Just today I picked my hopeful seed pods. I tried cross pollinating American Sweetheart with Sheila Macqueed (a streaker). Problem is there were only two or three flowers on the SMQ in bloom at the same time as the AS and out of about twenty pods, I don't know which ones they were. Never tried anything like this before so don't know what to expect.

Had to leave my NY garden early in mid September. Picked pods from streakers and a few other plants. Wasn’t sure if any of them would be mature enough to germinate. All planted and about half are already up. Al purchased seeds from two growers,10 plants in all. Most are up. Most are op seeds.

We will be waiting for the fruits of your labor next spring!

Sunnywood's Seedlings have been very very good to me! :-)

Oh, I just started mine, nothing is up yet. and I thought I was early... lol

Sunnywood, are you keeping any seedlings for yourself? Everyone says one should have a goal, while hybridizing...

Who has time to start planting seeds? I'm still planting plants! (Well, I have a few to stick in the ground before winter. Maybe still in their pots).

I've collected from Blue Regal and have some on Well Shaked I plan on picking soon. Some others probably won't get ripe this year due to late flowering.

We have a freeze warning tonight. Probably no need to pick them before that right?

hahaha Steve...I just planted my final hoard of plants last Thursday. They were dormant from Hallson so I don't really even know where I planted them, spacing, none of that! It was raining and I just dug and jammed...dug and jammed. I'll make them pretty in the spring. ;)

As for seeds, I finally got my rack setup and my lights came yesterday. hahaha Now to clean a bazillion pods. Lord have mercy.

I'm with Steve---no time to plant seeds because I too am digging in pots for overwintering. We haven't had a freeze yet, but should this week. I'm tired of squirrels digging in my pots! I just want them put to sleep and gone! I hate gardening in the cold!

I was given some seeds---a cross with Blue Lightning (a streaked hosta) and Empress Wu. I will plant them after Christmas and hopefully they will grow.

it takes me a month just to clean them all.

i don't like to start to early or they get too big and overrun my grow space.

it will be tough to decide which to grow.

Those are cute seedlings!

Mine are just poking now. I too got way too many seeds to try. I will start next batch in Jan so my lights do not take lot of space. Just got LED bulbs, and guy from Menards reassured me that it would work with regular shop lights... Should have known... Burned within 20 minutes...

go with the new ones with no ballasts. i also use t8s for heat. more heat and humidity makes for faster growth. but the humidity needs to come up proportionally

Hostamaker, got one new LED shoplight, they still quite pricey. Am hoping as they get more popular price will come down. Have a dozen of regular shop lights which I use to start my veggies as I grow around 1000 seedlings for church/ community garden swap every spring.

A big question- do I get to judge from first leaf if the seedling is going to be streaked or not???

about 450 seeds have germinated, most of them from streakers and their crosses. Waaaa...

maybe couple are streaked. About dozen are gold, and couple have cute frilly edges...

Last year my % of streaked seedling was high and it was obvious right away... Now I do not know if I should just start culling after first two leaves with no streaks?

Generally the first or second leaf will show it. If the eye of the mother plant didn't have streaks the seed won't either. You could wait for 3 leaves to be certain. But then start culling to make way for keepers or the next sowing

I'm over half way thru the cleaning

V

Struggling to take good pics but seedlings are growing.

This yellow in the middle is an eye catcher. Solid, heart shaped, bright and thick .

I have about couple dozen of streaked and couple of dozen gold now.

I am on a third leaf at my earliest tray. Have 6 trays total. Getting ready to pot into individual cups after 4th leaf.

i hope you have already been culling out the plain old green ones .... its easy.. until the roots start getting all tangled together by the 4th leaf stage ...

well.. easy to pull out.. killing your babies might be a bit harder ...

ken

I just starting planting the seeds I have...mostly received from other hybridizers and a few of my own. Planted 27 cups planted last night. I have about 47 packs of seeds! I'm excited to start the growing process again and to see what comes from them.

(also over wintering some cuttings of other plants on the black shelf)

M MW , love your set up! Are you using LED lights?

Ken, this is my oldest tray, I pulled some. Problem am facing am out of light space if I go individual cups. I am getting by with this set up and usually do not bring shelves with lights till about end of Feb.

My living room coffee table. Last tray just started ,seeds from Hostaworks, Doug Beilistein.

Rest of the trays slowly getting culled as they grow and I see potential keepers better. My goal is to get about 100 seedlings and give away some that looks cute but do not make the cut during garden swap we run in spring.

My goal is to get about 100 seedlings

==>>>

the easiest way to cull.. is to have a goal ... and then go after it ruthlessly....

ken

Linda - yup I got these LED lights off of Amazon last year. they seem to work well! I already have quite a.few seeds sprouting just after 5 days. I still have more to start planting tonight! Between being a stay at home mom to 4 kids 5 and under plus being 7 months pregnant, and working part time in the evenings until 9pm or 10pm I dont get a lot of extra time to get them planted right away! Tonight should be a good night though to *hopefully* finish the rest!

Update. Still not sure how many keepers. But some are good.

I just culled most of "busy" trays. Now to grow what what is left.

just getting started here.

I planted my seeds on November 17 2019, and have now 120 streaked seedlings, most still very small. I started with about 500 seeds from my own crosses of pollen from large hostas on established streakers and open pollinated seeds from streakers. I had also about 500 seeds I bought in a Hosta Library auction. So I culled already a lot of greenies, and look now forward to cull further poorly growing plants. I only have 4 seed trays with 18 square pots each, so in a month or so I look towards of having only 4 x 18 = 72 seedlings and in another month only 36 seedlings in 36 pots in 2 trays. And the first week in May they might be outside on the deck.

Growing hosta seedlings is fun, having Spring in our basement when it snows outside.

This one is from Valley Top. The only one worth something. It looks to be blue.

This has subtle white streaking and I like shape and color.

Still struggling to get my pics clear, my tablet is not a good camera friendly.

This one I am watching, yellow is so so but shape wave edge is endearing. Not sure how long I need to keep them to decide yay or nay.

Am at about 400 seedlings now after culling.

looks good. it sure passes the time on a long winter

linda - Wow your seedlings look great!!!

I decided to take a look at this thread again to check on progress....lindalana, you have some nice ones coming. I like this last one you posted because of its red legs and the leaf shape and wave. M MW— where do you find the time??

Late at night haha! It's the relaxing part of my day when I can go through and mist all the little seedlings. My hobbies are what keep me energized each day!