Started too early ï¿½ what to nip?

15 years ago

By now I am sure that I have started some flowers too early and they started to bloom. I know that I can nip trailing snapdragon but what about regular snapdragon and other plants like zinnia? I have posted update on my seedling on my blog. What started as a small innocent seedling tray is fast becoming a real jungle. Can you look at pictures and tell me what to nip and how far down?

This growing flowers from seeds is more complicated then I thought!

http://tillsonburgarian.blogspot.com/

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Comments (4)

keriann_lakegeneva
15 years ago
I would not pinch back snapdragons, in my experience this really dampened the growth and re-flowering.

Zinnias- pinch away. You can pinch anything after the 3-4 set of leaves. Once these produce lateral branching, you can pinch those too. Just dont take off to much at one time, let it heal and start putting on growth before you pinch again. Looking at your pictures, I would pinch off the top inch of each. I would also direct sow more seeds in your garden. The zinnias you started so early may fizzle out by late summer. So direct sowing some will help prolong your season.

Keriann~
Started_with_bean
15 years ago
Cool Blog! Made me envious and hungry at the same time. Those flowers look great; there are worse problems to have! The wings looked delicious! Looks like your seedlings are enjoying their time in the sunroom.

From past experience starting tomatoes inside, those will get big very quickly, but that's okay. Just cut off the bottom leaves and plant those below the soil line when it's time. I second Keriann's suggestion with the zinnias. For the lobelias, let them flower and enjoy, but after that first flush, give them a haircut, just not right before or after you set them in their permanent home.

Seeing all those flowers makes you antsy for spring, I bet!
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Jerry71
Original Author
15 years ago
We have 24 days till official last frost day Ã¯Â¿Â½ April 25. That is a long way to go.
OK, so I will pinch zinnias, BYSV and trailing snapdragon. The regular snapdragon doesnÃ¯Â¿Â½t like pinching? Maybe I better contact JohnnyÃ¯Â¿Â½s seeds where I bought the seeds from. This hybrid is Rocket and I wonder, since it is hybrid, what sort of features thy bread into it. It might branch if pinched, I just donÃ¯Â¿Â½t know. I will contact them and I will post the answer. Thanks for the tips. I will sow seed directly and if I have enough I may start the snapdragons in cells again. IÃ¯Â¿Â½m so glad I have whole timeline on my blog for next year reference!
Thanks for the compliment, started_with_bean. Yeah, the wings were incredible, just like a candy and perfect with the beer!

Here is a link that might be useful: Plants and the wings
keriann_lakegeneva
15 years ago
You can pinch yoru regular snaps, they just take a lot longer to recover.

I would try it with a few and then leave a few.. a great experiment! you can see how long it takes for it to start putting on some lateral growth. It may be only 2 weeks, bit it may be up to 4 -6 weeks and that would not be fun.

Keriann~