Let's Try This Again

So, after half a year of, moping, self-pitying, strategizing and planning about how I'm going to do this, I've decided to try this again.
I frequently get e-mails from the International Wild Huckleberry Association. I get notices about anything ranging from news articles, recipes and blog posts my other people such as myself who are endeavoring to grow wild huckleberries where they live. One of these posts caught my attention and I ended up e-mailing the person who posted it. We've been in contact and he's shared with me some of his experience. So I thought I would give his ideas a try.

His advice was to plant the seeds in extremely moist soil and cover the container with plastic wrap to create and keep a moist environment. Then they need to stay in a mostly shady area.

For the container he suggested a metal can like a coffee can because it will hold the materials well and get be put directly in the ground so that there will be no disturbing of the root system (which can really hurt the plant if not kill it) and it will eventually rust away. I don't plan on putting the pot in the ground as this area is so non acidic that my plants to have much chance of growing in the native ground. However I do plan on eventually moving them to a bigger pot. I ended up getting a biodegradable plant holder and wrapped it in a plastic bag to avoid drainage. My potting soil is a mixture of peat moss and garden soil.

Hopefully if I keep it under the right conditions, I will get a mossy fungus form in the soil which is ideal for the seeds (at least according to my source)

I will keep you all up to date on how this is working out.

So far...Nothing

So, it is now the beginning of May and my seeds have not germinated yet. I actually sorta gave up on them a few weeks ago it's just taken a while for me to post something. I started getting nervous around 8 weeks which was the upper limit for time to let them start sprouting. About a month or so after that I finally resigned myself to the fact that they weren't going to do anything. Also, I e-mailed the company that I get my seeds from and was told that they should have germinated by then as well. They also told me that they would send me another packet since their seeds are guaranteed to sprout but so far I haven't seen any.
My plan of action at this point is, if I get another pack of seeds from them, to try and see if I can get anything growing at all before the season ends. If I don't end up getting another pack, I'm gonna wait till next season, and plant pots with different variables (type of soil, amount of ammonium sulphate, bark (if any)). I'm hoping that way will give me a better probability of finding the right soil makeup. I'm also considering buying a live plant just to see if I can get any cues from it as well.
Sorry to anyone who may be disappointed by this news. I know I am. If anything changes I will sure to update.

Nothing's Happening

So, this is just a little check in for anyone who has been waiting to hear about what’s going on. We're at the eight week point which is the maximum amount of time that both the seed packet and Barney suggest for growing plants from seeds and as of yet, nothing has happened. I wish I could say I know why but the hard thing with seeds is it is hard to tell what's going on beneath the soil. I've been trying to keep the seeds moist without drowning them or letting them dry out and every now and then I spray the pots with water that I've added vinegar to, to try and keep the PH levels down.
This isn't to say that I'm giving up on the seeds. It's just a little frustrating because I'm not sure where to take it from here. I'm going to be in Estes Park next week and I think I've seen packets of seeds there. So, I am entertaining the idea of getting a pack if I can find one and trying again. But I'm still praying that something will grow. If anyone has any suggestions I'm completely open to any advice you guys can give me.
Hopefully something will happen soon and I can give you all an update on them soon.

Let's get Started (again)

So, I received my huckleberries in the mail yesterday and got the remaining items I needed for planting and potted the seeds today.

I made some changes from my soil and process from last year. Last year I added perlite to a standard potting mix, put in it various pots I had lying around and covered the seeds with the same soil. This year, at the advice of someone at the local garden store, I used a potting mix made of peat moss and perlite specifically designed for seedlings. I also added bark and ammonium sulfate to the soil mix and covered the seeds with sand (as Barney suggests doing). I potted eight identical plastic pots (they were 19 cents so I figured it would be good for uniform circumstances)

The ammonium sulfate additive was due to a bunch of advice given to me from the local garden store. When I told them that I was attempting to plant huckleberries they shared with me information about planting blueberries in Colorado. Barney makes a mention that huckleberries like acidic soil. I took note of this last year but didn't pay it too much mind because it appeared as if the plants would so okay as long as I used acidic fertilizers. Come to find out that Colorado soil has way too high of a Ph. to let blueberries survive. In light of this information I bought a soil Ph. tester and ammonium sulfate to add to the soil beforehand. I'll also use the probe to monitor the soil throughout the growing process.

I also am trying a little experiment in hydroponics. I took a few seeds and put them on sponges. One sponge is covered with a damp paper towel and the other isn't. I don't plan on anything significant coming from this experiment. All I want to see is what huckleberry seedlings look like while they are sprouting. If any do spout I may try and get them into pots to see if they do anything else.

One last thing was that I put the pots and sponges in my basement on a window sill where they will stay until probably at least August. This is for two reasons. One is so that they are completely isolated from weed seeds that may be flying around outside. The second is so I don't have to keep moving back and forth when the weather changes.

So there you have it. Now I am hoping (and praying) that something will happen with this new batch of plants that at the very least I can learn from.

Staring Anew

Hello everyone, I'm back for another go around.
I meant to get supplies up and running before Christmas but you know how things go during the holidays. So today I finally ordered a new packet of seeds and hopefully it won't be too late in the season to start new plants growing. I'm going to be taking the next fews days to get soil, pots, and a seedling place in my house ready.
Thank you so very much to anyone who might still be reading this. Hopefully I will have more to show for it this year than last year.

Temporary Hiatus

So, thanks to the observance of some of the people who visit this site (Thank you so much) I have found that the plants growing in my planters ar enot Huckleberries they are weeds.
Seeing as how it is too late in the season to do anything about it I am not going to continue. Instead, I am going to use the next few months to do some more research, get the right supplies and start over next year.

