The varieties I am growing this year are:
Peas
Super Sugarsnap
Leeks
American Flag
Tomatoes
Glacier, Pompeii, Big Beef, Better Boy, Raad Red, Sprite, New Big Dwarf
Pepper
Roumanian Rainbow, Italian Sweet, College 64L(Anaheim type), Admiral Golden, Baby Bell(it the seeds will germinate)
Eggplant
Listada de Gandia
Herbs
Oregano(pink flowering), Cilantro, Basil:sweet- scented basil trio- Italian pesto- opal
Flowers
Sweet pea- fragrantissma, Coreopsis-presto, Nicotiana-Eau de Cologne
Will add more as I pull out the seed packets
Friday, March 14, 2008
Anticipating Spring, Starting Seeds
I just came up from the basement and am full of thoughts of the coming spring. In that basement on top of my upright freezer are containers full of this years peppers, tomatoes, eggplants and a few assorted flowers and herbs though those categories often overlap. Outside under a layer of floating row cover are spinach, collards, kale, and bulbing fennel, leeks, and broccoli(I didn't start that from seed) which I will plant into the ground late next week.
A while ago I read that when dealing with plants you should only change one thing a week. This weeks change for the early spring plants in inside to protected outside. Next week I will plant them in the ground and keep them covered. About a week after that I will remove the covers. This technique seems to work very well and I have lost many fewer plants since observing it.
Seed starting has been another area of learning through failure. Four years ago I tried to start seeds without a fluorescent light, put one seed in each 2" soil block. I had poor germination and leggy plants which meant a lot of wasted space. The transplants were decent but it took a lot of energy to set them out every warm day.
The next year I got a 2 tube four foot long shop light and a timer for it. I still did most everything else the same. Wasted space where seeds did not germinate and took a lot of time making the soil blocks and gently watering them. Had very good transplants. I did a lot of setting plants out on warm days to harden them off and let my peppers get too cold but had good plants and good crops that year.
Last year I got a second shop light, decided to use yogurt cups we had saved instead of soil blocks and had read about germinating seed in paper towel. These steps considerably reduced the time and space need and produced transplants that looked better than you could buy. I also had read about the one thing a week and heard that you should not set tomato plants and pepper plants out until night time temperatures are consistently 50 and 55 degrees respectively.
This year I have taken all the learning from previous years and worked on fitting seed starting into small bits of time here and there. I have also been thoughtful about how many transplants I want to raise. I will plant 10 pepper plants and 14 tomato plants, so I want to grow on about twice that number and will only pot up that many sprouted seeds.
I'm really looking forward to Spring and Summer this year.
A while ago I read that when dealing with plants you should only change one thing a week. This weeks change for the early spring plants in inside to protected outside. Next week I will plant them in the ground and keep them covered. About a week after that I will remove the covers. This technique seems to work very well and I have lost many fewer plants since observing it.
Seed starting has been another area of learning through failure. Four years ago I tried to start seeds without a fluorescent light, put one seed in each 2" soil block. I had poor germination and leggy plants which meant a lot of wasted space. The transplants were decent but it took a lot of energy to set them out every warm day.
The next year I got a 2 tube four foot long shop light and a timer for it. I still did most everything else the same. Wasted space where seeds did not germinate and took a lot of time making the soil blocks and gently watering them. Had very good transplants. I did a lot of setting plants out on warm days to harden them off and let my peppers get too cold but had good plants and good crops that year.
Last year I got a second shop light, decided to use yogurt cups we had saved instead of soil blocks and had read about germinating seed in paper towel. These steps considerably reduced the time and space need and produced transplants that looked better than you could buy. I also had read about the one thing a week and heard that you should not set tomato plants and pepper plants out until night time temperatures are consistently 50 and 55 degrees respectively.
This year I have taken all the learning from previous years and worked on fitting seed starting into small bits of time here and there. I have also been thoughtful about how many transplants I want to raise. I will plant 10 pepper plants and 14 tomato plants, so I want to grow on about twice that number and will only pot up that many sprouted seeds.
I'm really looking forward to Spring and Summer this year.
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