Start to 2011.

[rainbowgardener]

Thanks for the compliments. I do have a 72 cell tray that I could play around with as well. What do you mean by "root bound"? Is the just not enough room in the small cells?

T.M.H.

Root bound is when the roots get too crowded and then they start growing around the outside of the root ball, in circles. The roots then get smothered. This can permanently stunt the growth of the plant and eventually kill it. In the meantime in the little cells pretty soon you have no soil/potting mix left (since there wasn't all that much to start with), it's all just roots and they have nothing to get nutrients from.

[garden5]

RB is exactly right. This is how my plant's root-balls got last year, but since I don't have another light to expand my growing set-up, I'm just going to start the plants a little later. This way, they won't be growing in the cells too long.

I don't know what the threshold is to permanent stunting, but my plants seemed to do fine, although I will admit that I had no control to compare them to since they were all grown the same way. Maybe they would have gotten bigger if I hadn't let them get so root-bound.

[The Mad Hatter]

Thanks for Tue information. That's kind of what I thought it was. I should be ok as I have been up potting as soon as they pop anyhow. I like to get them out of the Dome so they avoid the dampening off.

[The Mad Hatter]

Well its been a few days without an update so I figured I would snap a few pictures. Here is my cabbage. So far thy are doing very well.

[img]https://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d118/Scooter6512/IMG_20110122_211034.jpg[/img]

These are my mariachi peppers. They are doing very well.

[img]https://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d118/Scooter6512/IMG_20110122_211041.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d118/Scooter6512/IMG_20110122_211048.jpg[/img]

And these are my Biker Billy peppers. They are doing well to. They do however have just a very very light yellow tint to them. Perhaps it is just a different shade of green than the mariachi pepper. Maybe I have the light to high on that end? Or it could be that I am over analyzing things yet again.

[img]https://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d118/Scooter6512/IMG_20110122_211053.jpg[/img]

[DoubleDogFarm]

TMH,

Something was bothering me, so I went back to page one.

The thermostat probe. What did you do with it? It should be in the soil of the seed starting flat. You don't need to know the sand temperature or the air temperature. You need to know the temperature of the seed starting soil. Did I miss it on the other 5 pages??


Eric

[The Mad Hatter]

TMH,

Something was bothering me, so I went back to page one.

The thermostat prob. What did you do with it? It should be in the soil of the seed starting flat. You don't need to know the sand temperature or the air temperature. You need to know the temperature of the seed starting soil. Did I miss it on the other 5 pages??


Eric

Hello Eric. On my heard table I keep the thermostat in the bed if sand. I also monitor the temperature of the starter mixture in the flats. Generally it has been about five degrees lower in the soil mix than the thermostat is set at.

The first few days I checked the temperature in the mornings and evenings. It holds pretty consistent so I just check it here and there now.

T.M.H.

[DoubleDogFarm]

TMH,

OK, that sounds good.

Did the thermostat with temperature probe come with the water bed heater??

I picked up a water bed heater from the thrift store. It has no thermostat. I will have to buy an in line type w/ probe.

The heating mat is 8" x 48"

Eric

[The Mad Hatter]

Eirc, both of mine did come with the thermostats. Mine are not quite as wide as that I would say about six inches wide or so and a little shorter. So far they have been working flawlessly.

T.M.H.

[garden5]

TMH, good to see that you've got more seedlings coming up. I like your idea of using a water-bed heater to provide head and sand to disperse it

I'm thinking on a few different ideas for heating since seed starting time will be coming up soon. They way I used to do it is I'd set them in a warm spot, but that spot got no light and the seeds got leggy as soon as they came up. I'm trying to get both light and heat this year.

[The Mad Hatter]

TMH, good to see that you've got more seedlings coming up. I like your idea of using a water-bed heater to provide head and sand to disperse it

I'm thinking on a few different ideas for heating since seed starting time will be coming up soon. They way I used to do it is I'd set them in a warm spot, but that spot got no light and the seeds got leggy as soon as they came up. I'm trying to get both light and heat this year.

