Ok, I now have:
2 six packs of Kale
3 six packs of Coleus
3 six packs of Rudbeckia
sitting on a shelf under the 2 ft 4 bulb light. I replaced 3 out of 4 bulbs (one was still lighting up, for now) and that one seems like the one that will give the best light overall. The 2 ft 2 bulb one and the 3 ft 2 bulb one are also ready to go.
The Kale have mostly sprouted. And I will admit, mid January is a little early, but when they get going, I can transplant them to something bigger, feed them a little, and they will be pretty nice sized plants by the time they can go outside. It's hard to say when that will be, since we are having such a weird winter.
Same with the Coleus. This is earlier than you're supposed to start them, but they grow so nicely inside. I mean, they're shade plants, of course they do.
I have no idea what the Rudbeckia are going to do, but I know they said to start really early. And these make a nice even 8 six packs, which fit nicely on one shelf.
And now I'm thinking about tomatoes. I'm totally on board with the larger containers. I want to start them now. What harm can it do? So they'll be a little big. Why not get them going faster.
Someone called Mike McGrath once because he had started his tomatoes too early and he was running out of space for them. That was the only problem. I can handle that! Let's do it! Starting tomatoes NOW!
So we got 30 seeds per pack. I could do 3 seeds for each container, and I would only use half the packet. That's probably right. And I will put that under the 3 ft 2 lamp lights. It will be awfully close to the lights. But as soon as they start to grow, we can move the shelves up a notch or two.
Five of each tomato? Yeah, no worries. I'm sure I can find people who will take the extras. Especially the determinate tomato, because my work friends will be growing in containers.
When I plant them in the ground, I need to remove a ton of soil from that area. So I need to buy a few bags of potting soil that I can fill it in with. And then if I mulch it with a ton of compost, they should be fine, in spite of the third year of growing tomatoes there.
Saturday, January 16, 2016
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Indoor Plants
I brought my pepper plants inside several months ago, like in October maybe, and they are doing so great! I got tons and tons of jalapenos and habeneros, and the third one had just been sitting there, putting on leaves all day long. And now, the producing ones have slowed down and the other jalapeno has all these lovely flowers!
A month or two ago, I piled a bunch of worm casting on top of the lefty jalapeno and the habenero. I didn't do anything to the other jalapeno because it didn't have all that extra space on top. And after all, it was churning out peppers like crazy. But the two with the compost have put on tons of leaves and they look so healthy and so good! They're really full, like little trees! I've tried to add a little to the not so full one and watered it with worm tea (compost tea?) but I'm sure it's not as good. In certain light, like the low light right now, I can see that the new leaves are much lighter green on the Habenero, which isn't exactly good, but it's got a lot of new leaves so that's just fine, right? The Habenero is definitely the fullest, and the prettiest plant.
Last weekend I saw it was going to get stupid cold, so I brought in the Rosemary. I think it's still ok. I am really hoping it survives the winter inside. Mike McGrath says it's really tough to keep the moisture level in the soil right. But when it was outside, it went through periods of heavy rain for days, and no rain for more days, and it seemed just fine.
It's three little plants in a long container, so I don't know what I want to do with it long term. I mean, I could try to take them out and put them in their own pots, but I am worried about screwing with all these roots probably all mixed up together. I guess I'll try to keep it over the winter, and bring it outside, and once it starts growing again and proves that it's healthy, I'll feel more comfortable pulling one of them out.
I have these bulbs that I am forcing in the fridge, and some of them are coming up on the requisite 12 weeks. I am a little worried because I don't know if the fridge is actually cold enough. So because of that, I should probably aim for more like 14 weeks. That puts me in the first week in February. It will be so great to get some Daffodils in February.
A month or two ago, I piled a bunch of worm casting on top of the lefty jalapeno and the habenero. I didn't do anything to the other jalapeno because it didn't have all that extra space on top. And after all, it was churning out peppers like crazy. But the two with the compost have put on tons of leaves and they look so healthy and so good! They're really full, like little trees! I've tried to add a little to the not so full one and watered it with worm tea (compost tea?) but I'm sure it's not as good. In certain light, like the low light right now, I can see that the new leaves are much lighter green on the Habenero, which isn't exactly good, but it's got a lot of new leaves so that's just fine, right? The Habenero is definitely the fullest, and the prettiest plant.
