2014 Seeds Started!

[rainbowgardener]

Oh sigh... I am trying and trying to get all my cold weather stuff (NINE trays of it now) hardened off. Once hardened it is pretty tough and frost tolerant. But it keeps having to come back in, which slows hardening down. Tues night it went down to 12 degrees and they came back in. Stayed in all day yesterday until now, partly because it was still cold and partly just because I was gone all day from early in the AM and didn't have time to get them out when it might have been warm enough (high yesterday just above freezing).

So the high today is supposed to be 30 degrees higher than the high yesterday (early spring drives me crazy!) and I should get them out. Except that I was looking at the weather forecast and we are supposed to have cloudy with 25 mile an hour winds all afternoon. High wind is really hard on seedlings, probably even more than cold. I suppose I can take them out and put them in some protected spot like under the bench.

Season clock is ticking on by and the time left until it suddenly is too hot for all this stuff is getting smaller.

[Jardin du Fort]

Oh sigh... Season clock is ticking on by and the time left until it suddenly is too hot for all this stuff is getting smaller.

This is one of the big reasons I am planning on putting up a polytunnel, as the Brit's say. This has been an exceptionally hard winter in all respects, and likely we will not see the likes of it for some time, but the last several years have seen all kinds of wierd weather and I don't really trust the "normal" weather pattern any more.

Keep the upward perspective!

[rainbowgardener]

Planted various squashes today (acorn, butternut, yellow crookneck). Probably a little too early, but oh well.

So that is the very last!! Nothing else gets planted indoors!

Tons of stuff that needs to get potted up. I am churning through potting soil as fast as I can mix it up!

[rainbowgardener]

Here's another look at what it is looking like. I meant to get a picture from farther back to show the whole scene, but I guess that didn't happen (or it didn't make it from the I-pad to here).

The whole area under my 16 running feet of lights is full! This is peak of seed starting season and lots of work to keep up with up-potting, etc.

16 trays of plants under the lights and a dozen more hardening outside and a bunch of stuff planted already and a little bit sold already!

[rainbowgardener]

On the downhill side now, potting everything up and moving it out as fast as I can. Both heat mats are unplugged now.


Memo to self: Don't let all the southerners on helpfulgardener talking about their tomatoes make you crazy! I planted tomato seed on 2/20 and that was still too early. Tomatoes got leggy and burned at the top from growing into the fluorescent light fixtures when there was no more room to raise them. Next year I could really wait until Mar 1. Wait... wait.... wait.... wait....

Starting the peppers at the beginning of Feb was ok though. Just have to do better at keeping them labeled!

[applestar]

ditto on when to start tomatoes!

...but this year, part of the problem has been the weather -- I think you would have had most of them outside hardened off and even planted by now, and I would be toting them out and in for just one more week. As it is, mine are hitting the lights with versions scorch marks on the leaves as well as some sunburn from when they were outside for the all too brief heat wave that was followed by the dip into mid-20's.

Trouble is, when they go outside, they seem to explode into growth and sometimes seems like they won't fit back under the lights they came out of just that morning.

I need to uppot most of the rest, then start hardening off -- couple more weeks before planting out, I think.

[skiingjeff]

Most of my cold weather stuff is hardened off now (broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi). Tomorrow I plan to get most of it planted into the garden along with some more snow peas. Of the 72 snow peas I planted about a week ago only 26 have sprouted

Yesterday I up potted about 58 various veggies and flowers. I have more to go but they can wait a while longer as they are mostly warm weather stuff and we are still getting nights in the mid to upper 20's for the next couple of days.

My salvia pretty much all have flowers as well as some of my cosmos but it is too cold to plant out yet because of the nights.

On a side note the hummingbird feeder is out and awaiting the arrival of the hummers soon

Can't wait for 40+ degree nights!

[applestar]

I'm chancing sowing peas a little late (for me) too. They are pre-germinating right now using the jar method since my sprouters are being used to pre-germinate corn as well as squash and melon seeds (another experimental technique I haven't posted about yet )

[rainbowgardener]

Everything is potted up, the first two sets of lights (4 tubes) are turned off, the tomatoes and peppers and basil are outside hardening off, and everything else is coming out as soon as I can make room.


Bringing things out is complicated by the fact that my partner decided that the deck (where things come out to) has to be refinished right NOW (sigh). So all of the deck furniture is on one half of the deck while the other is stained and dries and I can barely get to the plants....

This coming Sun is the big church plant sale, so a ton of stuff will disappear and life will get easier! I managed to kill off all the marigolds ( they were so pretty, in bloom already) and some of the coleus, because they didn't get brought in, in the last cold snap. The seed starting operation this time of year is just so complicated, it is hard to stay on top of everything. 16 trays under lights (until the past few days), more than that out doors, 5 - 10 trays going in and out and which category what plants are in keeps changing all the time....

[applestar]

Oh bummer about the marigolds and coleus

I can hardly keep up with just a select few things I'm taking out and in right now -- last night at 10PM, rushed outside to bring back the fig that is starting to form itty bitty fig flower buds and the experimental tomato seedlings in the bottles, looked around and decided to put a few of the plants (tea, inside wintered rosemary, etc) closer to the house -- all because of a frost advisory that I caught at the last minute.

This morning, it was 31°F and patchy frost on the lawn.

So I can't imagine the complicated work involved with plants that are meant to be sold.
Does the rest of the week look favorable? Good luck!

[rainbowgardener]

Yup, sunny and warm all week, with no temps below mid 40's... we are there!

[rainbowgardener]

Down to two sets of lights on, half of what it was at the peak. Most of what is left is squashes, which I am not going to try to have hardened off in time for this Sun - it is probably a bit early to plant them any way. I will bring plants for sale again the following week. I have something like 300 plants to bring to the sale this Sun.

[rainbowgardener]

My target date for turning the lights off is beginning of May. So today is May 1 and I turned the last four light tubes off and took the last plants outside to harden. No more indoor seed starting operation.

I keep wishing for my old pharmacy heating pads to die, so I could get nicer plant heat mats and they keep not dying! Man those things are over-engineered! They are the ones that are sold for people's aching backs or whatever and they are the old ones with no timed cutoff. But who runs their heaing pads 24/7 for three months? These are like 15 years old now and have been run like that three months out of each of those years. I can't imagine why they are still running. Given what I paid for them, amortized, it comes to about $1 a year...

[applestar]

They are probably the ones that are now manufactured in black vinyl and sold for around $60-$70 as horticultural soil heating mats....


Well done!

[Cola82]

I run everything through my timer, even the fan, so they don't dry out over night.

But yeah, I wish I were in a position to turn out the lights for the year. But I'm still working on some lavender seedlings and a couple other things.