Seedling Progress

 We are a bit behind in blogging. Here are the updates. We re-potted the tomato starts on 3/25/13 and moved them to the windowsill 4/6/13. They were simply too tall for the light set up, and their leaves kept getting burned (which gives me tomato guilt). Due to life events we never started the second group of tomato seedlings, so these are it for the year. Good thing I started all the Cherokee Purples in the first group.  The Blondkopfchen seedling (below) is the best tomato start we have ever had. This gives me warm fuzzies because it is from the seed I saved myself. Overall the tomato starts are sturdier than lasts year's were by this point.

The peppers were also re-potted on 3/25/13 and are now enjoying exclusive rights to the plant light. We started all of them at once instead of in two staggered groups because we realized it was easier to get them all done while we had all the soil, etc out. We are trying the "Red Mini" this year from Baker's. I love the thought of mini red bell peppers and the number of red mini seedlings is in equal proportion to my excitement.

Seed Starting Update no. 2

Today we sowed:

• Peppers: Beaver Dams (4), Garden Sunshines (4), Mini-Bells (4)
• Kohlrabi (6)
• Broccoli (3)

Updates:

•  Potted out early tomato starts
• Starting tomorrow we will keep them under the grow light during the day and put them out on the patio at night so they can be exposed to cooler night time temps. Apparently keeping them at 50-60 degrees at night will encourage early flowering.

Tomatoes Started

We started our tomatoes on February 10th, along with some onions (see here for how we start seeds indoors). According to our garden plan we started the tomatoes a few days earlier than we planned and the onions about a month late. But whatever. We are doing this as we have a free second, which isn't often.

We started the following:
2 Cherokee Purples
1 Blondkopfchen (using the saved seed so tripled sowed it. All popped up right away)
1 Black Cherry
1 Cosoluto Genovese
1 Volunteer (also saved seed but only did one since we planned to sow more in the next go around)

Observations to date:
All of the seeds have germinated except the Cosoluto Genovese. I will give that one another day and then re-sow. The volunteer seedling is already an inch taller than the rest and is budding second leaves (the one all the way to the right in the picture). I am very excited to see how much this produces this summer since it seems to be a great example of natural (and now human) selection. I think putting the grow set up in the kitchen this year helped our germination time since the kitchen is the warmest part of our house. We put it there out of necessity, but it has worked out so far. (I cringe to think how our counter will look in 2 months though). 

Plans:
We need to set up the fan to "tickle" the seedlings so that they spread strong roots. We've done that the last two years and have been widely successful. As long as I remember to mist them once a day and turn on the lights in the morning they should grow nicely. We plan to pot these out into yogurt containers when we start the next set of tomato seedlings (early March). Stay tuned.

Seedling Update

All the seedlings from the cell pack are now in pots or yogurt cups. Herbs have turned out great. I sowed enough to transplant in the garden and to fill the pots on my window sills.  Sadly, a number of my tomatoes got a bit leggy, but given that I ended up with 18 plants it is not the end of the world if a few don't make it into the garden. However, the surprise this year have been the peppers and eggplant which I did not expect to have such strong germination (based on the last two years experience). Perhaps I will finally get a Beaver Dam pepper and my Rosa Bianca eggplants. I am also including some pics of my lemon balm and my Christmas cactus (which blooms anytime but Christmas). Didn't grow them from seed but they are just so pretty!

 

 

Are "plant" lights better than plain white ones?

This year we were lucky enough to scavenge an additional grow light to add to our system, and it already had a plain white fluorescent bulb with it. When we bought our existing light ballast we replaced the white light with a "plant" fluorescent bulb because we heard they gave better results. With both bulb types in our setup now we see quite a difference in results after the first few days.

The left side was exposed to the plant light for the first few days. The other was only exposed to the white light. There is more or less the same mixture of plant types on each side so germination rates is not really a factor.

What is a plant light you ask? Usually sold as "Plant and Aquarium" bulbs, they are full spectrum bulbs meaning that they provide a broader spectrum of light than a traditional white fluorescent bulb and more closely mimic the spectrum of the sun. Plugged in, plant lights throw off a pinkish glow and they include some blue spectrum for leafy growth and the red spectrum for budding and flowering. For starting seeds, the lights that produce plenty of blue light are the most important.

They are usually available at most home improvement stores. We bought our original bulb at Home Depot for about $8 but online they can go for as much as $50 (don't pay that). Sadly our store seems to have stopped carrying the short length bulbs, so I guess we will be on the hunt for a new one at other stores in our area. In the meantime, I am rotating the seed tray every day to help even out the growth imbalance.

Here is what the package of our bulb looked like:

 

For additional information, check out this great e-how article.

Super Quick Germination

Here's the deal:  Seeds started on Sunday night. By Tuesday night there are already a handful of seeds germinated and popping up. Did I not say that the Jiffy Greenhouse top was awesome? Others may find this 2 day germination rate kind of 'meh' but for us it is always exciting (especially after the peat pot debacle of 2010).

Popped up so far: 3 kinds of basil (6 sprouts so far), a cucumber, a cherokee purple tomato, and a leek.

Starting Seeds Indoors

Yesterday was finally the day we got all of our indoor seed starts going. Quite a bit late but at least they are done now. In terms of process, we use soil-less potting medium (Miracle Gro brand is the easiest to find). I put it in a big bowl with some water and mix it up until all of the soil is completely moistened.

Then I fill each cell in my plastic cell pack, which I reuse each year.  We tried peat pots one year, and it was disastrous. Aside from being environmentally irresponsible, they kept wicking the water away from the seedlings and then the plants got moldy to boot.  Now I use the Jiffy mini-greenhouse pack they sell at Home Depot. I numbered each slot, and I keep a key so I know which plant is in which cell. It comes with a clear plastic top that I use during the germination phase. I was skeptical of the plastic "greenhouse" cover at first but we got amazing germination rates when we used it last year, much better than with a pack and saran wrap over the top.

Finally when everything is planted I put the pack under our light set up. Hubby is going to make a you tube video about how we built it since it is a vastly cheaper alternative to the commercial ones out there, is collapsible for easy storage and doesn't take up much space when it is put together. See this follow-up post on the benefit of using plant lights in your grow set up.

Shared on Simple Lives Thursdays and  Small Footprint Fridays

Deciding When to Start Seeds Indoors

Every year I have an internal tug of war about when I should start my seeds indoors. I know we are in zone 7, and I know our first frost free date is near April 15 so logically I know I only need to count back the number of weeks to figure this out. But there is an emotional element to it too. I want to start growing something...now. I want to see soil and little seedlings sprouting up out.

This has led in the past to the world's leggiest tomatoes because they were sown in January and out grew the light set up long before the sun shining through the window sill was strong enough to help them out. But this year I lucked out because I decided I would start onions and leeks from seed and they need to be planted 10-12 weeks before frost free date which I realize is about now. I guess I have a reason to haul out the light set up after all. Huzza!

I  found some helpful seed starting links during this quandry which others may find useful:
Thrifty Fun's 4 Steps to Figuring Out When to Start Seeds Indoors

Harvest to Table's post on Seed Starting in January

The Vegetable Garden's Zone 7-8 Planting Schedule