Tunia Update

I watch too many YouTube videos. I see these garden influencers, or whatever they are called on YouTube, telling me that I need to get things started in January or IT WILL BE TOO LATE! Considering our official last frost date is June 20, it seems a bit alarmist.

But my date for planting in the greenhouse (with heat) is 6-10 weeks before that, so I have been starting a few things. I've been trying to get multiple pots of peppermint, rosemary, thyme and parsley started ever since mid-October because I want some now for houseplants in addition to some in the greenhouse next summer. The mint and rosemary are doing great. The thyme has one good plant (started Sept. 28) and one recent sprout that is still very tiny even though it came up almost three weeks ago. I have four parsley plants that are growing pretty well, but have been battling aphids. I've been spraying like crazy with soap, which takes care of them for a few days, but the few that survive start multiplying and I have to do it again. Fortunately none of the other plants seem to be hit with aphids. (Jan. 23: Ach! Aphids on some of the rosemary.)

I already have many of my seeds for next year. I planted three marigold and three zinnia in cells on Christmas Eve, and they started coming up just four days later. Some of them might be ready to move to 4-inch pots in a few days. I started three basil pots and one bee balm pot (with three seeds) two days ago and of course haven't seen anything yet. These are experimental starts, just so I have some idea what to expect when I do most of the seeding in March-April.

And then there are the petunias. As mentioned in the last post, Supertunias comprise the bulk of my order from Garden Crossings, and they are supposed to arrive in late April. But I've still got a pot of petunias that I didn't want to abandon to the cold in November because that was as good as it had looked all year. I gave it a trim and put it in my garage under a grow light. In the past two months, it has doubled in size and is flowering again. As mentioned in another previous post, I planted a cutting treated with rooting hormone Nov. 15. This is what it looks like today.

We have two south-facing garage windows, and I installed a shelf in front of one of them to manage the space more efficiently. It is working well enough that I have ordered another one for the second window. When I get that, I plan to move the main petunia pot to the window to get natural light all day, and I will move the cutting to the grow light location inside the very crowded closet. Here is a picture of the main pot, which I believe has three plants in it. As I said, it is probably twice as big as it was two months ago, and it needs a trim.

And finally, here is another cutting taken just eight days ago. It looks healthy. Based on the success of the last two cuttings I did which were treated with the rooting hormone (unlike the untreated nine failures), I feel confident in taking cuttings from the Tunias when they arrive.

This petunia is some sort of purple-veined, but I don't know what brand, if any. I bought a flat last spring, maybe at Home Depot, and stuck them in 14-inch baskets along with a few marigolds on our back patio. I thought I watered them often enough, but I never fertilized. When I got the greenhouse in late July, I decided to rescue the rough-looking petunias from the baskets and stick them in a big pot. They did pretty well, and when I started fertilizing them in October they really took off. I'm going to put the Supertunias in larger baskets, 16-inch, so hopefully I'll be able to get them to prosper. I'll find a place for a few of the legacy purple-veined petunias; where, I do not know.

Jan. 14: I received the new shelves and moved the big petunia pot to the window. This thing is huge. The #2 pot now gets the grow light.

Jan. 19: I gave the big petunia pot a spin and found this on the side that had been facing the sun. In the spots where there are no flowers, there are buds. I'm certain now that this petunia will not trail if I put it in a basket, so I have no plans to cancel my Supertunia order, but it does make quite a mound. I haven't fertilized lately and won't until April at the earliest. First, it needs a haircut.

My most recent petunia cutting treated with root hormone is giving me a bad feeling. It is developing a flower but the leaves seem a bit limp. I'll give it a few more weeks before taking it out of the pot to see if it has roots. The good news is if I want more cuttings, the big pot can supply hundreds.