Videos and seed ordering

I had knee surgery Dec. 1 and for the first few weeks while mostly confined to a chair in front of the TV, I immersed myself in gardening videos on YouTube and gardening web sites. I'm now up to 12 subscribed YouTube channels and have decided they fall into two broad categories: Experts covering specific topics with each video, and enthusiasts showing you what they are doing day-to-day.

On one hand there is Robert Pavlis (Ontario), who has Garden Fundamentals on YouTube, the web site gardenmyths.com, and several books on gardening in general and soil science in particular. He skewers many popular beliefs, such as "The myth of organic fertilizer." He explains the differences between synthetic (fast-acting) and organic fertilizer (slow release), but "The nutrients produced by both synthetic and organic fertilizer are exactly the same." If you disagree, send emails to him, not me.

At the other end of the spectrum may be Laura LeBoutillier (eastern Oregon) on Garden Answer. Although she is very knowledgeable (I'm going to go back and rewatch one of her videos when it comes time to plant strawberries), she pumps out videos every day or two. Not each one is chock full of technical information. Recent ones are more about holiday decorating than gardening.

Three of the channels are affiliated with Epic Gardening (San Diego), and I've watched dozens of videos from them. Although Kevin Espiritu and Jacques Lyakov have lots of information-rich videos, they also have many episodes that are "Here is what we are doing today." The channels serve as a marketing device for their online store. I actually ordered some seeds and grow bags from them, so I guess it works.

The last one I will mention is Up North Garden w/Corey, Corey Taratuta (Michigan). Most of his videos that I watch relate to petunias, specifically Proven Winners Supertunias and their competitors. Based on his review of online retailers, I actually decided to pre-order my Supertunias from Garden Crossings, also in Michigan.

I have already ordered most of the seeds and plants I'm going to need for spring. If I need anything else, I will try to find it locally. I went with four online retailers for various reasons:

• The Seed Plant has the cheapest prices that I can find for basic vegetable and herb seeds, less than $2 per packet and free postage. Seeds I have ordered from them include Waltham Broccoli, Imperator Carrots, Red Detroit Beets, Scarlet Globe Radishes, Italian Parsley, Evergreen Bunching Onion, Borage, and Boquet Dill. The first five were received and planted months ago, and the last three I received today. The only problem I see with them is limited selection compared to a behemoth like Burpee.
• I looked at fashionable sites like Johnny's Seeds, but I wondered if their products were worth the premium prices compared to a mass retailer like Burpee. So from Burpee I ordered Triple Treat Marigold, Double Dwarf Jewel Mix Nasturtium, Thumbelina Mix Zinnia, Royal Carpet Alyssum, Sweet Success Hybrid Cucumber, Monteverde Late Flowering Basil, Albion Strawberry (25 bare roots), and Montana Strawberry (1 plant). I received the seeds a few days ago and the strawberries will be delivered in April. I decided to sprout some of the zinnia, marigold and basil seeds, and already one of the marigolds is up after only two days. However, the basil envelope was completely empty, so Burpee is sending me another packet, hopefully one with seeds this time. I had to pay shipping of $17.90, but found a coupon code for $22.08 to offset it.
• The Epic Gardening 15-gallon lined grow bags were out of stock on Amazon, so I decided to order direct from the company. I ordered a few seeds at the same time: Wild Bergamot (Bee Balm), Teddy Bear Dwarf Sunflower, and Sweet Bell Blend Pepper. They also threw in a free packet of Lettuce Mesclun, a mixture of various types. I had to pay shipping of $9.99, which was partially offset by a coupon for $5.13.
• And finally, I ordered four pots of Proven Winners combinations from Garden Crossings, three plants each. The "Above and Beyond" combo includes three Supertunia Vistas: Bubblegum (the most popular Supertunia variety), Silverberry, and Fuchsia. "Beach Sunset" includes Supertunia Honey, Superbells (Calibrachoa) Coralina, and Superbena (Verbena) Peachy Keen. "Decadent" includes Supertunia Royal Velvet, Supertunia Latte, and Superbells Pomegranate Punch. "Moonlit Lavender" consists of Supertunia Hoopla Vivid Orchid, Supertunia Mini Vista White, and Superbena Violet Ice.
   
  Maybe it would have been cheaper to find Supertunias in the spring in the garden centers. Many of them, even the big box stores, do carry Proven Winners, but I doubt that their selection this spring will include everything I wanted. I selected these combos in part to make sure I got the Bubblegum, Royal Velvet and Latte. I will be testing my propogation skills. Delivery is May 11 based on my zone. I thought about getting an earlier delivery date, but then the shipment wouldn't come with the 30-day guarantee. I figure the pots will be growing in their greenhouse all that time so hopefully I'm not losing anything. I'm hoping these three-plant pots don't require much preparation to be planted into a hanging basket. Feb. 1: I got the larger quart pots and added some Sempervivums to the order to get free shipping. The flower order works out to $8.66 per plant.

