Followup to my first post ...

Most of my novice gardening ideas seem to be working OK regarding this backyard nursery, except that I've learned that the 'green' soda bottle tops should not be used to create green house bottles because they apparently shut out too much sunlight. I've noted that a couple seedlings died under the green tops, but not the clear tops.

Be advised ...

Bear, it looks like you are having lots of fun! I love trying to grow plants from cuttings. My son and I put up a small greenhouse this spring. Last summer he built a mist system and we had some good success with cuttings. I'm eager to try lots more this summer.
VG

Building a greenhouse is a bit beyond me, but I did just order the Aerogarden, that hydroponic system meant for growing herbs on the kitchen counter. It has a Master Gardener Kit which I intend to use as a seed starter. I've seen that some seeds I tried, Heliconias especially, seem to be stubborn and hard to germinate. I hope to have better luck with this hydroponic system.

A greenhouse would be nice though, as the heat here in BKF heats that concrete in my patio and I've noted tends to distress some of my sapplings, some to the point of withering and dying, even though well watered. That was unexpected.

Good Luck with your ventures.

Wow, I'm impressed. Thanks for the great ideas! It would be great to keep this thread alive and for you to post pix every couple weeks to see the plants' progress from this stage to when they are established in your garden. Very cool project.

I seem to be learning something new every day. Bakersfield is indeed hot and sunny most of the time. We're basically a desert here.

I've recently noted that the concrete of the patio absorbs heat, heats the plants and is in effect responsible for withering some of my saplings and preventing germination of some seeds. That happens even with the window screen coverings blocking some of the sunlight. It's like you need to mist constantly to lower the temperatures, but I can't do that right now.

I moved all the seed starter cups into shade and to my delight, some of them started sprouting within a day after the move. Just getting them into the lower temps of shade turned them on!

You've got to be observant when you start planting seeds and especially with variety. Read up what others on the web have written about propogation of particular seeds on the web. It helps.

If I showed you another picture today, everything except for established seedlings has been moved into shade along the fences, building and between those climbing rose bushes and remarkably, with better results. My Canna x Generalis seeds responded almost immediately after being moved to shade and before that, I just could not get them to germinate, even though other people seem to be saying that they are easy to germinate.

I've read some stuff about certain seeds, for example, Cyclamen seeds, where the author of the article describes placing the seed starting medium in dark containers under stair steps in deep shadows to get them to germinate before bringing them out into the sun. And Cyclamen are not mushrooms! Go figure?

How interesting about the cyclamen seeds! Also interesting about moving the seed pots to the shade. I suppose you've seen Tom Clothier's germiniation database? Lots of good information. I can't remember the web site but you could google his name, etc if you haven't already found it.

We have several things germinating in our greenhouse. We had trouble with our soil warming cable. Had to send it back and wait for a replacement and then the replacement didn't work! But by the time we figured that out, we had already planted all our seeds. We can send it back for another replacement within two years, so we're ok with that. Now the issue is keeping the soil cool! My delphiniums will probably not germinate in the warm soil now. Live and learn I guess.

Happy gardening,
VG

One good deep shade idea that I gleened from conversations in the California Gardening Forum, is the concept of 'shade cloth'. I only just now rigged some of this stuff ( as best I could in a hurry up mode ) to try and save my little nursery from 100 degree temps disaster.

Shade cloth from Home Depot comes in rolls for about $10.xx for one roll and is actually burlap material. What you see in the following photo is about how far one roll will go ...

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I've used a satellite TV mounting tripod with a broom handle as a horizontal tie-down and support on the free end and the roof eaves at the other.

Here's a side view ...

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And here's from underneath ...

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It doesn't look pretty, but it does create goodly shade while letting some sunlight through. I was desperate to do something to solve this heat problem on my patio. My poor scorched young plants are underneath and I don't know if I can save some of them. The window screening material did not work well enough to provide shade, but helped. It better serves to keep birds out and away from seeds.

Here are some of my hardy Medjool Date Palms in the shade of an existing ornamental tree and a potato bushe's long leafed branches ...

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Also in shade of an overshadowing tree are my Cassia Alata seedlings ...

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Some shade you must build and some comes naturally.

You have a great idea going on here. Learning from experience of mistakes helps too. YOu are courageous in keeping on in the face of problems.
Are these for your personal use, to give, or do you plan to sell?
If planning to sell, you need to check to see if the plants are patented or copyrighted. I just posted in the propagation forum for a list of "public domain plants" that anyone can propagate and sell w/out endangering themselves in legal problems.

Vangy likes to play in the dirt

The stuff growing in this nursery are for the property only.

I wouldn't have thought that someone could patent a plant, until I noticed that 'Canna Tropicanna' is sold through 'Authorized' distributors of its creator.

An interesting thing to be aware of.