Thanks for the compliments. I appreciate it. This is only my second season gardening but I swear right now my peppers have more leaves on them they they did last year at the end if the season lol. I did so much wrong last year I think I could write a book about it lol.

I would suggest trying the heat table ans lights if you gave the extra room. Well worth it in my opinion. Plus when the seed starting season is all done you can use them again for shelves or just break it all down for storage. The only thing I plan on doing differently is to add the second heater to my table. This way I can set up four 72 cell flats at a time instead of running them down the center of the table where the heat is at.

Eirc, one other reason I did not put the thermostat into the soil, and I forgot to mention last night. It really worries me that if you do nit get the thermostat into the soil and secure it somehow it could come out. I don't believe that you want the probe laying in limbo. This I believe will result in the heater trying to heat the ambient air temperature to whatever you have the thermostat set to.

This would result in a over heating meltdown and probably a fire. Not saying that it would not work, but it would only take one time for it to come out then your done for.

I figured if I hurried it half deep in the sand it ain't going anywhere to become dangerous.

Happy gardening everyone. It snowed and blew pretty good here last night and I got shoveling to do lol. After I say good morning to my babies downstairs that us lol.

T.M.H.

[The Mad Hatter]

Just a short update for me today. I have a bunch more peppers that have sprouted. I up potted nine Big Daddy Yellow Bell Peppers and six Orange Bell II Peppers. Tomorrow I will up pot some more.

Yesterday I had noticed that my seedlings, mainly the peppers on the outsides of the flats were all tilting themselves towards the centers of the flats. They were really tilting today when I came home from work.

I have come to believe that this is due to having my two light fixtures to high above the seedlings and the distance between the lights was not great enough. So to counter act the bending to the light plants I moved each fixture to each end of the flats then set up a third light dead center in the middle of the flats.

Looking from the top of the lights down on the flats the light really hits all of the plants better as compared to my other shelf that has just two lights on it. I also added a third fixture to this shelf as well. One thing I also did was to add smart cutoff 2 X 4's that I stacked up to raise the flats that have smaller seedlings in them that are sharing the lights with seedlings that are bigger. Now the tops of the seedlings are all at the same height and are getting even light.

I do think I am going to try adding tin foil around the back and sides if the shelving to hopefully get the light reflecting around. The cabbage is doing really well. The Mariachi peppers age also gtring along great. The Biker Billy peppers are coming on well and are getting bigger by the day.

[img]https://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d118/Scooter6512/IMG_20110125_201008.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d118/Scooter6512/IMG_20110125_201018.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d118/Scooter6512/IMG_20110125_201027.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d118/Scooter6512/IMG_20110125_201038.jpg[/img]

[applestar]

Looking good! Seeing your seedlings is making me itchy to start ome myself!

[The Mad Hatter]

Thanks Apple. Next year I have some new ideas yet. One if them is to wait just a little longer before starting. I didn't think it was going to work as well as it has.

T.M.H.

[The Mad Hatter]

Well. Here I sit at lunch, dreaming of spring to finally spring. I am saving milk jugs so I can use em as a makeshift heat box once it starts warming up.

I snapped me a few pictures this morning before I left for work. Not all of am are this far along since I started them in waves.

Mariachi peppers
[img]https://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d118/Scooter6512/IMG_20110209_053613.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d118/Scooter6512/IMG_20110209_053605.jpg[/img]

[garden5]

TMH, your peppers are coming along nicely. You should get a good harvest this year. Mine aren't even planted yet. I'm kind of waiting until later this year.

[The Mad Hatter]

Well, its snowing out again. How depressing. I am glad for on days like these I can retreat to my small little room down in the corner of the basement where it is a balmy 62 degrees and there is everything that represents the warmth of spring.

So to day, as every other day I come home from work and kick off my boots, talk to my dogs and head for the belasement. Once I get down there this is what I find....

