13 votes

What are the chances to get an edible apple from a tree grown from seed?

My experience is different. It is very easy to have a apple tree from seed. But apple trees are not auto-fertile. This mean that to have apple on a tree, you need pollen from an other trees (and ...
Giacomo Catenazzi's user avatar
11 votes
Accepted

What is this giant seedling?

Looks like pumpkin, Vivid. You don't remember what you sowed?
benn's user avatar
  • 13.1k
10 votes
Accepted

What is this whitish feather on my Echinacea seedlings?

That looks like fine root hairs on the hypocotyl of a normal , healthy seedling still in the cotyledon stage. These root hairs greatly increase the surface area of the root and are thought to aid in ...
Ben W's user avatar
  • 1,486
9 votes

Concerned about slow growth of my seedlings

I'm by no means an expert, however I am pretty sure that, at least for Zucchini, Cucumber and peppers 1% more light = 1% more growth. Thus in order to increase growth, maybe you should start moving ...
davidgo's user avatar
  • 3,508
9 votes
Accepted

A seedling with three (instead of two) cotyledons

It happens occasionally - not uncommon in chilli pepper, tomatoes and cannabis plants. It doesn't seem to confer any advantage and usually, the seedling continues to grow normally, with two true ...
Bamboo's user avatar
  • 132k
9 votes
Accepted

What to do if too many seedlings are in the same pot?

You seem to have more than a hundred seedlings overall. Are you willing to grow every single one of them into adult plants? I'm assuming not. If that's the case, you'll be discarding them at a later ...
willyjoker's user avatar
8 votes
Accepted

What's the best pot size for rose seeds germinated in the refrigerator?

All plants should have pots matching the plant size, otherwise you risk root-bound plants or trouble with watering. That's why we re-pot as needed and only go up a few pot sizes at a time. Roses like ...
Stephie's user avatar
  • 16.1k
8 votes
Accepted

What do sunchokes look like when they're sprouting?

The sunchoke, also frequently called Jerusalem artichoke, is a species called H. Tuberosus, in the Helianthus genus of Asteraceae, which is a large plant family that includes sunflowers and daisies. ...
Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL's user avatar
8 votes

Is using tomato slices really viable for starting seedlings?

Think of how tomatoes grow "in the wild" fruit drops to the ground, slowly rots, and when conditions are right a new plant emerges. So cut open the fruit and cover it in soil, the results are not ...
OrganicLawnDIY's user avatar
8 votes

Weed Identification

I planted some Oxalis deppei in the garden at my university last year and it looked just like your plant. It had little dark pink flowers and spread like crazy, from 15 bulbs planted in spring I got ...
Alina's user avatar
  • 5,396
8 votes
Accepted

Do young plants prefer their pots be rotated?

Do they prefer it? No, not really. Plants have evolved to grow and orient themselves to get the most light in any given conditions. It could even be argued that turning them away from this orientation ...
Robert Cartaino's user avatar
7 votes

Why are my tomato plant seedlings dying?

Disclaimer: This answer is mostly based off of my own experience. Yes. That appears to be classic transplant shock. As Ecnerwal said, it could be cutworms, too, though. Anything that disturbs (or ...
Brōtsyorfuzthrāx's user avatar
7 votes
Accepted

How can I grow seedlings from commercial apples?

Put the seed in a pot (if you want it potted) and put the pot in the ground; or plant directly in the ground. Wait for spring. The seeds require "cold treatment" - they are programmed not to sprout ...
Ecnerwal's user avatar
  • 22.8k
7 votes
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Should I add soil with living things, like worms, to a potting mix?

The trouble with introducing 'life' by inoculating with garden soil is you have no control over which life forms you are introducing, and some of them might be pathogenic when contained inside a pot ...
Bamboo's user avatar
  • 132k
7 votes

Planting too many seeds in small pot

Your plants will have to compete with each other for light, and root space. Because they are so packed and crowded, none of the plants will grow optimal this way. If you just want basil cress, you can ...
benn's user avatar
  • 13.1k
7 votes

Will my Mango seedling survive after being attacked by my cat?