In the spirit of the "Here is what I'm doing today" videos, I repotted what had become a Siamese triplet of rosemary. I planted seeds in a 4-inch pot Sept. 28, and four sprouted closely together. I took one out of the little pot a while ago, and the remaining three kept growing. Today I separated the three, rather roughly as it turned out, and gave them their own 4-inch pots. Here is one of them. I will find out how rough you can be with rosemary seedlings because after separating them, I ended up with mostly bare roots going into the new soil. I wanted six rosemary plants so I could plant some outside next summer, and if the seedlings survive this replanting trauma I will have seven in individual pots.

Due to my temporary infirmity, I have had plenty of time to plan. I'll continue trying to sprout herbs (thyme, basil) in the heated garage the next few months. Peppers and some others need to be started in the garage in early March. Using the mini and the heat mats, I anticipate starting most of the rest of the seeds in the greenhouse around April 1, at which time I will turn the heat back on at 32-35 just to keep everything from freezing. When I receive the strawberries and the Proven Winners around the end of April, I'll crank the heat up to 50 and get the baskets planted. Around May 1, I'll put the remaining strawberries and various direct-sow seeds (carrots, cilantro, dill, lettuce, flowers) into the greenhouse planters, and pot up/plant tomatoes, peppers and whatever else. Just about everything in baskets, pots and grow bags will have to remain in the greenhouse until June, so it will get crowded in there. In June, I'll move most of them outside (with cages), and plant the barrel and window boxes mostly with transplants of bergamot/bee balm, mint, dill, rosemary and other stinky herbs that are supposed to keep the deer away. I will probably have to keep the heat on standby at 45-50 degrees until about June 20, based on historical records. Such is life in the high country.

Petunia Autopsy

I took petunia cuttings Oct. 24 and Nov. 11 and have been caring for them in the garage ever since. There was no indication that they were quickly dying, and some of them put out flowers. But they were not thriving. I took one more cutting Nov. 15, this time using rooting hormone. Over the past month, this one surpassed the others, with greener leaves and a bloom. After a few weeks, roots were visible in the semi-transparent plastic cup, unlike the other cuttings.

Today I decided to take a look at one of the original cuttings to see if it had rooted. No, it had not. There is still some green in the leaves and stem, but this cutting never sent out roots.

That decided the fate of the other seven cuttings that had not been treated with the rooting hormone. They were discarded to make room for a larger pot for the treated cutting. The first image is the roots of the treated cutting. The next image shows the original petunia pot (#1), which has bushed out several inches since it got a haircut a month ago, and the rooted cutting (#2) in its new pot.

This new pot will live in the heated garage for the winter, but I did plant something in the unheated greenhouse today. I ordered a cheap mini-greenhouse (27.5x19x63 inches) to reside inside the big greenhouse to provide an even more sheltered environment for seed starting in the spring. I tested some arugula seeds for viability on Nov. 15, and to my surprise some of them sprouted within three days. I didn't know what to do with them, so today I planted them in a tray and put them on a heat mat inside the mini-greenhouse. I'm interested in seeing how much (if any) the heat mat raises the temperature inside the mini. My concern is that on a sunny winter day, the mini will heat up even more than the greenhouse and fry whatever is inside. The fan has kicked in several times the past week. The greenhouse temperature reached 87 on Dec. 15 when the outside temperature was 61. Yes, December 15th.

I left the watering can inside the mini, theorizing that it may help with humidity and heat retention. The front flap rolls down, sealing the heat and humidity inside and keeping any pests outside. That's the plan anyway. I put the arugula on a low shelf only because the heat mat cord isn't very long.

Update Dec. 20: It got down to 11 degrees outside last night, 21 degrees inside the unheated greenhouse, and 26 in the mini. The arugula is right on the heat mat and the thermometer is a foot above it, so the arugula didn't get frosted. We'll see what happens if it gets really cold. All of the water in the tray disappeared, so with the heat underneath it I'll probably have to fill that every few days. Today as I was emptying dead petunia cups, I looked at the other eight cuttings on which I did not use rooting hormone. None of them rooted. Without hormone: 0-for-9. With hormone: 1-for-1. Small sample size, but I'm convinced. Dec. 22: The plastic cover over the mini was fogged up today, so there is humidity trapped in there. (40 degrees and raining outside.) I added an extension cord and moved the tray to the top shelf, where it will get some light during the day when it is sunny (which today it was not). I brought my infrared thermometer to get a reading off the heat mat, and it was 70-72 degrees, which is at the lower end of its 70-85 specification. The arugula is alive, but is not bursting out of the tray. As I say so often when it comes to the greenhouse, "We'll see what happens." Dec. 29: He's dead, Jim. The arugula is frost damaged so I'm ending that experiment. It got down to 23 degrees inside the mini a couple nights ago. Even though that was 15 degrees warmer than the rest of the greenhouse and 30 degrees warmer than outside, and even though it was on a heat mat, it was not enough to prevent the arugula from getting slammed.

I picked a few carrots (which look good) and beets (which do not).

And finally, we have a broccoli head. It's only about an inch across, but it is there. The coldest it has gotten inside the greenhouse was 16 on Dec. 1 (outside -1). This plant is not exploding with growth, but it is slowly plugging away. I'm guessing if we get a week of sub-zero, that will put an end to it.

Mint

I've been told umpteen times that mint will take over, so it needs to be planted in a pot to confine it. I've sprouted some peppermint and potted up a few. This is the most robust one and it is already sending out runners.