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Why so deep?

Edit:  oh for lodging.  Is your stand particularly thin because corn doesn't have that problem here and we have 40mph wind off the plains. 

I had a few garlic seeds i was holding on to and when i saw this thread i decided to grow them out

Sure enough they all germinated

It's off an old no name been around forever hardneck variety from Kentucky

P.s. don't cold stratify or they'll germinate completely in the fridge and be very hard to plant

Huh, I got fruit okay first year in Kentucky.  Still have this one reseeding in the greenhouse but I'd like to try a commercial variety

I tried a mexican tarragon last year hoping to get seed, but it only started flowering too late.

Is Mexican tarragon usually sold as a slow bolt variety.  It's same genus as marigolds so I would think it could be an annual in my climate

Anyone know any productive varieties of naranjilla that they'd recommend? I've grow it before but i believe it was basically the wild type.  Thornless would be nice too

I'm hoping to adapt it to my region

If you go with quartering the basal plate, let them dry out good for a couple days before planting or they rot.  But my experience is with flowers not onions

Softwood cuttings from vigorous growth about 12in, normal rooting hormone

We use a mist system outside.  With mist systems its very important to have soil that can't hold much water or they'll rot, so play around with a perlite and sphagnum mixture

Indoors mist very infrequently to not at all (basically only if wilting) because indoors is much less drying, and you'll want decent grow lights.  Soil should hold more water because you might not water even every day

With larged leafed plants it's often helpful to cut the large leaves in half to reduce water needs, i can't remember doing it with Southern magnolia

If you don't have much vigorous softwood growth, a heavier pruning can help.  You can even root oak trees after a heavy prune

Blueberries need very acid soil.  If you ever notice hollies yellowing after being mulched, hardwood mulch substantially raises the pH and  prevents them from taking up enough manganese. Pine straw doesn't raise pH near as much 

Throw some sulfur on those hollies and they'll grow faster

There are dwarf hollies that grow slowly so maybe you got one of them

Hey @reed
I talked to my brother.  He says he does Magnolia tripetala from seed, and he's got some he's willing to part with if you want.

The seed is really sensitive to drying out, but other than that it's just a normal cold stratification, i think we usually do 120 days in the fridge

Hi reed

Yeah you gotta stratify maples but they come up in high percentages quickly although i have seen where the seed is hollow.

Hollies are harder and will sprout somewhat randomly for 3 or 4 years

Japanese maples were our focus for decades and we have some very interesting genetics, I'll get pictures this spring.  I just started with online in November so it's very much a work in progress and don't have pictures

The nursery is in murray ky zone 7a, but we have a family farm in northeast missouri where i live and we collaborate.  I have near nuetral soil, they have between pH5-6 so they can do blueberries and hollies and azaleas and i can do walnuts and stinging nettles and plants that need more calcium, and i can test cold hardiness to another level. Any chance your soil is on the basic side for hollies?

The past few years I've been trialing small samples of seedling camellias, I had 2 out 10 make it the first year, 1 survived the year after but was froze back above the snow line and didn't make it.

We used to do star magnolias from seed.  We have a Southern magnolia with particularly green foliage that we root from cuttings. I know we have a few tripetala, but I'm not sure how we got them

You're not real far, so if you're ever passing through murray when it's not the dead of winter, stop in and see the maples

As for breeding, we've mostly just worked with blue oaks, when a chance specimen survived well enough to produce seed and now we've had seedlings survive -7f unharmed in somewhat dense understory.

My brother's been tossing white oak seeds into the woods this past winter after he picked up ~30 gallons of acorns.  Mostly just trying to re-establish them

Oh and they did some live oak work, I'm not as well informed as I probably should be

In my work in progress list of species they've grown, I've got
Acuta
Acutissima
Alba
Coccinea
Falcata
Glandulifera
Glauca
Hemispherica
Imbricaria
Laurifolia
Lyrata
Macrocarpa
Marilandica
Myrcinifolia
Nigra
Palustris
Phellos
Prinus
Robur
Stellata
Virginiana
Douglasii
X chenalti

But to be honest with you, I can't remember ever selling an oak

Hi, I'm Martin
I've been growing plants and breeding since i was child, I can remember learning to hand pollinate camellias in grade school. My father ran a little independent experiment station, well it started out as a wholesale Japanese maple nursery and one spring, a late frost killed 90% of the inventory.

After that we focused on breeding plants adapted to our environment (kentucky). Mostly Japanese maples at first, but we've had modest improvements on a whole host of things

Camellias for cold hardiness
Hardy blue oaks
Azaleas and rhododendrons
A few different bamboos
Blueberries mostly highbush, some rabbiteye and a handful of hybrids
Some work with hollies, currently working on yaupon
A very good paste tomato
Hybrid peppers
A couple apples
Pawpaws
A landrace Indian corn

Currently working on olives (hopefully, haven't sprouted), butternut and maxima squash, i have some garlic seed I'll try sprouting, maybe peanuts, chenopodium, grapes, black cherries, prunus munsoniana, barley, rye

Now my brother's running the nursery and I have a little seed shop I started this winter flyoverseeds.com, and I'm just passionate about exploring the world plant breeding offers with other people who appreciate it

I just got approved and I requested to join december 20th.  Happy to be here tho

Also failed the tomato genus question trying to spell lycopersicon a few times till i tried solanum