Friday, March 20, 2009

Spring Seeding

Well spring has sprung, unfortunately it has brought cold weather with it or should I say more seasonal weather. Today I potted up the rest of the tomatoes I am going to grow. It is actually hard to believe in just 6-8 weeks I will be planting them outside. They are now cooking in the propagator and I am hoping for germination in about 3 days. I will have a total of 15 tomato plants this year and of those 13 are different varieties.

Other things to update are, I have placed my first seeded onions out in the cold frame. They frankly look like crap so I just stuck them out there and if they grow great, if not oh well. Good thing the second seed onions are looking so good or it might have been an onion bust this year. I have also potted up shallot bulbs that I picked up at the grocery store. They should presumably grow and multiple into many shallots by fall. They are currently in a south facing window and will go into the cold frame once they start growing.

The thin pot is the Yellow Onions that I dropped on the floor & the thicker pot is the shallots. Both were definitely to far from the light. Good thing there is always second chances in the garden.

Also on the seed front I have had germination of the Jimmy Nardello's Peppers & Rosa Bianca Eggplants in 6 days. The Ancho Peppers have still not germinated and are getting a little moldy, not a very good sign. I have also seeded Purple Beauty Peppers on March 18th that I received from Granny over at Annie's Kitchen Garden.

I will end with some 'artsy' photo's of the seedlings under the grow light:

15 comments:

  1. Very exciting! I just started all of my tomato seeds today. I can't wait. Although I'm wondering where I'm going to fit 24 different kinds of tomatoes. I guess I should start building some more garden beds.

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  2. I would not abandon hope on the onion seedlings from your first planting. While not as robust as the second planting - they are actually looking okay and may surprise you once they are in the garden proper.

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  3. The artsy pics are great! I am not having any luck but with 2 of the purple tomato seeds. I think it may be time to plant a few more inside to see if they will pop up for me. But the two are doing great. I will post on them soon...

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  4. After I bragged to you about getting rid of the mold on my plants with chamomile tea, I gave them all a good drink last night before shutting down the lights. I went out this morning, and there is white hairy looking mold nearly everywhere. I think I'm going to have to provide some ventilation for my mini greenhouse! They only did this (got moldy) because they knew I was taking pictures for my blog today :-(

    Granny

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  5. Well the good thing about onions is they don't get "leggy" like their peers when they don't get enough light. They just get floppy and recover well when put outdoors.

    I love that last photo of the little seedlings.

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  6. Chiot's Run - Wow, 24 is alot of tomatoes, I thought I had alot. Can't wait to see the end results of those 24 kinds of tomatoes.

    DoubleD - I will definitely keep them watered out in the frame and it would be great if they starting looking better. Next year I know to get them closure to the bulb and of course not to drop them on the floor.

    Skeeter - Glade to hear a couple of the tomatoes are growing well!

    Granny - Ha, those plants are conspiring. I think the mold is inevitable when they are in such a humid environment.

    Daphne - I am hoping the shallots start looking good as I have lots of the yellow storage onions growing in the second batch.

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  7. Dan, I was just noticing last night...the Purple Beauty peppers are the only ones of my five varieties that haven't germinated.

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  8. Granny - They will germinate, I wouldn't worry until its been two weeks. Those peppers can really take their time some times.

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  9. Dan, Great blog! Glad to have found you and look forward to your tips.

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  10. Sweet photos Dan. Thanx again for the table code.

    http://theconservativegardener.blogspot.com/

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  11. r garriott - Glade you enjoyed my blog, thanks for stopping by.

    Dennis - Your welcome, happy to help. I like the calendar you have on your other blog. I will have to look into one of those for a seed starting schedule.

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  12. Dan - I left a response to your quesion on my blog but thought I would post it here as well. The RSS feed button for my blog is on the main blog page at the very very bottom of the page (you have to scroll through several blog entries to get to the bottom of the page). You can click on that RSS symbol and subscribe to the feed which should remedy the blog roll problem of not updating.

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  13. I like your artsy photos btw. Looks like something you'd find blown up and stuck on a white painted wall near a window. Some people give haircuts to early alliums though I never do and they do tent to get scraggly looking but perk up once transplanted outside.

    Can you dig in your soil? We're not there yet but I have heard tales from around your garden of 'no snow.'

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  14. Man, you can even make seedlings look good. You should really quit your day job (I'm assuming you're not a photographer for a living).

    Glad they're coming up and growing good!

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  15. Sinfonian - Thanks. Being a paid photographer would be nice, as long as it doesn't involve weddings, yuck.

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