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applestar
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Re: Finally! Off to a haphazard start for the 2014 season

This Utyonok decided it was not going to remain a stunted mutant :clap:
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Close up of the new growing shoot
Close up of the new growing shoot
I wonder if giving it soaked alfalfa water was what helped?

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applestar
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Absolutely NOTHING to do with seed starting, I know ... But had to share a photo of this phal orchid in bloom right now. Only two flowers on this stalk -- but I guess that's why they're 4.5" across (huge to me -- never seen them that big before)
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applestar
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I've been neglecting them and procrastinating due to an ad hoc seed pre-germinating experiment and the tomato seedlings were starting to lose color. It's now or never tomato uppotting day :D
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I've already been using cut off bottles and beverage cups for random up pots, but this year's main container will be 1/2 gal rice milk containers laying on their long sides. Exactly 6 fit per standard tray.
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I planted three per box for 18 solid per tray. They look embarrassingly raggedy -- I hope I'll be able to post recovery photos in a week or so :oops:
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Smaller seedlings were rearranged from 8 per to 6 per box on flat side, four boxes per tray. You can see one of those with 4 eggplant seedlings staggered in the box in the 3rd photo above. One of the seedlings must have lost a major taproot because it started to get wilty, so I had to put it in an ICU with a cut off bottle. When I took the photo, the wilty leaf had filled out, so it's feeling better. :wink:
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Now that they are uppotted, I'll be able to start hardening them off without danger of them drying out. :-()

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applestar
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Here are some of the peppers and a squash:
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bottle tomato seedling incubator update:
Coyote
Coyote
Matt's Wild Cherry
Matt's Wild Cherry
Zluta Kytice
Zluta Kytice

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applestar
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The tomato seedlings are coming along and mostly looking better. These have been outside hardening off:
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Last four nights, they needed to be tucked in for the night:
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Thus Faelan's First Snow with regular leaf is starting to show it's own variegation next to the potato leaf Variegated PL x Striped Big Cheef:
Variegated PL x Striped Big Cheef and Faelan's First Snow
Variegated PL x Striped Big Cheef and Faelan's First Snow
Cool looking high antho (purple) foliage varieties:
Amethyst Cream:
Front Row left: Amethyst Cream
Front Row left: Amethyst Cream
Brazilian Beauty:
Front Row left: Brazilian Beauty
Front Row left: Brazilian Beauty
Front Row right in the 3-pak: Brazilian Beauty
Front Row right in the 3-pak: Brazilian Beauty
Dancing with Smurfs:
Front and Back Rows right in 6 pak: Dancing with Smurfs (2)
Front and Back Rows right in 6 pak: Dancing with Smurfs (2)
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Juliuskitty
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They really are coming along, aren't they? It won't be long now. :D

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applestar
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Last night should be the last drop in the temp (41°F this morning) for now. Lows in the 50's for the next week.
But the soil temp in the NE of the house clay subsoil beds where I am planting tomatoes and squash is still only 50°F. ...so...
Warming the tomato and squash beds
Warming the tomato and squash beds

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rainbowgardener
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Looking good!

You just stimulated my brain to an :idea: that I should have had years ago. I always have trouble keeping things labelled. I don't want to buy enough label sticks for 500 plants, so I try to keep things grouped in trays and have one or two labels per tray. But some how in all the moving around processes they go through, it is easy for stuff to get mixed up.

I looked at your boxes with the variety names marked on it and it finally occurred to me that I could do that. My little pots are mostly black, but it wouldn't be that hard or expensive to put a masking tape strip on each pot and mark on that. Wow! Why did it take me all these years. Unfortunately it is too late for this year, because not too much is left in pots, but hopefully I will remember this for next year.

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applestar
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Oh yeah that would be much easier and cheaper. :D
I put duct tape on the black ones. I tried using white paint pen, too. That works really well -- too well in fact. It won't come off. :? On grey and green plastic pots, I just write directly with the garden marker. And ever since I found out they come off like a charm with rubbing alcohol, I just wipe off and write on new labels.

I'm refusing to make up permanent labels (triple folded aluminum tape "engraved" with ball point pen) until they are planted in the garden.... For the container plants, I really like the orange plastic spoons though. DH gets them from his favorite ice cream shop. They are re-usable as well.

Another thing DH gets -- rice pudding that comes in these cups because the kids like them.
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Doesn't it just SHOUT soil blocker? It even has a dimple in the middle for sowing seed. So. I tried it out:
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I cut off the rim, which made it flex easily, then wet the mold, lightly stuffed it with pre-moistened mix (not vigorously shoving in the mix like with the commercial blocker with a plunger), then gently unmolded it by squeezing and flexing (just like jello mold)
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I sowed some of the pre-germinated cucumber seeds in them. It seems like the perfect size. I also put some too long fermented tomato seeds that started to sprout in the in the middle one. Cucumbers are already starting to sprout:
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Cola82
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Hah! That's handy! And adorable.

I love the orange spoons, too.

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McKinney88
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Question. I have started some tomato seeds last week. Is it ok to leave them outside once they sprout? We average about 80 deg F right now. I have one barely up right now and wasn't sure if it was ok to set them out all day while I'm at work. All my other plant seeds I leave outside and they are doing good.

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applestar
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IMHO they should be OK as long as you have them in deep enough containers of potting mix that they won't dry out in the sun and heat while you are away (you should make sure when you are home, before leaving them unsupervised :wink: ) and they are not in drip trays when it rains (a lot) that they would drown. If they start out in full sun then they will naturally acclimate to the amount of sun as they grow.

However, they would be fragile in extreme weather, but if you bring them inside for a consecutive number of days during foul weather, they will need to acclimate to the sun and air movement.

Only other issues I can think of are pests specific to tomato seedlings and general nuisance like birds or squirrels digging them up.

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applestar
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Hahaha it took me a while to find where I posted about those pudding cup soil blockers. :oops: :roll:
Here's an update photo of the cukes and tomatoes soilblocks:
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