F4s, I start at least 10-20 seeds for each one I pot up – for the F2s and F3, sometimes 50-100.

It will be interesting to see what the straggler does.

For what it is worth, I’m having some difficulty with the 11X-F4-6-1 finding what I hoped for indoors. They seem to want to stretch out the blossom spray instead of staying really compact like they did outside. The plants are doing well, but not staying as compact as I’d hoped. Nothing ripe yet so I can’t speak to taste of the F4s grown indoors.

[dfollett]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

This thread is making me jealous. I am going to go sow some Aztek. I'm thinking at my market in April, I could get a premium price for nearly-mature plants in 2 gallon pots, $15 or so. At that time of year, the farm store across the street charges $19 for a Big Boy in a 2-gallon pot that is barely blooming...and has been treated with a growth regulator.

I don’t sell plants so it isn’t my area of expertise. However, your question started the wheels spinning. Why wouldn’t there be a market for these micros in pots in full bloom and with some fruits ready to ripen when you sell your normal starts? The ones in the photo below is in a one-gallon pots.

I don’t know if they could be transplanted at that stage, but these could certainly be finished out in the pots. Your customers could enjoy ripe home-grown fruit while they are planting and watching their garden start to grow.

If I can get some of these crosses I have stabilized, I’ll have many different colors and striped varieties that can be fully grown in one-gallon (or smaller) pots. If you have a place to grow some now, I’d be happy to send you seed from some of F3s I really liked to play with - red, pink, yellow or black. That's all I have now, and they are not stable yet.



[oakley]

Originally Posted by KarenO

Here is the slowpoke. Planted the same day. Same pot December 2. Cool room no bottom heat same as the others.

Karen, i seeded a full tray of f4 from Dan, 1, 2 and 8.

2 in each cell and culled to one. Healthy and fast germination. Weeks later i noticed under all that healthy foliage many late germinators. Probably a dozen. I just thought i was getting maybe 80% but seems they just about all came up.

Our babies are identical. I took pics but they seem to be still 'in the clouds'. Have not appeared in my photo file yet.

[oakley]

Originally Posted by KarenO

people will buy them I think. the little dwarfs are very attractive plants and easily grown on a patio even by a non gardener if already well started
KarenO

I agree. As Dan's pics suggest, one gallon pots might be fine. My dwarf sunflowers would also be a good market item. I'm testing 5 plants in two different 1 gallon pots. The rest i just potted up as singles in cups. Slow growing so i need to start earlier for Christmas/NewYears gifting. This Winter is just experimenting keep tract of start dates, etc.

[Cole_Robbie]

I did great with dwarf sunflowers at market last year. I was the only vendor selling them.

[KarenO]

Originally Posted by oakley

Karen, i seeded a full tray of f4 from Dan, 1, 2 and 8.

2 in each cell and culled to one. Healthy and fast germination. Weeks later i noticed under all that healthy foliage many late germinators. Probably a dozen. I just thought i was getting maybe 80% but seems they just about all came up.

Our babies are identical. I took pics but they seem to be still 'in the clouds'. Have not appeared in my photo file yet.

Did you keep any of the slow germinators?
KO

[dfollett]

Originally Posted by oakley

I agree. As Dan's pics suggest, one gallon pots might be fine. My dwarf sunflowers would also be a good market item. I'm testing 5 plants in two different 1 gallon pots. The rest i just potted up as singles in cups. Slow growing so i need to start earlier for Christmas/NewYears gifting. This Winter is just experimenting keep tract of start dates, etc.

How big do your dwarf sunflowers get???

[Cole_Robbie]

Here's a pic of my market table from mother's day of this past year:

[Jimbotomateo]

I'd buy a sunflower for sure. They look healthy Cole.

[Cole_Robbie]

Thanks. I sold them all for $5 each. I want to have a lot more for next year, especially mother's day. I remember having several little girls as customers, which never happens with tomato and pepper plants.

[newgardener_tx]

Those sun flowers are so cute. My daughter will definitely buy them if she sees them.

[tuncse]

Originally Posted by oakley

tuncse, pretty and very healthy. Did you keep track of its age from seed? I have 4 RedRobins just transplanted into 4" pots. 3 are just 4" tall, one is a tiny 2". Awfully slow growing.

..." Any more, I make them show me a blossom before I move them out of the red cup into their final home."

I don't know when I planted them. I have 4 plants too. When the days are sunny they are growing well but if is cloudy or foggy the growth slows down.

[oakley]

They are very sturdy plants. Thick stems. The scent is heavenly.
Brought a tray upstairs for a rare few hours of sunshine. Its been gray and overcast for a month.
The graveyard of culls is tough to accept....

[dfollett]

Originally Posted by KarenO

Chose three to grow out. These 3 first up.
Have you noticed variability in the germination time? I noticed between 5 and 28! Days for seeds sown the same day in the same pot. I kept the last puppy dogs tail to germinate and it has just got its first leaves. i will grow it out to to see if it is different in other ways as well.
Seed labelled 11X-F4-6-1 determinate purple cherry.
KarenO

Doggone you, Karen. Just when I had settled on a process of working through a plug tray in which I planted several hundred seeds in a way I felt was efficient and effective, you toss a monkey wrench into things by asking about the stragglers.....

I've never paid any attention to them or given them any thought. Today, as I was giving a tray its last haircut to get rid of the last of the tall seedlings, I paid attention to, and gave a bit of thought to the stragglers. There were a lot more ot them than I thought there would be. And, most of them were among the shortest of any that had sprouted in that tray.

I'm convinced that there are several different genes that contribute to making a micro. I don't think it is as simple as a plant having 'the 'Dwarf' gene and a second recessive 'micro' gene working together to make it micro.

I think it is usually the 'Dwarf' gene along with a whole bunch of other genes that either contribute to slow growth, or don't contribute to normal growth. That's why there is a continuum of size, rather than any clear differentiation like we see with those that have the Dwarf gene. If that is correct, then it makes sense to me that some of these genes that slow down the normal growth of the plant may well slow down the emergence and growth of the initial seedling.

Perhaps the true 'outliers' on the tiny wing of the plant size curve are among those stragglers. I assume that a good portion of the stragglers are weak seedlings that will never thrive. Until thinking about it today, that is what I assumed they all were and I dismissed them out of hand.

After having given it some thought today, I'm going to give them a serious look-see. I'll give a second chance to those that appear strong and healthy, but just slow growing. That means I won't be able to toss the tray of seedlings when I normally do.

See what you've done. You disrupted my whole schedule. Thanks for the observation and making me think.

What about it, you geneticists out there? Does my logic make any sense or am I about to waste some time?