Shortia

[johnw]

John, do you mean animal manure as in cow? horse? (I note the "well rotted") or do you mean compost?
[/quote]

Leslie - Either horse (preferred) or cow whatever I can get. Never the bagged garden centre variety which, here, never contains manure despite the labelling.  Well-rotted (crumbly black) is merely a dream most of the time, I have yet to burn them though.

For instance the small galacifolia shown would get 1/2 to 1 cup of manure, sometimes with a tad of superphosphate (never treble superphosphate) mixed in - the worms do the rest.

johnw

[johnw]

A good, strong pink flowered S. uniflora seedling which I haven't been able to photograph correctly in its position. The true colour is quite a bit darker, more like the out of focus shot of one bud,  attached.

johnw  - +11c

[WimB]

Here are the same seedlings one month later (see my posting in this topic of the 20th of april),

it looks as if they enjoy themselves:
 
1) Shortia uniflora
2) Schizocodon soldanelloides var. magnus
3) Schizocodon illicifolius

Greetings

Wim

[Maggi Young]

These seedlings are looking very good, Wim 

[Diane Whitehead]

Thank you.  It is very helpful to see what the seedlings
look like.

[WimB]

Hello,

I have another question:

when should I transplant my seedlings (see pictures taken today).

The plants are:

1) Schizocodon illicifolius (biggest seedling: 0,5 cm diameter)
2) Shortia uniflora (biggest seedling: 1,3 cm diameter)
3) Schizocodon soldanelloides var. magnus (biggest seedling: 1 cm)

[johnw]

Wim - You're doing marvellously with those Shortias! What's your mix?

Those in the middle photograph look as if they are ready to be transplanted but you could wait till autumn. I always wait for a week or more of cloudy, overcast weather and ALWAYS cover the flats with a dome with a tiny bit of ventilation opened very gradually. Having said that you your seedlings look so vigorous I am probably not the one to be giving advice.

My disasters usually come when the dome are removed completely.

johnw

[WimB]

Thanks for the info John,

they are still in their original seeding mix: 1/2 rhinezand & 1/2 peat in a stone pot without holes. I took the cover off a couple of weeks ago while it was constantly raining here and the air humidity was over 70 %.
Or maybe they love it here because I talk to them every day 

Now it's very sunny and windy. So I'm going to take your advice and wait until it gets more cloudy and wetter.

Wim

[WimB]

To follow up on this topic.

All the Shortia I sowed in 2008 died  after transplanting them. Since I'm quite stubborn when it comes to plants  I tried again with seeds in 2009. The picture here shows seedlings which were transplanted last year, in summer. They seem to be doing well, I've got Shortia illicifolius, Shortia soldanelloides and Shortia soldanelloides var. magnus. I'll give them another year before I transplant them to the garden.

[fleurbleue]

Very sad news Wim  They are so lovely... and your seedlings seemed so strong

[WimB]

Very sad news Wim   They are so lovely... and your seedlings seemed so strong

Nicole,
the ones in the last picture are still alive. It were the seedlings which were photographed earlier in this thread which died. The ones the last picture were sown a year later.

[johnw]

Wim - Great looking seedlings!  We too have lost alot when transplanting young ones.  Now I wait until they are at least 1-1.5cm across before transplanting and then put them back under a humidity dome for several months, then gradaully raise the dome over several weeks.  I think our mix with all the grit may be a problem - but it keeps them alive in the early stages - as the rootballs fall apart so easily. After several years they seem to be very easy to move if early in the year.

Now you will need a very big garden for all those  Shortias!

johnw

[Lesley Cox]

I've been looking at my own little shortias and thinking perhaps it was time to transplant into small pots. But reading the above, maybe I'll leave them until the spring. The biggest are about 1cm across. They look quite "hard" in growth, I suppose because of being grown fully exposed to air (knitted cover tunnel which the wind blows through, and on grit rather than spaghnum.

[WimB]

I've been looking at my own little shortias and thinking perhaps it was time to transplant into small pots. But reading the above, maybe I'll leave them until the spring. The biggest are about 1cm across. They look quite "hard" in growth, I suppose because of being grown fully exposed to air (knitted cover tunnel which the wind blows through, and on grit rather than spaghnum.

Lesley,

if I understand this correctly, you have them in the shade, but open to the wind? Do you have to water them a lot? Which soil have you used beneath the upper layer of grit? Which species are you growing?

I'm sorry for all the question, I'm just a curious guy... 

[Lesley Cox]

The species are galacifolia (in the picture I posted) and uniflora, still germinating but coming along nicely. Yes they are in shade in my tunnel which has a knitted cover rather than a plastic sheeting cover so wind and rain (as a fine mist) penetrate. I'm watering all my seed and small seedlings about once a week but we've had a quite wet summer with some rain on many nights as we sleep and a lot of daytime drizzle so they would otherwise have been watered probably every second day. But we've also had some very drying nor'west winds too (yesterday was a beastly one) so that has to be combated with watering when necessary.

The compost is my usual seed mix which is my usual potting mix, with some extra grit added. I also added a little fine (dusty, which is all we can get here) extra peat for the roots' sake. I sowed over the grit which was in the picture with no further covering. The same regime for rhodo species, works for me.

Meant to add that my "usual" is a compost based on crushed pine bark, about 3 parts pine bark fines, 1 part loam, 1 part gritty sand and in the most recent lot, 1 part peat. I get it mixed by a local supplier whole delivers it in a truck which hold 6 cubic metres. I like some loam in the mix because I always have d fewer problems with fungus diseases than without it.