Canna ~2013~

Worth a try Harry, I always pop my pots or trays of compost into a bowl of luke warm water and let it soak up from the bottom, as 'soon' as I can see moisture on the surface I remove them and let the excess drain off. I then give the surface a quick spray with chestnut compound and sow the seed, sieve more compost on top, firm slightly and give it another quick spray of chestnut and cover either with a bag or propagator lid; they won't need watering again until well after germination when they're potted up.

I picked up this method of sowing from a Chiltern Seeds instruction sheet over 10 years ago and it has stood the test of time giving me fantastic rates of germination with hundreds of different seeds and 'touch wood' not a single case of damping off

 

I've become much more cavalier over the years (however, I am NOT recommending this!).

I think Damping Off is as rare as a rare thing - unless folk know different?

I keep seed compost from last year - usually microwave it for 3 Minutes for a 2L Pyrex bowl (put a small cup full of water in the bottom, then the compost, cover with a plate, and then leave it in the microwave until it has cooled - which takes hours.

I just rinse the seed tray containers, no sterilising solution and no attention to detail on removing every last trace of soil.

I can't remember the last time I used Cheshunt ...

Only problem I have had recently was Lupins when I forgot they had and didn't open/remove the clear plastic lid - Lupin seedlings hate that much humidity after germination.

Like I said, not a recommendation per se.

 

Well another 20 canna seeds in the soak from the very kind Kristen too
all for your seeds and offers of seeds.
Surely I'll be successful with these
I will succeed

 

Right that's the New Zealand cannas in the trays on the heat mat!
Some were starting to sprout in the bottle (surely a good sign) my others didn't do this
The other canna warsceweczii will go in tomorrow night.

 

Good luck. I'm sure they will come through

 

mine are in as well , so finger cross for both

 

Ive got a blue thai one up already sal
And 52 of all the others

 

52!! .....I've only got 31 out 33 sown..

 

Thats because your damn good at it ive prob soaked 100 seeds,some i chucked cos i had over soaked and some that just dont wanna germinate like tropical rosea

 

Joolz the one on the right is the blue thai



we still didn`t get what color is the flower , but so far Pete had a pink and yellow and I had a red flower ......I suspect that they are water canna .

 

Fantastic i will pop it in the pond with the glauca less to water

 

if you look at the old canna thread there is a picture from Pete of the Thai canna in his pond .

 

I was looking on canna 2012 and the thread bilbo did 2011 today but ive missed petes photo somehow i will go back and look again x

 

Because of the bad summer I only had one flowering and didn`t take a picture because I had to bin them , so Pete got both picture of the yellow and pink from the same lot of seeds.
I`ve collected the seeds while on holiday over there , but the original plant was an hybryd and had different flower from the one that Pete had ....this is why we had different colors .

 

Im easy for any colour sal and Thank you for the seeds x
Ive got hybrid from karchesky so im in for a few surprises,cant wait x