Mistake number one

Well, as promised here is the story of my first mistake regarding my seedlings. ( And if past experience is any thing to go by, it is just the first of many!)


These are the seedlings in question.

As you can see I had planted these Datura in a smaller six pack. I planted in the smaller six pack for only one reason. . .

Pure laziness. The smaller pot was brand new and didn't need washing and sterilizing. The larger pot did.

So I choose the smaller one.

And this is the result of my laziness. . .




That's right, flowers! The very small plants have already started flowering. Why you ask?

This is why. The plant has already become a little root bound which is it's signal to flower! If I had transplanted it into a bigger pot earlier it would have just kept growing bigger. Now it's energy is going into the flower.

One of the plants is not as far along as the other so hopefully all is not lost with that one.

Of course the solution is to transplant them now.

Which I did.

But still.

The fact is , is that they won't get as big as they should have!

I hate that.

Time for a bigger pot. Notice how I went quite a bit bigger? This will not happen again! (well. . . yes it will. But I can hope!)

The trick here is to break the roots apart so that they will be forced to grow into the new surrounding soil. If you just leave them they way they are they'll keep circling around, which often causes it to dry out faster, and will it never get as big as it should.

Into the pot it goes.

Add your soil .

Press soil in firmly.

Add water and put back under the lights and that's it.

Really. . .

That's all there is to it!

What else could there be?

Oh all right! You remember the flower buds? Well. . . I have to take them off.

I know, I know, it will be painful. After all who wouldn't want to see the first flower of the season?

But you want the growth to go to the roots, so the plant will get bigger, rather than wasting energy on flowering.

And I'll do it.

But it's going to hurt. . .