Every Seed Came Up??

Box #2


That I like those Yellow Jelly Beans might be noticeable .

This was a few days ago in Box #1:


That looks a little strange because I was on the opposite side of the table with the South Window on right not left side of the camera . Anywhoo

I'm not showing the bare ground, now covered with Sun Sugars. Not too happy about their delayed entrance since there are now taller seedlings on both sides of them. In fact, I have too tall seedlings with all the rainclouds here! More rain today and I am once again thinking of supplemental lighting ... or, firing up the greenhouse furnace. I've certainly waited an extraordinary long time to do that this year.

Steve
Think Sun!

Well, you sprouts are up and willing, all they need is some Sun.

I put out some tomato plants on the high desert, about 12, and the temperature dipped and they've gotten hurt, maybe they'll come back to life.



Today we're on the mountain. The radio says: Small chance of rain today, more chance tomorrow. The station is coming from Reno,Nevada. We're at 6800ft in the Sierra Nevada, California and it Snowing like~well, it's storming. It's raining in Silver Springs so it must be raining in Reno. Wonder if they made the weather report yesterday.

Where are those seedlings Steve, in the house? Have you a greenhouse?

Yes, I have a 180 square foot backyard greenhouse.

Right now, the seedlings are in the South Window of the house.

They will soon fill that table and be too deep inside the house to catch enough sun - if that sun ever shows up. It's possible to provide the supplemental lighting but that would be best to do in the greenhouse.

Steve

Someone on Facebook yesterday posted a pic of the pepper plants they had just set out. Our last frost date is mid April. Even if we have an early spring, those pepper plants are going to be pretty chilly! Or should I say chili.

I think that we all have a learning curve. I planted onions, leeks, spinach, cabbage, peas ad sweet peas indoors this year. The 2017 seeds are:
onions
leeks
spinach
cabbage
lettuce
The older seeds are:
peas
sweet peas
The only ones that ALL came up are the cabbage seeds!
I have this gardening book from the 1970's that has a blurb for each vegetable. It gives you a generic percentage of the viability of seeds that are not new. For instance,
"Under favorable conditions spinach seeds will have a 50% germination rate after 3-5 years of storage."
We KNOW that really cheap seeds are repackaged old seeds. (Granted I filled up a jar with mostly 2017 lettuce, but I topped it off with a cheap package of lettuce seeds and not many came up.)
I know that I bought too many cabbage seeds this year.
Guess I know what I will do with the 2 ft stack of little, plastic pots that I saved!
Btw, it does not recommend that you even try to plant old onion seeds.

so lucky said:

Someone on Facebook yesterday posted a pic of the pepper plants they had just set out. Our last frost date is mid April. Even if we have an early spring, those pepper plants are going to be pretty chilly! Or should I say chili.

Click to expand...

I started to imagine that I am the plant whose seed I am starting. Tomatoes and peppers want to live in the Florida Keyes!!!!! (Did you know that "keyes" means "Islands"?)
Lettuce and radishes and spinach like to wear shorts in March.

I think of peppers as perennials, because that's what they are. We shouldn't abuse them because they are tougher than an annual. Surviving isn't the same as thriving.

A radish in shorts?! Funny picture!

Everything has its requirements and conditions that benefit. A seed works somewhat backwards from a baby birthed at term. A preemie has greater needs. An old seed has greater needs.

Steve

These eggplants may be an example of problems with using new and old seed. Hope not! The ones you can see there are Epic, a smaller, quicker Italian. The ones behind will be AppleGreen, in that tiny space .

The Epic seed is new. Yeah. The AppleGreen seed was 5 years old ..! I've gotten into trouble using 5 year old seed for tomatoes and peppers, let's see if I do with eggplant.

I like AppleGreen. It's real quick and has a shape that lends itself to Eggplant Parmesan better than a green Asian eggplant. Honestly, green ones seem to do better in my garden than the purple. At one time, I thought that they wouldn't get that bitter flavor but I learned that with enuf age or stress, yes they do!

The soil in the foreground has Asian seeds in it. There are 4 emerging as of this morning so I don't think I'm in trouble there. We will see.

Steve

checked the tray yesterday with the onions, shallots, leeks & noticed 1 pot looks like all the seeds are coming up nicely. not a surprise since it is the newest package of leeks i got. there are a few others sprouting in the pots with older seed but i do know onion/leek seeds over time are less likely to sprout or just take much longer to do it.

just planted some tomatoes yesterday & will finish up with a few more today. should have started my eggplants a couple weeks ago but will get them done today too. peppers will get done this week too.