Planting Poppy Seeds
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| Posted by: donybee |
| I have many different varieties of poppy seeds. ( thanks to Boo) I was wondering if you can plant them now in the greenhouse and then transplant them later in the spring after frost or do I wait till after frost and direct seed them? I would assume they are annuals although some may be perennials. |
| Posted by: MrSeedy |
| Many people just direct seed the poppy seeds , especially for the annual varieties like the shirley poppies or flanders, and other annual ones. I think the iceland varieties can be sown in fall, or very early spring, since they like the cool conditions starting out. I have little luck with direct seeding the perennial oriental ones, for some reason, but suspect the rains etc, just move the seeds too often or the ground dries to fast for the seeds to germinate usually. The originals were sown at 70 inside on the surface of the mix and placed under gro-lites, and then thinned to larger pony packs when they were still tiny, and then transplanted out in May after threat of frost had passed, and they did beautifully. I think all need to have light to germinate and are just laid on the surface or scattered outdoors. |
| Posted by: brassia |
| I have terrible luck trying to start poppies indoors, so I direct seed all of my poppies in the fall and so far have had a great deal of luck doing them that way. |
| Posted by: MrSeedy |
| Mine end up near the main patch all the time , be it in the fall , or if I've saved seeds to scatter in the spring, but few come up for the Orientals for some reason, so my thoughts about why not I mentioned earlier are just a guess. Could be the fall planting exposes the seeds to wetter conditions in spring when the snow has melted and the ground doesn't get too dry for them to come up. I notice the ones that do come up for me are some wedged right next to other plants where they're protected from heavy rains or winds that would perhaps dislodge them. |
| Posted by: terese |
| QUOTE |
| I have terrible luck trying to start poppies indoors, so I direct seed all of my poppies in the fall and so far have had a great deal of luck doing them that way. |
My luck is bad with trying to start them indoors also. I direct sow in the fall or spring.
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| Posted by: MrSeedy |
| I had great results with the Orientals indoors , but the annual ones were very weak and spindly, even though they were in a sunny window" however most did come up indoors for me. |
| Posted by: brassia |
| Orientals do seem to do better, I planted an entire flat of peony poppies one year and not one single seed took. That was when I thought to heck with it and broadcasted the seeds. |
| Posted by: Rowan |
| Poppies have excessively delicate root systems and DO NOT like to be moved about much at all, so transplanting has a tendency to kill them.
For outdoor sowing (which is easiest and mostly what I prefer to do) you do want to make sure that you have the seeds near the surface (they need light to germinate) but that does make it easier for them to get washed away or eaten by birds... I find that a gentle raking of the surface after the seeds are broadcast will help them stay where they belong better (that and bird netting ) but then I do generally use raised and bordered beds so my rain/runoff situation might be different
For indoor sowing what you want to do is use a pot big enough not to need transplanting as a seedling, and either biodegradable in some way or able to be removed without disturbing the roots when you plant out... In the past I have used a flat baking sheet (and a spatula for transplanting) to grow a sort of "chia" rug of seedlings with fairly good results -- poppies rather like overcrowding -- and I laid it out like a little bit of turf/sod in the garden... more recently I have switched to using pressed peat pots (I do take the extra precaution of soaking the pot and ripping off the bottom bit just to make sure the roots really do get out of the pot)
In starting poppy seeds I have had better germination generally with the annual poppies: Papaver Rhoes (Flander's Poppy) and Escholzia Californica (California Poppy) varieties, than with the standard perennial oriental varieties... I can't really comment on any other types yet.... this will be my first year with a somniferum (thanks Boo ) but I fully expect good results |
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Have you posted your exchange list?
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