my seed starting operation with pics

[Ozark Lady]

I learned a secret today, with the phone call, we were chatting about starting seedlings, and he takes a tray, lines it with newspaper, wets the newspaper, then takes another tray and puts the inserts in it, in order to keep the humidity high.

I was going to fire up the humidifiers, so that trick will help...

I bought lights, and tags yesterday, so I am ready to put lights on my little 24" shelves, but they only hold one tray at a time.

I think I need to back up and look at this, one tree at a time, and not see the whole forest!

I transplanted little tomatoes today, they are barely starting to get true leaves. I like to do it while the roots are small and not so tangled up.

Are tomatoes tougher than cole crops? I broke or severely bent 1/3 of the cole crops... and not one tomato.

The tomatoes were only on the dining room table facing a north window, no lights on them at all. The cole crops had lights, but still got leggy.

Okay, which is easier, to raise the seedlings to the light, or lower the lights to the seedlings? I thought maybe dog chains and cup hooks for the lowering mechanism on the lights. And various shelf heights are another idea... Just move the tray to a taller shelf... which would be easier?

[applestar]

Are the newspapers in the drip tray with the cell trays on top? Or is he keeping wet newspaper-lined trays around?

Okay, which is easier, to raise the seedlings to the light, or lower the lights to the seedlings? I thought maybe dog chains and cup hooks for the lowering mechanism on the lights. And various shelf heights are another idea... Just move the tray to a taller shelf... which would be easier?

Both. Also adjustable shelves.

I use everything from aluminum covered boxes, extra trays, bucket lids, to dowel sticks, to raise the seedlings up... even Lego pieces for leveling. After raising and leveling the tops of the seedlings for a while, I have to redo the whole thing because then I start to have everything EVENLY higher than they need to be.

Usually it doesn't hit me until I run out of head space for some taller seedlings, and realize that if I put these guys on the bare surface, it would fit but then I'd need to lower the light a bit, but REALLY I *don't* need that extra box under everybody else anyway. ... get me?

[rainbowgardener]

OL as Apple said, both.

Here (down near the bottom of the page)

http://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/v ... 4&start=60

I posted a picture of some tomato seedlings sitting with their tray on top of an upside down tray to get them closer to the light. Later I was able to move some of the taller plants to the top shelf and take the extra trays out and lower the lights. The shop light fixtures come with chains, which are hung from S hooks, so they can be easily moved up and down.

So the shuffle goes in and out and up and down !

It seems like for the newspaper thing to work, you'd have to have two different size trays...Once you line the tray with newspaper (unless maybe it's a very THIN layer) the next tray won't fit inside it any more?

SageHermit post away! Interested to see how you manage to start seedlings without any supplemental light!

[applestar]

So the shuffle goes in and out and up and down !

THAT'S the other song! I posted in this thread, that "DO THE SHUFFLE!" starts repeating in my head, often alternating with some childhood memory of playing musical chairs around this time of the year as I do the endless seedling jigsaw puzzle to even out the tops of their foliage. I don't know the rest of the song but, "Up down, and all around, la la la la, la, la la la la." is another accompaniment.

[Ozark Lady]

Since, my germinating needs just grew quickly, I am considering...
I have a heated lap pad... it is like half the size of a twin bed blanket.
What if... I cover it with heavy plastic on a counter top.
Then set trays on it and turn it on, it has high, medium and low settings.

I don't get the tray thing either, unless, maybe they are drip trays with holes in them?

I ordered 10 solid trays and 10 that will drip freely... so maybe we are thinking solid and he has ones with holes?

If they have drainage holes, the paper would hold them damp longer...

And all the trays do stack up, I got 20 trays and 30 sheets of inserts in one box, all nested into sets.

I drowned alot of seedlings with solid drip trays last year with the rains.
I had plants outside, and went to town, before I could get home and rescue them... they were swimming for their lives, and they did not survive, even though I dumped them immediately... So I figured, solid for inside and the drip ones for outside. I would rather soak them at will, than have them drown again.

[Ozark Lady]

Okay, I can calm down... whew!

He must have meant enough trays to start 300 plants. It was about 30 trays, not 300!

Cool, still alot to add to my home starting... but not a commercial, huge scary thing!

Whew!

