Today Sam left a note to just water everything, I was still precautious with my watering in the twin span especially with the Salvia and things that were already sitting a bit too moist, but I watered more than I usually did, including Paul's Chrysanthemum collection which seemed to be able to take some tough love, but he specifically noted - moist but not waterlogged. I checked the tunnel later in the afternoon and was satisfied (it being a bit sunnier today) that plants had drawn water up well and nothing sat in soggy misery. I tried to water things through a bit more, baring in mind what Nick Morgan had mentioned that water may not be going right through the pot - watering less frequently but giving plants a good drink is a common mantra. I summed up the pest and disease in the tunnel - 95 sciarid flies, Katie thought this might be quite a high number.
Deliveries were taken in from Fargro (pots, vermiculite etc) and new plants in the reception area from Herbaceous. There was mass seed sowing. All labels and info required for seeds (temp., how deeply sown, how many, covered or not) are prepared in advance and written on the packet. Pans, trays etc were also pre-prepared with tref medium and watered.
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| Photo 1: Pans, modules, trays etc prepared for sowing. |
For some of the pans approx. 10mm space was left at the top and in these I sowed:
- Pennisetum setaceum 'Fountain'. 22 - 25°C (heat required)
- Salvia 'Lighthouse Red'. 21 - 24°C
- Salvia 'Lighthouse Purple'. 21 - 24°C
These were given 10mm covering of vermiculite.
These were then all placed in the mist unit and heat bench in House 1 - the heat bench gives off 20°C, and probably kept cooler to 18/ 19°C by the mist. The middle bench is for 15°C and for 10°C these are placed in Doug's house (House 2).
- Ornamental pepper 'Medusa' - single seeds were sown in P84 modules. (20°C required).
- Lagurus ovatus. 20°C - were surface sown in a pan.
- Cerastium tomentosum. 20°C - surface sown in large trays (12 trays of - around 2500 seeds - germination for these are apparently not good)
- Mina lobata. 20°C - single seeds in 9cm pots.
All of these were also placed onto the heated mist bench.
Examples of coated seeds:
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| Photo 3: Lettuce seeds coated to make them easier to sow from seeds source who supplies to agricultural businesses. |
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| Photo 4: Zinnia coated with a fungicide. |