2014 Seeds Started!

[ReptileAddiction]

What I do is just enter the date and then what happened on a document on my computer. I am horrible about keeping up with it though. Most things do not make it on it...

[rainbowgardener]

I have usually not had any trouble starting spearmint from seed. Since the seed is very fine, it is hard not to end up with hundreds of them. But I'm thinking this 18 yr old seed that was not refrigerated, just isn't viable any more.

I've always been terrible at record keeping too. Mainly here is my record keeping. That's why I put a link to last year's thread like this at the beginning of this thread. But I'm trying harder this year. I made myself a spreadsheet of seeds I plan to start with days to germination, need heat, need light, need any special treatment, how many weeks ahead to plant them, cold tolerance. To ease the transition back to the computer, I printed it out and it is staying in my plant starting area, so I can easily make notes on it about when the seeds were planted and how long they actually took to germinate. Then I can add that stuff back to the document any time.

So today the basil is sprouted, on the 4th day, the first begonia sprouted on the 14th day. I planted lobelia (1996 seed). I planted impatiens on top of the lavender which was more of that 1996 seed batch. It is at 15 days without sprouting.

[rainbowgardener]

California wonder bells sprouted at 7 days. Anaheim chilis are visibly getting ready to sprout, so probably tomorrow. Everything else is moving right along. Next to be planted will be coleus and marigold.

[chriswimmer]

I'm on round two... I attempted to grow some basil in a 2 liter soda bottle but it died after it germinated. I realized later that the 'really sunny' place in my condo was also oddly drafty and cold.

I've found a new spot (in my extra bathroom with a DIY grow light.)

I'm doing basil, chives, rosemary, cilantro, and chard.

Planted them 2 days ago so I hope to see them pop up very soon

[wolfwalker]

I'm weeks away from starting my outdoor plants in doors,My indoor lettuce is now a inch high... have the lettuce under my spare shop lights.

[rainbowgardener]

I did plant the coleus, but not the marigold. Instead I planted salvia, tarragon, caraway, ageratum.

The anise hyssop, while still pretty small, has true leaves and it is about time to move it off the heat mat, into individual cells.

I plugged in the second heat mat. To have space for the anise hyssop, I will need to turn on the second set of lights. This is the season where the seed starting operation just keeps getting bigger.

[applestar]

Yay! Can you post pictures yet?
My accidental premature sowing of Cherokee Tiger Striped Plum f7 tomato seeds are starting to show germinating loops so I put them under good light.

[skiingjeff]

Well I have to admit to being an intense record keeper. Maybe it has to to with being a former accountant but I have developed a spreadsheet on excel to plan and track my plantings. It is probably too much for most gardeners but can possibly be adjusted down if you wanted.

It uses the projected harvest date and works backwards towards seed planting time. The first section (brown headers) of the worksheet is the "Plan". Since we know the "Plan" doesn't always work, the second section (Yellow headers) is where I adjust based on actual germination, etc. and get an adjusted transplant date, harvest date, etc.

Then because I'm an uber geek the next green section is where I log in home many plants germinate each day after planting (P) and calculate my % of germination. I usually print out the current date range from this section and keep it down in the basement so I can log (in pencil) the information to later transfer into the spreadsheet.

Here is the Planning section:

This is the first half of the Planning section

Annual planting schedule #1a.png (124.54 KiB) Viewed 639 times

This is the second half of the Planning section

Here is the Actual Section:

AND Finally the germination section:

Whew! until I created this post I don't know if I knew how geeky this/I am Unfortunately I could not attach the XLSX file so I had to do pictures. If someone wants the actual Excel file...lol....just message me with your email and I can send it to you.

[imafan26]

Wow, that is really detailed, I like some of the columns you had. I tried to do that on computer, but I would forget, so I got a notebook and write it in when I plant. Problem is that I plant multiple seeds or transplant multiple plants on the same day so I am missing some.

I am thinking maybe I should do what I do with the orchids and keep the record on the back of the tags. Of course that means I will have to get different labels or start sanding plastic knives.