Last weekend I saw it was going to get stupid cold, so I brought in the Rosemary. I think it's still ok. I am really hoping it survives the winter inside. Mike McGrath says it's really tough to keep the moisture level in the soil right. But when it was outside, it went through periods of heavy rain for days, and no rain for more days, and it seemed just fine.
It's three little plants in a long container, so I don't know what I want to do with it long term. I mean, I could try to take them out and put them in their own pots, but I am worried about screwing with all these roots probably all mixed up together. I guess I'll try to keep it over the winter, and bring it outside, and once it starts growing again and proves that it's healthy, I'll feel more comfortable pulling one of them out.
I have these bulbs that I am forcing in the fridge, and some of them are coming up on the requisite 12 weeks. I am a little worried because I don't know if the fridge is actually cold enough. So because of that, I should probably aim for more like 14 weeks. That puts me in the first week in February. It will be so great to get some Daffodils in February.
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Seed Starting 2016
Well, I just cleaned up the mess of dirt and dead plants in the laundry room and stowed away the lights, and I think it's time to start up again! I ordered a ton of seeds from Burpee. I did actually look through what I already have, and it's quite a lot, so I didn't duplicate any of that, but I still managed to reach more than $60.
I made a little schedule for myself, broken down by week between now and May. To make the spreadsheet look nicer, I put one thing for each week, but in reality I'll probably do several at a time. Space under the light is always the limiting factor, even though now I have three lights. Really, I just need more shelves. Maybe I should stop at Lowe's and get like, 2 more. I also need to get lots of seed starting mix! I go through that stuff like crazy. Get 2 bags.
I am looking to do a few things differently this year. I'm starting a little earlier, which maybe isn't the best idea. But I'm totally ok with starting Coleus in January, because it does need a lot of time, and it makes a pretty nice houseplant in the meantime. I got some nicer varieties of Coleus, not the generic mixed pack like I did last year. I think it will look nicer to have a few large-leaved plants of the same variety instead of looking like the coleus section of the store. I'm also planning to start some Radicchio and Kale in January. I know those things say they're supposed to be directly planted in the ground, in the spring, but I don't want to. I want them to get lots of good growth early, so I can put them out in like, March, and have nice plants in April.
I'm also trying an annual Rudbeckia, Indian Summer, which also is supposed to be started quite early. I was admiring these plants in the garden centers last year, but they seemed too expensive for an annual. A $5 pack of seeds is worth a try.
The big new thing for this year is starting my own tomato plants. Yeah, I'm gonna do it. I bought 3 different varieties- Brandy Boy, Sun Gold and Patio Paste. I'm a little nervous about this, because Mike McGrath makes such a big deal about it, but it shouldn't be harder than any other seed starting, right? Just start them under good lights about 8 weeks ahead of time, keep the soil moist, move them to larger containers as they grow, maybe feed them some worm castings when they get big enough... I'm just concerned because they require a much longer lead time than the other things I've done successfully, like Basil and leafy greens.
This year, I also have a big tray of containers from some nursery starts that I bought last year, which should be really good for seed starting. I'm wondering, should I start my tomatoes directly in those? If I start them in those tiny 6 packs, I'll have to transplant them up after a few weeks, and I hate doing that. A bigger container to start with would mean I can wait a lot longer before transplanting, have fewer transplants overall, and I think it would be less likely to dry out. The downside is that it takes up more space. Starting in the little six-packs allows you to fit more units under the lights, but if everything goes well, all of those little things are just going to get bigger, aren't they? It's a kind of hedging your bets, assuming a portion of them won't make it.
I'll start them in the larger containers, what the hell, let's be optimistic. I really can't remember how many of them I have, but I think the whole tray is about the size of the shelf... no, I think it's like, 30" long, because it fits on the shelf outside, and probably 12" deep, and I'm thinking 3x6. I've got 3 varieties of tomato, and originally I was going to do one six-pack of each, but I certainly don't need that whole tray filled with tomato plants. Or even half that many.
Um, I only have 10 of the six-packs, so I pretty much have to do the tomatoes in these other containers. I will need to transplant things up by then anyway because I will have run out of six-packs. So, if I start the Coleus this weekend (assuming the seeds arrive by then), I will probably want to do 4 six-packs, 2 of each variety. The one I really want, it's only got 12 seeds per pack, so I'm only putting 2 seeds in each pod. And they're like, 50 cents per seed, which seems high... I guess that means they're definitely going to work, right? And, ok, do I really need 24 Coleus? Well, why did you buy all those seeds if you didn't want that many? And yes, actually, I personally need at least a dozen, and the rest I will give away to people at work, my neighbor, mom, Drake, whatever. Everyone loves Coleus.