Thank you to all who have been reading this. I am sorry for the set back. I hope you guys join me next year, I should be starting sometime in January if my understanding of the research is correct.

Once again, thank you to those who pointed out that the plants were weeds and thus ending my futile efforts.

Plant Transfer 1

So Today I transfered one of my plants into a bigger pot. I plan to do the other two that need it soon. However, I want to make sure I did it right with this plant.

I did the usual routine to prepare the pot. I put the last of the soil that I have followed by about half a pound of espresso grounds and a nice amount of the organic fertilizer that I have. I didn't have quite as much soil a I wanted to I poured the old soil from some of the pots that didn't grow anything. Then I mixed it up and it was ready.

The next thing I did was go around the edge of the pot with the spade. I was trying to get it so that the root ball came out as smoothly as it could. It worked for the most part as it separated the ball from the side of the pot. But I had a bit of a problem getting it out of the pot. I didn't want to accidentally pull the plant out of the soil so I ended up up ending the pot. This was successful in getting the plant and it's soil out of the pot cleanly.

I hit a snag trying to put the plant in the new pot. I didn't dig the hole in the pot deep enough to fit the plant in so I had to take it back out and then re dig the hole before I repositioned the plant.

In the end I got the plant in alright. The only thing I'm a little worried about is that the root ball broke up a little when repositioning the plant and since I turned it upside down, the leaves are drooping a bit. I'm hoping that when it settles in some it will bounce back. Nevertheless, I am going to keep an eye on it so that if I did make a fatal mistake (for the plant) I won't repeat it with the other plants.

Not What I expected (But that's okay)

So I went out to water the plants yesterday and noticed that there are some more plants sprouting in the pots. Three of the four pots apparently had at least one more (two in one of them) seeds that have sprouted.
I am not too worried about this, however, there is only one pot where I'll be able to get the new plant into it's own pot. the other ones, the plants have gotten so big that I don't want to risk hurting the root structure by taking out the new plant.

If anyone was wondering just what I expected, here you go. I was expecting either that the plants died (THANK GOD THEY DIDN'T!!) or that the plants would grow alright in their own pots and that I would not need to move them into bigger pots until they matured more in later years. Now I am thinking I need to get some bigger pots because some of the plants appear ready to crawl out of them.

One other thing that I really was not expecting was the plants to start blooming. According to my research and Barney (pg 24), huckleberry plants aren't supposed to start flowering until 3-5 years. I am not expecting any fruit this year or next year for that matter. However, I am certain that one of the plants has a flower bud coming out.

I don't exactly know what this is supposed to mean, I'll let you know when I find out later.

Update

Sorry that it's been awhile since I have updated, things have been crazy and I haven't gotten a chance to sit down and blog, although there have been times that I have wanted too. Also sorry that I don't have any current pictures up at the moment. I will try and get some up when I have more time.

So a bunch of things have happened since my last post. In general the plants are doing okay. They haven't died yet so I'm encouraged. However, I have been trying to find the right watering and fertilizing regimen and decide if the plants are in a good spot in the yard.

I keep the plants up against the house which is very sunny most of the day. So far this has been the ideal place. I tried moving them to beneath the tree in our yard. I I thought that the plants would still get sun but they'd be shaded a little bit so that they wouldn't scorch. The area I found is awfully shady and while that did not really hurt the plants I worried that it might eventually so I moved the plants back to the side of the house.

As for fertilizing I have found that mixing the compost with the coffee grounds works the best so right now I am fertilizing all the plants a few times a week with they mixture.

WE had quite a bit of rain this past weekend and I think the plants flourished a bit in it. This is encouraging because now I don't have to worry about accidentally over watering the plants. I have also begun to add Downy softener into the water. This is a tip that I learned from a friend who found that watering with Downy water keeps the bugs away. It doesn't hurt the plants as Downy is made with biodegradable ingredients. I began doing this because I found that some of the leaves have been nibbled. It seems to work because I sprayed some on the plants yesterday a bug in one of the pots went scurrying.

I think that's all for now. I will try to have some pictures next time. As always I am open to suggestions whether huckleberry related or just basic gardening tips. I'll mention you in the blog post if I use anything.

Moving Day

So, the normal rules of gardening are that when the seedlings get to be a certain height, one pulls out all but the biggest one so that it has it's own pot and is not competing with the other plants. This is known as thinning. This is also under that assumption that each pot sprouts more than one plant.
However, I only have four seedling and one that is barely hanging on. So I attempted to move each plant into its own pot. This was a risk and only time will tell if it worked or not. The reason I call it a risk is because huckleberry plants for intertwined roots and if one is not careful it could hurt the plant (Barney, 12). I am hoping that these seedlings are young enough that I did not do this.
I took this opportunity to mix new soil and fertilizers into the pots. In one pot I mixed a compost made of dog manure and pine bark. I did this because Barney suggests beginning garden beds for huckleberry plants with rotting conifer wood.
Another pot I did I went with a Miracle Grow fertilizer. It was a standard flower one with a makeup of 15-30-15. This is a combination that Barney gives for being a good year round fertilizer. I didn't mix this one in with the soil like the others, but after transplanting the plant I sprayed it.
In another pot I mixed soil with coffee grounds. Yes, I said coffee grounds. Coffee grounds provide acidity to the soil, which is something that Barney says the plants like although it's important not to overdo it.
The last pot I did a combination of coffee grounds and the dog manure/pine bark mix. I did this because the instructions that come with the coffee grounds (found for free at your friendly neighborhood Starbucks, available to anyone who asks) say that it's good to mix the grounds with elements such as grass or bark.
I am going to use each fertilizer as directed (or as best as I know) and see which one works better. I hope to get o a point where I can use just one fertilizer next year.