Inside Starts, Yours & Mine

[digitS']

And, a first posting for 2014, Wendy!

It is good to see your post and to know you are ready for the new season. Ready? You've already begun!

Steve

 

[HotPepperQueen]

Everything is looking good for everyone! One of these days I'll post more pictures of my seedlings.

p.s. Steve, I had a good laugh over your new signature

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

That is quite a kitchen electrical outlet, GWR!

I don't know, but I just thought about it and those lights are sure lasting a long time. They are 5 years old now. I notice how you plant in those cookie boxes and I only have 2 boxes and I started my onions in them and they are really doing great. I am going to have to buy cookies or something and get some more boxes.

 

[digitS']

The smaller, sandwich boxes should be a good size for most gardeners.

Strawberries come in boxes with holes in the lid. It seems to be okay to put plastic wrap over them. The lid is cut off so as to use it as a tray on all the boxes but the wrap works okay moved to the inside of the lid when I do that.

Bottom watering with the lid as a tray even works but you gotta be careful. At least, it stops the drips when I water them in a basin.

I have even bought new boxes from the bakery. Some are a little too shallow. Some are too large. Oatmeal raisin cookies come in just the right size for 100+ seedlings and most of my purposes .

Steve

 

[digitS']

There may yet be Anaheim & Jalapeno plants from the old seed. Two Anaheims have shown up and two of the Jalapenos have broken free of the seed cases. More Jalapenos have emerged but only those two have seed leaves. All of these are buried under the other plants in the box. I will have to leave them in the soil as I transplant everything else into 4-packs.

With a good stand developing of both these varieties from new seed, we will see how receptive I am to this situation when the time comes . . . . I may be out in the greenhouse as early as tomorrow moving the big healthy peppers around.

Meanwhile, I'm employing the hot water bottle again this March . It's under the 2nd planting of pepper seed. That seemed to work fairly well last year when I performed that stupidity of sowing some tomato seed in with the eggplant varieties . I won't be making that mistake again anytime soon. Changing the water on the bottle 2 or 3 times a day just may make some kind of difference with the heat-lovers.

Steve

 

[digitS']

Bok choy seed isn't having any trouble with greenhouse temperatures, especially if there is a little daily sunshine!

 

[wsmoak]

digitS', how do you deal with those when it's time to transplant? Aren't they all tangled up?

I'm still carefully poking seeds into 6-pack cells, and am limited to eight flats under the lights, less when the tomatoes get repotted and take up more space.

Do you repot those into cells before they go to the garden, or do they grow 'loose' in the flat like that until it's time to set them out?

-Wendy

 

[digitS']

Marshall yelled at me the last time I responded too casually about my transplanting techniques.

I am very, very careful. They stay right in that flat until they go into a garden bed. The plants must scarcely know they have been moved, I am so conscientious.

Yes, they are really crowded aren't they?

Steve

 

[HotPepperQueen]

I had what seems to be a power surge on my largest heat mat which almost fried all my starts to a crisp. After nursing them back to health, this little guy took the long road to recovery. I call him "The little tomato that could"

 

[digitS']

Good for him! Maybe he has some good genetics.

I like how the little guy seems to be checking his plant marker to find out who he is!

I hope you still have a good selection of things, HPQ. You know, to keep things interesting. If not - most of what is available in the garden centers have a strong edge on production and disease resistance!

Steve