Dunstan chestnut blues

[b116757]

I struggle with indoor starting so I wait and just start mine outdoors. I do need to invest in some 1 gallon air pruning pots to put them in after the RM18’s last year I transplanted straight from the RM18’s into the ground it worked ok but I wouldn’t mind adding the 1 gallon pots to my system. My dilemma this year is vacation in Orlando here in a week or so. I have to find a tree baby sitter.

 

[TreeDaddy]

I am in zone 8a with a long growing season ending with the first frost ~nov 17

I start my RM18s in late Feb and graduate them up to 3 gal containers in the same year(all outdoors)

I also use well drained,soilless media

In the spring and summer , It is almost impossible to over water them

bill

 

[Angus 1895]

My question is should I abort the damped seeds and replace with vigor plants.?

are these dunstans doomed?

Thanks

 

[Angus 1895]

Just a few thoughts for beginners starting indoors:

Start with containers. If you are not using a root pruning container system, all bets are off.

Next comes media. Unless you know what your are doing, invest in Promix. Regular potting mixes are not designed to grow trees in a root pruning container system.

Then water. You should be using rain water if at all possible.

Then watering. Water by weight. When you water, saturate them until water is running or dripping out of the lowest holes in the root pruning container. You can't give them too much water because it just runs out. You CAN water too frequently. I've described watering by weight in other threads.

Light comes next - Use shop lights that you can hang at an angle and organize your seedlings by height so they are equidistant from the bulbs. Fluorescent or LED shop light bulbs are cool enough to keep a couple inches above the seedlings. Light diminishes with distance squared. Don't worry about light color or expensive grow lights. Four 2 bulb shop lights can cover 6 Express trays with adequate light.

Fertilizer - Osmocote and Micromx or Osmocote Plus.

No matter what you do, some trees will just be inferior, cull them.

These few things should get you well on your way to success

Thanks,

Jack

Are my dunstan s doomed?

 

[Hoytvectrix]

Are my dunstan s doomed?

The majority of mine that had damping off still ended up producing some stunted plants. I've noticed that they spend more energy making branches than leaves, but most are still alive.

Sometimes damping off is just a fluke thing and not necessarily something you did. I would water thoroughly and infrequently, allowing the plants to nearly dry out between water cycles. Make sure they are getting enough light. Soon you'll be able to just get them outdoors, but you will need to protect them from nut scavengers. Also, if you do put them outdoors, make sure that they are allowed to harden off in the shade away from direct sunlight first.

 

[Angus 1895]

Rodger that. I put the sticks out in sunlight. Gonna leave them out. New buds are beginning to appear. I am grateful that I got good early germination on the oaks. Now that I quit heating the shop no new seedlings have erupted the last two days. Still have 100 plus pots unerupted.

 

[yoderjac]

Are my dunstan s doomed?

I can't recall al the details of your approach, so I can't say. Life in general is vigorous. I'm loath to say anything is doomed.

Bill makes a GREAT point. Growing season matters. There are always issues trying to transition trees from indoor to outdoor. It is hard to know exactly when to give them more direct sun as the adapt. I'm in zone 7A and I needed a habitat related cabin fever project which is why it started growing trees indoors. It extends my growing season and gives my trees enough of a jump that it overrides issues with transition. So, if your growing season is long enough you should consider starting them later. Keep in mind that Dr. Whitcomb warns against starting trees too early in a greenhouse. The low angle and low intensity of the sun causes problems. They make look fine above ground but they suffer a lot in root development and may not even survive. If you start them early you must use sufficient artificial light.

One more thing to consider so folks don't get too discouraged is culling. I buy many more nuts and had many more mini-indoor-greenhouses with 18s than I could ever have planted. Nuts that don't produce a root radicle are my first culling. Then, I cull a second time when I transplant from 18s to 1 gal RB2. Seedlings that are ill formed or are not vigorous are discarded and the best go into 1 gal RB2s. Again, I'll loose some trees when I do the transition to outdoors. I do this just after the first transplant when I remove the nut (to discourage squirrels). I first move them to a lower deck that only gets a few hours of direct sun and then is shaded by the upper deck. I eventually move them to the upper deck that get sun most of the day but is shaded from direct sun by the house in the heat of the afternoon. I will loose some trees to sunscald and others will just struggle but many will thrive. I transplant the best and brightest into 3 gal RB2s in summer. The rest will either get culled or I'll transplant them in to 3 gal RB2s when they go dormant. The best and brightest get planted when they go dormant. The second tier gets overwintered and a second growing season on my deck. Some of these will do great and get planted but some will just struggle and get culled.

Best of luck,

Jack