If the Coleus gets started this weekend, that's 4 six-packs, then 2 of the Radicchio, 2 of the Kale, 2 Rudbeckia, and that's all 10! After like, 4-5 weeks, I may want to start on some other stuff, like Romaine and Bok Choy, so maybe the Coleus will be ready to transplant?
So let's just see how this goes. I think I know what I'm doing at this point. It's just a question of keeping everything watered and hopefully not leaving it for very long.
I made a little schedule for myself, broken down by week between now and May. To make the spreadsheet look nicer, I put one thing for each week, but in reality I'll probably do several at a time. Space under the light is always the limiting factor, even though now I have three lights. Really, I just need more shelves. Maybe I should stop at Lowe's and get like, 2 more. I also need to get lots of seed starting mix! I go through that stuff like crazy. Get 2 bags.
I am looking to do a few things differently this year. I'm starting a little earlier, which maybe isn't the best idea. But I'm totally ok with starting Coleus in January, because it does need a lot of time, and it makes a pretty nice houseplant in the meantime. I got some nicer varieties of Coleus, not the generic mixed pack like I did last year. I think it will look nicer to have a few large-leaved plants of the same variety instead of looking like the coleus section of the store. I'm also planning to start some Radicchio and Kale in January. I know those things say they're supposed to be directly planted in the ground, in the spring, but I don't want to. I want them to get lots of good growth early, so I can put them out in like, March, and have nice plants in April.
I'm also trying an annual Rudbeckia, Indian Summer, which also is supposed to be started quite early. I was admiring these plants in the garden centers last year, but they seemed too expensive for an annual. A $5 pack of seeds is worth a try.
The big new thing for this year is starting my own tomato plants. Yeah, I'm gonna do it. I bought 3 different varieties- Brandy Boy, Sun Gold and Patio Paste. I'm a little nervous about this, because Mike McGrath makes such a big deal about it, but it shouldn't be harder than any other seed starting, right? Just start them under good lights about 8 weeks ahead of time, keep the soil moist, move them to larger containers as they grow, maybe feed them some worm castings when they get big enough... I'm just concerned because they require a much longer lead time than the other things I've done successfully, like Basil and leafy greens.
This year, I also have a big tray of containers from some nursery starts that I bought last year, which should be really good for seed starting. I'm wondering, should I start my tomatoes directly in those? If I start them in those tiny 6 packs, I'll have to transplant them up after a few weeks, and I hate doing that. A bigger container to start with would mean I can wait a lot longer before transplanting, have fewer transplants overall, and I think it would be less likely to dry out. The downside is that it takes up more space. Starting in the little six-packs allows you to fit more units under the lights, but if everything goes well, all of those little things are just going to get bigger, aren't they? It's a kind of hedging your bets, assuming a portion of them won't make it.
I'll start them in the larger containers, what the hell, let's be optimistic. I really can't remember how many of them I have, but I think the whole tray is about the size of the shelf... no, I think it's like, 30" long, because it fits on the shelf outside, and probably 12" deep, and I'm thinking 3x6. I've got 3 varieties of tomato, and originally I was going to do one six-pack of each, but I certainly don't need that whole tray filled with tomato plants. Or even half that many.
Um, I only have 10 of the six-packs, so I pretty much have to do the tomatoes in these other containers. I will need to transplant things up by then anyway because I will have run out of six-packs. So, if I start the Coleus this weekend (assuming the seeds arrive by then), I will probably want to do 4 six-packs, 2 of each variety. The one I really want, it's only got 12 seeds per pack, so I'm only putting 2 seeds in each pod. And they're like, 50 cents per seed, which seems high... I guess that means they're definitely going to work, right? And, ok, do I really need 24 Coleus? Well, why did you buy all those seeds if you didn't want that many? And yes, actually, I personally need at least a dozen, and the rest I will give away to people at work, my neighbor, mom, Drake, whatever. Everyone loves Coleus.
If the Coleus gets started this weekend, that's 4 six-packs, then 2 of the Radicchio, 2 of the Kale, 2 Rudbeckia, and that's all 10! After like, 4-5 weeks, I may want to start on some other stuff, like Romaine and Bok Choy, so maybe the Coleus will be ready to transplant?
So let's just see how this goes. I think I know what I'm doing at this point. It's just a question of keeping everything watered and hopefully not leaving it for very long.
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