[img]https://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d118/Scooter6512/IMG_20110225_162742.jpg[/img]

I looked at all the others that I have, and the are all getting what I believe to be flower bulbs. My plan was to build the raised beds this weekend and build the hoop houses as well and then in mid to late March put them out in the beds.

What happens now since they are appearing to flower? Once the bulbs open up do they pollinate themselves or do I need to do it? Is I need to do it, how? Lol I Tess I got some readng to do.

It has been about six or seven weeks since I dropped the tiny little seeds into the soil. I knew I started them early but I never thought they would flower indoors.

Also they are under 6500k powered shop lights. I did not think there was enough red waves in those light to produce flowers. I thought they were more on the blue end of the light.

I built a spectrometer the other day and it showed both red and blue. Cool I though. I have also have been feeding them a bit of food once a week. Its diluted so I think I am ok.

So anyhow. If these bulbs do flower out, and I am pretty sure that it looks like they will do I need to pollinated them myself and how do I do it?

[garden5]

OK, they are definitely getting ready to flower. By question for you is are you going to be keeping them in pots, or will you be planting them outside?

If you will be planting them outside (which I think you are) I'd suggest picking off the flowers.

The reason I say this is when I planted my peppers in the garden last year, I plucked the flowers off of some and left the flowers on the others. Now, I didn't have a large sampling to work with, but my observations were that the plants that had the flowers left on bore the first fruits.....but under-performed the plants without the flowers.

On the other hand, the plants without the flowers produced a few weeks later, but did better overall.

I do believe in many instances that if a plant is flowering, to let it be (it knows what it's doing).
However, in this scenario, I would say that it looks like it is better to allow the plant to establish a root-system before fruiting. Seems to workout better in the long-run that way.

For full disclosure, I will say that my plants were small and root-bound to some degree when I planted them. Perhaps this does not matter as much for larger, up-potted plants .

I would say to at least pick off the flowers on some of the plants so that you could do a side-by-side for yourself this year and see what works best for you.

Hope this helps.

[The Mad Hatter]

Excellent advice. I appreciate it. Since I have a ton of plants I will pick half the plants with flowers and Tue other half I will let do as they please.

I agree to I think they could be a bit root bound butcthe really don't seem to be slowing down or acting like they don't like the pots. They are in eight inch pots now. It just seemed to me and mayby I am wrong but I just thought it was a bit early to be putting on flowers since they were started seven to eight weeks ago. I would have to check my spreadsheet when I get home and see the exact start date.

Is it ok to feel a little bad about picking the flowers off lol...

T.M.H.

[DoubleDogFarm]

I don't have a lot of experience with peppers, but many stressed plants will set flowers. I would definitely check for root bound plants.

I've seen leafy greens, spinach and Asian greens, basically go right to seed heads. In this case most likely water and heat stress.

Eric

[The Mad Hatter]

Well a small update before getting the day started. Last week I had been wondering about the peppers and tomatoes being root bound so I decided to try my hand art container gardening as well. Here is what I had done.

I had four bucket around the house that were nit being used for anything so I figured there you go. Make shift pots!

I got the potting mix out and got it moist, but not wet. I then picked out three tomatoes and one pepper plant. The pepper plant has been in an eight inch pot fora a while NW and I thought for sure it was root bound. Turns out that was not the case at all. Only about half root bound. So into the bucket he went.

I also took two tomatoes and planted them in the buckets. I sunk them a little deeper than they were in the ice cream buckets heh. The last tomato I planted is yet another experiment. Since the are bushing out pretty good I thought I would try to encourage some upward growth. So I cut off the lower branches and planted him real deep. He's not dead yet but he's also not any taller or wider yet. But is only been a week.

Last week I also moved these guys up to the with does upstairs. They seemed to like this as well. So figuring since thy like the sunlight in the window and the temps have been very nice I have been leaving them outside all day in full sun. So far so good. I think I am going to bring the eight inch pots outside today to maybe.

[img]https://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d118/Scooter6512/IMG_20110311_110155.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d118/Scooter6512/IMG_20110311_110202.jpg[/img]

Happy gardening to all. Anyone want to help carry pots around? Heheh. I still hope for tomatoes and peppers mid to late April.

