Just a quick update on the grow tent. I had a small pot with Virginia Creeper grown from seeds collected in the area. The seedlings were doing really well and I needed to separate them. I had a similar situation with a pot of Lilacs (I think the seeds for these came from the lilacs at my mom’s house). And, as you can see in the pic, I have a lot of Ponderosa pine seedlings that I need to figure out what to do with soon. I also had four Chokecherries popping up. So I started separating the various species into more grow bags. I’m just putting one pine and one Chokecherry in each grow bag. I’m putting multiple lilacs and Virginia creeper in each grow bag (not mixing species). For the seedling pots without any germination activity yet (e.g. Rocky Mountain Maple), I’m keeping these somewhere else. The only advantage to the tent is the warmth, but I’m looking into ways to keep the seedling pots the right temperature before germination. Right now, the plan is to spend a little time each weekend separating seedlings into grow bags. When the weather gets warmer, I’ll start moving grow bags outside with the healthiest plants. I’ll plant some plants in the ground at my house property in Fort Collins, but most of these are destined for my cabin property in Red Feather Lakes.
The lilacs in the picture are a little yellow. I think I waited too long to separate and transplant, but I have them in a better soil situation now. I’m hoping to see those leaves grow a little darker in the next few weeks. Then, when it’s warm enough (no freezing in the extended forecast), they’ll go outside and get some real sun. I’ll probably plant most of the lilac’s in Fort Collins, but I might stick one in the ground in Red Feather Lakes. I planted some lilacs last year, so a lot will depend on whether those lilacs survived the winter.