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My first attempt at vft sowing.


Steve Werzal Miller

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Thanks blocky, they are sheltered from the sun in the green house. But they do get light. I'm just worried about it getting too cold at night. I think night time temps are about 12 - 14c

We don't get much sun here to be honest. It's gonna be summer soon though, someone told me it's going to be on a Tuesday this year.


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3 hours ago, Blocky71 said:

I think that's the rule Trev, any covering over the pot, as far as planting in peat is concerned anyhow, needs an air gap between pot and cover. 

As said , I had no issues on the sphagnum, even with the pot ' sealed' with cling film.

The clear pot I used had no drainage so I hardly had to add any water either until I had completely removed it. It just made things much less hassle, I'll be trying some ceph seeds later this year when they're ripe.

I use an old kitchen sieve to sieve the peat for the surface of my seed trays, then I firm it down with a flat block of wood to get a nice flat even surface to sow the seeds on. If I could get that with Sphagnum I'd use it every time, as Sphagnum is a natural anti-fungal. They apparently used to use it to pack wounds to stop infection.

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On 01/08/2017 at 11:59 PM, Trev said:

I use an old kitchen sieve to sieve the peat for the surface of my seed trays, then I firm it down with a flat block of wood to get a nice flat even surface to sow the seeds on. If I could get that with Sphagnum I'd use it every time, as Sphagnum is a natural anti-fungal. They apparently used to use it to pack wounds to stop infection.

Have you tried blitzing the live sphagnum to a fine milled pulp? This might allow you to compress it into a relatively flat and firm surface. Not sure how quickly it'd regrow it's fronds and start pushing up though - perhaps I should experiment with this and see how it goes.

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2 hours ago, gardenofeden said:

I've heard that microwaving compost can make mould problems worse!

I don't do it that regularly, just as a means of ' control ' , mainly on seeds I need to keep covered ( due to the elements) or on anything I expect to take time to germinate. 

I tried some ' mikes super fast ceph seeds'  last year. Although I had no joy with germination the pot remains moss and weed free and is now housing a hummer...

In my experience microwaving works, it's certainly never ' promoted' mould. 

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On 01/08/2017 at 11:59 PM, Trev said:

I use an old kitchen sieve to sieve the peat for the surface of my seed trays, then I firm it down with a flat block of wood to get a nice flat even surface to sow the seeds on. If I could get that with Sphagnum I'd use it every time, as Sphagnum is a natural anti-fungal. They apparently used to use it to pack wounds to stop infection.

I was gonna suggest what Stu said too Trev, maybe after shredding you'd get a flatter surface?.

I'm pretty sure it was close to a hundred percent germination with seeds just scattered on to a clump of sphagnum pushed in a pot. As long as the sphagnum remains sodden it tends to stay fairly flat. 

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