T.M.H.

[cgantt]

Our local Home Depot actually sells tomato and pepper plants potted just like that in 5 gallon buckets. My grandmother bought some last year and they did pretty well.

[rainbowgardener]

mid April is pretty optimistic if they don't have any tomatoes on them yet.

Looking at some of last years pictures, from this


[img]https://i602.photobucket.com/albums/tt102/rainbowgardener/4024%20Paddock%20garden/june-tomatoes.jpg[/img]

to this:

[img]https://i602.photobucket.com/albums/tt102/rainbowgardener/June_R_tomatoes.jpg[/img]

was two full weeks.

From golf ball sized tomatoes to the second picture was 5 weeks.

[garden5]

Good luck and make sure you let us know how your flower experiment turns out!

I had a feeling your plants should be fine if they are in 8 in. pots. Mine were in 1.5/1.5 inch cells.

They were only like 3.5 in. tall and flowering, LOL.

WAY root bound.

[The Mad Hatter]

Yeah rainbow, I should have been a bit more specific when I said mid April. I was meaning green toms in general.

As for the flow experiment, I could nit bring myself to pull the flowers. I did however just try to hand pollinate one of the flowers that are openthis morning. With any kind of luck it will work. I have never done that before so we will see his it goes.

[img]https://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d118/Scooter6512/IMG_20110312_125438.jpg[/img]

T.M.H.

[The Mad Hatter]

Got some more flowers today. I did the same hand pollinating exercise as yesterday. This on happens to be another mariachi that my daughter planted.

[img]https://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d118/Scooter6512/IMG_20110313_113248.jpg[/img]

[jlock274]

Been having fun getting ready for 2011 myself...

[The Mad Hatter]

Well, its been a little while since I updated my log. I came home today and was greater with the beginnings of Mariachi Peppers. I am so happy hehehe.

This one here I have in a six gallon bucket with a cage on it. He gets light through an east facing window and also get put outside on the nicer days.

[img]https://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d118/Scooter6512/IMG_20110321_155105.jpg[/img]

Now these little guys here I still have in eight inch pots. They have never been outside the basement and have never seen the sun. I can't wait to try em out. Also can't wait to get their lttle brothers and sisters out in the soil.

[img]https://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d118/Scooter6512/IMG_20110321_155501.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d118/Scooter6512/IMG_20110321_155614.jpg[/img]



[img]https://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d118/Scooter6512/IMG_20110321_155608.jpg[/img]

[The Mad Hatter]

Here I sit at work. Had to open the plant this morning. Just waiting on everyone to show up now. So yesterday I got the ground broke and the soil tilled up. Boy did it till easier than last year but man am I feeling it now lol. I will post up a picture when I get home tonight.

I did nit do the raised beds this year. As much as I wanted it just never happened. I plan on fertilizing tonight and raking that in. I did a soil test and everything is very very low. Last year and didn't do anything but feed them through the garden hose. This year I am putting out the good stuff. I also plan on starting the hardening off process ad well. I imagine I will have some plants in the ground this weekend. What a great birthday present that will be heheh.

Happy gardening everyone!

T.M.H.

[The Mad Hatter]

Well tonight I got the fertilizer down and all raked in nice and flat. Didn't take me to long and it was another beautiful evening. Its amazing, stressful days at the plant and to come home and play in the dirt is so very relaxing.

[img]https://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d118/Scooter6512/IMG_20110406_171426.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d118/Scooter6512/IMG_20110406_171409.jpg[/img]

I will now start to harden off all my plants and get them ready for the fresh soil. In the meantime, I still need to get the netting and t-posts up, the outside walkway weed blocker down and the Bio degradable weed blocker for between the rows.

[img]https://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d118/Scooter6512/IMG_20110406_193228.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d118/Scooter6512/IMG_20110406_193236.jpg[/img]

I can't wait....

T.M.H.