I wish I could start peppers now, but it is too cold and wet. I have to wait until March.
I have planted kale, cilantro, green onions, Joy Choy, tatsoi, spinach, beets and romaine.
I finally harvested my ginger. I planted some back in the pot and put the rest in a bucket with some damp soil in the lanai. That will be what I will use to cook with and backup in case the rain rots the ones that I replanted. I have taken rosemary, bay leaf, Mexican oregano, Meyer lemon, lemon verbena and marjoram cuttings. I had to retake the rosemary cuttings because it was very windy and the new cuttings dried out too much.

[ReptileAddiction]

Wow! Awesome system.

I am at that stage where you realize that you planted something early and it is sprouting and now I have no where to go with it. My tomatoes are not doing to hot though. One of them looks phenomenal. It is growing super fast and doing great. The other ones planted on the exact same day are smaller and looking kinda yellow. I think once they get their first true leaves though I think they will be looking much better.

I also still have most of my ornamentals to plant but they are not my priority.

[rainbowgardener]

I planted petunias, salvia, coleus, marigold, chamomile, caraway. So I now have seeds for 28 different plants planted and a long way to go yet. The coleus which is listed as 10-20 days germination time, sprouted in 4, with heat and light.

Nothing else will get planted until the tomatoes and green basil around the 20th of Feb.

The first broccoli seedlings got potted up into the 3.5" pots. If we were having normal weather, I could start taking them outside already. Running out of potting soil, because all the materials I ordered for this year's mix haven't come yet, including the rice hulls.

[skiingjeff]

RBG,

Are you planting cauliflower this year? Even though it is a cold veggie, everything I've read about temperature indicates it is not as cold hardy as broccoli???

Broccoli says soil temp of 40 degrees but cauliflower says soil temp of 50 in most of what I'm reading.

I'm trying to figure out when to start it in order to get a spring crop. Does anyone in Zone 6a do cauliflower? If so, any ideas??

Unfortunately I can't start my seedlings until the middle of February as I'm away from home until then so I'm working on what I will plant and when and getting anxious to start.

I'm also trying to do more succession plantings this year.

[applestar]

Your post prompted me to look for my last year' seed starting thread because I had first time success with cauliflowers last year... And it turns out I did have similar thoughts as yours and staggered broccoli and cauliflower starting -- with broccoli in early Feb and cauliflower around mid-Feb

should have checked before sowing BOTH broccoli and cauliflower.

> I mentioned planting the broccoli ahead of the cauliflower in this post about planting out the cauliflower last year, but didn't note when I planted the broccoli. There's a picture of how I covered the beds against the cabbage whites.
>> Looking at my garden log from last year, I planted broccoli on 4/8 and cauliflower on 4/17, covering both with insect netting on 4/17, but noted that the broccoli could have been planted earlier based on performance.
>>> one more link to a thread about harvesting the cauliflower last year

[rainbowgardener]

One thing I still have trouble with is managing the things that have teeny-tiny seeds like dust.

I started transplanting celery even though it doesn't have true leaves yet, just because it was so crowded in the cells. I planted 18 of them in individual cells, thinned about 50 of the least thriving, and probably still have 100 in the 9 little cells they were started in. I will let them do their survival of the fittest thing for awhile longer, then probably transplant another 18 and trash the rest. Seems so wasteful.

And I have hundreds of little coleus and tarragon seedlings started, that will need the same kind of treatment.

Incidentally the coleus, which is listed as 10 -20 days, sprouted in 4 and the (Russian) tarragon that is listed as 7-14, sprouted practically over night, maybe 2-3 days.

Any tips people have to avoid over planting the dust-like seeds?

[applestar]

I tried two methods last year.

• Pick Up with Moistened Tip •
- only take out as much seeds as intended to sow and spread on a plate
- dampen tip of bamboo skewer with water, barely touch the scattered seeds
- twist the tip on surface of the prepared (pre-moistened, filled and lightly tamped) seed starting container mix (no I can't see them either -- just trust that they are coming off )
-- the tip is now moistened from the mix so just repeat picking up and twisting off at 1/2" to 1" intervals -- or in my case, next soil microblock.

• Pick Up with Eyedropper •
- soaked seeds in water or weak tea few hours to overnight until the seeds sank
- used Eyedropper to mix up and then suck up water and seeds and then squeezed/dropped suspended seeds where I wanted to sow

Both methods worked fairly well though *typically* my personal "Murphy's Law of Gardening" applied even here and I ran out of seeds before completing the seed starting container.