I do still get cabinets, lights and greenhouse, but it is more do-able for a rookie now!

I already had 30 trays plus last years re-runs, so not a huge increase. I will still be busy, but not insane...

[The Helpful Gardener]

You were scaring me, OL...

HG

[rainbowgardener]

Now you are in the range of what I do, I have 17 trays planted already (plus most of another trays worth that was planted and is now in the ground, freeing up the pots for re use) and plenty more to come. Still haven't even started the squash and warm weather stuff. I will be pretty close to 30 trays before I'm done.

[gixxerific]

Good luck OL I'm getting up there with RBG as well. I have so much going right now. there is stuff stacked on top of other stuff so they can all get light. Than there are the other bigger pots and plants scattered about the house. I think my wife is waiting for spring more than me so we can get all my plants out of the house.

Did you say you have a greenhouse OL? If not that would be a wonderful thing growing that much.

[Ozark Lady]

No greenhouse, but, my hubby says that a hoop house is going up this weekend, and cold frames are going in before fall to extend the season.

I got him onboard! yeah!

[The Helpful Gardener]

Money talks, eh, OL?

Nice work...

HG

[Ozark Lady]

Yes, and it helps that the loggers are here this week... getting the trees that are really big, out of my future garden. And the loggers agree the soil is great there, and it is nice and flat... Yeah.. no erosion issues, well, less than on my hillside.

I am going to get paid to get rid of a problem, that was too big for us to tackle, much better than paying someone to remove them.

They have already taken out two complete loads of logs, just from my future garden! What a mess it is at this moment.

But, to remove the trees it would be a mess, no matter who did it.
At least, I only have the small ones, tops, roots etc to deal with!
And will be getting a check, Thursday.

Yes, money talks and turns things around!

Oh and the loggers said they can wench the tree that is over my barn, and miss the barn! Yeah, the barn will survive!

Now for the Black Walnut that is in my present garden! It has to Go!


So, clear my garden, get firewood for next year, and make some money... why not get a hoop house?

On a roll! Now if Gixx would haul me some of that compost...

[gixxerific]

Your getting paid, come on up and get some. They deliver, it's really great stuff. Of course I could deliver but my truck get bad gas mileage.


How many trees are you getting rid of? And who's gonna sequester all that carbon now?

[The Helpful Gardener]

Gixx is worried about carbon sequestration? How about your decision to continue tilling?

Tilling is a huge carbon release. So if we can get OL to go organic no till, she will be sequestering a huge amount of carbon. We ALL can...

HG

[Ozark Lady]

I am already organic, and don't own a tiller or use one.

I had to look up the carbon thing, and still not sure what we are discussing.

Let's get into perspective here:
I have 20 acres, 18 of it is so wooded, that the trees are not really able to grow that well. The areas that we have already cleared to make pasture, and grow grass, have doubled the tree girths, and new baby trees are always growing.

There is so many trees down, that if a fire ever hit, it would go up like a tinder box! We simply have to:
A. Get the dead and dying timbers out of there.
B. Clear up the undergrowth, that too would feed fires.
C. Clear enough to give the trees enough room to grow.
(It is like when you overcrowd your garden... nothing does well)
D. We plan to totally clear an area of about 100'x200', and use this area as a garden... a year-round garden. Now the area that will have the huge, only the huge trees removed is 200x1200' long, and it will still have trees that are smaller in girth than 12" diameters. With the big ones gone, not shading the smaller ones, they will grow like crazy! If you thin a pot of seedlings, are you decreasing their oxygen making? No, because the survivor will quickly make up the difference... Same thing, just bigger plants.
E. When this is done, and we get the brush all cut up and removed, it will be kind of like a city park, not a bare thing... only the garden will be opened up to get sunshine. We have had neighbors who dozed everything, and scarred the land badly, and erosion was horrible... This is not what we are doing. We are opening it up to light, and room to grow!
And making money at the same time.

Gixx if you put your arms out straight and walk, you cannot walk through these trees... you would hit other trees! The trees will now be spaced so that some sunlight will be able to get through the canopy to the next generation of trees, and not keep smothering them out.

It is harvest, to let the small, and standing ones grow.
I am happy we aren't having to pay someone to do it...
And we are not having to rent a dozer and just pile them up!