After 24 hours of treatment, we sowed the seed on a moistened potting mix medium, put a lid on the tray and set it on a heat mat. We achieved quick germination of all seed treatments.
Look at all these happy little plants!
After the plants germinated, we made individual newspaper pots to transplant the milkweed seedlings into. The pot maker is one of our favorite gardening tools! We don't receive a newspaper at our house, but a quick stop at the local recycling facility sets us up with enough paper for a year.
You can see our pot maker in this photo:
We just love these sunny days and so does Bounder...you can spy her in the window.
We transplanted a hundred or so baby common milkweed plants. They won't be able to stay long in these pots with their super long taproots so we will see what we do next. Even during transplanting, we noticed how long those roots already were. Wow! This plant species is notoriously difficult to grow in pots because of their growth habit, but our goal isn't to keep them in pots so will keep you all posted.
Here's a couple great resources if you want to take action:
Xerces Society Project Milkweed
Monarch Watch Bring Back the Monarchs
We've shared it before, but this is such a powerful article to read:
Gardening for Life, Doug Tallamy
It's encouraging to us that there is action be taken! Let's do it before it's too late.
Look at all these happy little plants!
After the plants germinated, we made individual newspaper pots to transplant the milkweed seedlings into. The pot maker is one of our favorite gardening tools! We don't receive a newspaper at our house, but a quick stop at the local recycling facility sets us up with enough paper for a year.
You can see our pot maker in this photo:
Here's a couple great resources if you want to take action:
Xerces Society Project Milkweed
Monarch Watch Bring Back the Monarchs
We've shared it before, but this is such a powerful article to read:
Gardening for Life, Doug Tallamy
It's encouraging to us that there is action be taken! Let's do it before it's too late.
Hello Jennifer and Steve! A valiant effort! We had some milkweed on our last property, but the folks who bought the adjoining fields mowed about 3 acres of it down. We weren't happy at all, no common sense. We don't know what we have here yet since everything's been gone and under snow since we moved in. We're anxiously waiting to see what we'll have springing up soon...spring's coming soon, right? ~Vonnie
ReplyDeleteVonnie - we are so ready! We have 5-8 inches of snow on the way today. EEK. We're hoping to plant out our greens on Monday though since it is supposed to be in the upper 50s. It will be so fun to see what you have at your new place as things start growing!
DeleteWhere do you get your seeds? I'm guessing you collected from plants you have growing already? It would be great to get some milkweed seed. I hope your seedlings do well. Love that newspaper pot!!
ReplyDeleteHey lady! Xerces Society and Monarch Watch linked to above both sell seed and let you know places near you that sell seed. We collected ours on our property. If you can't find any near you, we can save some for you this year!
DeleteOh, good luck! I remember milkweed being really challenging to keep going in an Ohio garden. I'm looking forward to seeing you progress.
ReplyDeleteHey dear! So far, common milkweed grows pretty rampantly on our property and for that we are excited! We've been collecting seed from those plants for our seed starting project. Fingers crossed!
DeleteCool. I'm impressed you collected seeds from what already grows there. I've been reading about how using commercially available seed packets that include "native" poppies may be a potentially damaging practice, because of the slight genetic variations from area to area. I wonder if it's the same for milkweeds? Because we live where monarchs overwinter, we're not supposed to plant milkweed here. I don't understand why.
DeleteYes, we've heard lots about local genotype as the way to go for native plants. It's feasible with some, and difficult with others I think. That's very interesting about not being allowed to plant milkweed where you live since they monarchs overwinter there. I wonder why too! How is the population out there this winter?
DeleteI only heard (can't quickly find a published reference) that the overwintering numbers in PG were up this past year. They usually do the count around Thanksgiving. I found the contrast interesting compared to the blog stories from your side of the US that there were no monarchs to be found last fall. No? I've been seeing an unusual number of monarchs flying around home the past few weeks. I think they're "supposed" to head out of town by the end of February, but here they are still. It's been a record dry year, too.
DeleteHi J & S... I hope this works!! I have seen less and less every year in my area!!
ReplyDeleteGrace
Thanks Grace! We will keep you posted on this project. We're hoping it goes well too!
DeleteIt seems hard to find milkweed seeds, I rarely see them for sale. I think your initiative is terrific, best of luck, I hope it is a success.
ReplyDeleteI planted milkweed seeds about 3 years ago around my property. I think the wind must have picked them up because they actually started growing on the very edge of our driveway, nowhere near where I planted them! Anyway, each year, there seem to more of them so they have found their happy place.
Thanks for the newspaper pot idea, that is brilliant!
Hey Alana! The Xerces Society has a nice milkweed seed finder that may help you out on finding seed. It's great that milkweed found their happy place at your property. :) I love the newspaper pots - we use it for all our seed starting. It's so economical!
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