I can't promise it will live, but I've seem mango seedlings survive some pretty rough treatment. The main thing is to keep your cat or anything else from inflicting more damage. I think it has a ...
Escaped Lunatic's user avatar
6 votes

When is a good time to thin your seedlings?

A lot can happen between now and then. I usually wait until there are a few true leaves and it's clear which plants have taken off. Last year, I had one little runt that never grew more than a few ...
Escoce's user avatar
  • 6,356
6 votes

Improving Maple growth?

I tend to agree about the numbers game. Sugar maples run about 50% viable seed. The most frequent occurrence is that 1 seed of a samara (double wing helicopter) is viable. Your technique of getting ...
Sherwood Botsford's user avatar
6 votes
Accepted

Is sunlight from my window enough to grow cherry tomato seedlings indoors?

Seeds don't need light to germinate, they just need moisture and heat. But they need light to grow. Fruiting plants need the most light of all edible plants as the energy from sunlight is needed to ...
Graham Chiu's user avatar
  • 23.1k
6 votes
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How do I care for grapefruit seedlings?

In the mid-ninties (probably '94), I planted several grapefruit seeds. Several germinated, and they all got some white fuzzy stuff on them that made them sticky, and all but one of them died (maybe it ...
Brōtsyorfuzthrāx's user avatar
6 votes
Accepted

Is this a potato plant?

Sorry, neither is a potato plant. A potato sprout is medium to dark green (sometimes with reddish undertones just when breaking through), looks like a little whirl of wrinkly, thick leaves, then ...
Stephie's user avatar
  • 16.1k
6 votes
Accepted

What is this plant/seedling growing from hard, oval, mottled-brown seeds?

That's a castor bean, Ricinus communis. Seeds. If you have winter, they'll grow 10-14' (3-3.5 meters) in a year, with nice ball shaped flowers/seed pods. In regions without winter, they can grow to ...
Wayfaring Stranger's user avatar
6 votes
Accepted

Why are the leaves of my Lemon sprout turning yellowish?

You have to post a picture but from what your questions states, sounds like OVER fertilization. No plant needs 'heavy nitrogen' and depending on the age of your lemon tree you certainly want lower N ...
stormy's user avatar
  • 40.2k
6 votes
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Can I cut off cotyledons? Do they fall off?

In most plants the cotyledons fall off at some point, in others, they shrink, shrivel and dry out. There’s no need to cut them off and I would discourage you to do so while they are still green - ...
Stephie's user avatar
  • 16.1k
6 votes
Accepted

Any hope for these pepper seedlings?

Your seedlings look to be suffering from "damping off" — a fungal disease that is generally due to overwatering when seedlings are young. Indeed, your media looks very wet. Seedlings of this ...
user1469762's user avatar
5 votes

Can I plant my maple seedling in the fall months?

Yes, go ahead and plant it. It's actually better for it to be in the ground over winter anyway, as it helps protect the roots. Planting trees in the fall is a common practice, your tree should do just ...
J. Musser's user avatar
  • 51.7k
5 votes

Is sunlight from my window enough to grow cherry tomato seedlings indoors?

Unfortunately, that level of light is probably not direct or strong enough to support the seedlings. Even if it was, seedlings reach for the light, so they'll not only be leggy, meaning with tall but ...
Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL's user avatar
5 votes

How can I grow seedlings from commercial apples?

To elaborate on @Ecnerwal comments about "crab apples": The DNA of apples is more complex than ours; a recent sequencing of the Golden Delicious genome uncovered fifty-­seven thousand genes, ...
5 votes
Accepted

My seedling looks stressed and the leaves are wilting.

You haven't said what the seedling is, nor whether the sunlight was outdoors or in, but as a general rule, small seedlings should not be exposed to direct sunlight until they're grown on a bit and ...
Bamboo's user avatar
  • 132k
5 votes

Questions about soil block usage

I tried this supposedly-plant-nirvana-inducing method one year. Suffice to say that it was a one-year experiment. Some folks seem to love them, and write paeans to them, but I just didn't find much ...
Ecnerwal's user avatar
  • 22.8k

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