January 24, 2012 - The Season Begins!



The first garden seeds of 2012 were planted last night.


A hot glue gun, minus the glue stick, makes short work of making drainage holes in the bottoms of some plastic yogurt cups.


The yogurt cups and a bakery container were used for the first seeds of the season.


The yogurt cups were filled with potting mix and watered well with warm water. Four celery seeds (Tall Utah #527OR, Improved) were planted in each cup, and covered with a thin layer of dry vermiculite. I used the same potting mix to make the soil blocks. The bakery container held nine blocks, and these were planted with some Red Sails lettuce seeds that were left over from last year's seeds. I put two seeds in each block, as I'm not sure how good the germination will be with these older seeds. The flat containing the seeds was placed on a rope light for extra warmth.


The seeds were covered with a plastic dome to maintain the humidity. They will remain under the dome, on my bathroom counter, until the tiny seedlings emerge. They will then be moved to the laundry room window and placed under a grow light.

This is my first try at growing celery. Keep your fingers crossed!



24 comments:

  1. It's the best time of the year!!!
    Seed starting--hooray!
    Well, hooray for you. I have 2 more months. Bah!

    Celery is not as bad as I thought it would be. And homegrown is a thousand times better tasting than I imagined!

    Have fun!!

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  2. I am going to use some Christmas lights this year to help warm and light my seedlings. Thanks for the idea !

    I tried something fun this year with the celery that I used for Thanksgiving stuffing. I cut off the bottom and immersed it in water for a couple of weeks. I ended up with roots and a 4" stalk, which, had I thought ahead far enough, I would have planted in a pot indoors until the weather improved, then transplanted outside. It would definitely have worked.

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  3. Sue, I still have until mid-March to start my next seeds. The lettuce was just for fun, and will be grown on the windowsill to satisfy my fresh lettuce yearnings. I'll probably have to spend $20 for another light fixture to grow a dollar's worth of lettuce. Unfortunately, my laundry room window is 2" too narrow to hold a 4' cheap shop light, so I have to buy the 2' long ones.

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    Kris, I tried that with celery a couple months ago, but mine started getting a bit slimy and nasty, so I scrapped the idea. Maybe I'll try it again!

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  4. Good luck.... and seeds/seedlings would surely enjoy the little movement from bathroom counter to laundry window and the eventual place to grow and mature.....

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  5. Yippee for the first seeds sown!! I am really trying to be good and not start anything too early this year. I will be starting some celery very soon!

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  6. I need to start my first seeds soon. I was looking at my records and last year I started my onion seeds on 1/21 so I'd better get to it. My schedule says later, but now I've got that fixed.

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  7. I have another month-and-a-half before I can start my transplants. Haven't tried celery but have a whole bunch of new plants to try this year. Like the use of yogurt containers. I use old margarine, cottage cheese, powdered creamer, and such. If it is food grade plastic and I can put neat holes in the bottom I use it.

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  8. I ain't gonna do nothing yet! I'm bone tired..getting my fat butt up and down fixing the treadles on the loom.
    (Robin that's the foot gear :o)

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  9. Bangchik, it's only 27F outside, and freezing rain is falling. I'm sure the seeds appreciate the warmth of the house! Later seeds and seedlings will be put out in the unheated garden shed.

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    Robin, celery might be a bit early. Now that I've planted it, I see my calendar says to start it between 2/15-2/28. Oh well, seed is cheap, I might wait 3 weeks and start another batch.

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    Daphne, I'm ahead of schedule, too. I may have to replant the celery at a later date. With the exception of parsley (February), nothing else gets planted now until March.

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    MaryContray, I usually don't start anything (other than parsley) before mid-March. Celery is my 2012 "learning curve" ;-)

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    Ginny, come on now....throw on some of those bag boots like mine and get outside! We'd make a couple of good "bag ladies", LOL!

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  10. Good for you! I won't have the time to start seeds until the middle of February. I'll be waiting for your seed starting updates.

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  11. Ed, it's time to cross my fingers and hold my breath! Every year I wonder why I don't just buy a few plants from the nursery, but there's no excitement in that ;-)

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  12. Isn't it fun? I've really been enjoying the start of the season. I'm trying to ignore the fact that I only have a start because I flaked on the winter veggies.

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  13. Stefaneener, my winter veggies were zilch, zip, nada! I have a feeling the fireplace and recliner will be much more inviting than the garden again next winter :-)

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  14. You are not too early. Celery is a very slow grower and will easily hold until the proper planting time in the containers - just give them very dilute compost or (better) kelp emulsion tea when you water about every other time so that they get adequate nutrition as the germinating mixes are relatively sterile of nutrients and if they are in the pots for quite a while they will really need the supplemental nutrition. They should grow beautifully for you. Happy Seed Starting!

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  15. You are so darn smart AG. Good luck with those celery seeds!

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  16. The yogurt cups are very clever. I started my first seedlings this week too. I'm hoping to have lettuce ready to go out in the cold frame in about 6 weeks.

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  17. Do you make your own potting mix Granny?

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  18. Spiderjohn, normally I don't. I usually buy Ace Hardware brand of potting mix (not potting soil) and sift it to remove large particles....it seems as though they are using more of these large particles lately! That's what I use for my soil blocks. I add quite a bit of vermiculite to it for starting seedlings. I hate to admit it, but when I went shopping for that potting mix there was none to be found, so I ended up buying the only thing that was available right now, Miracle Grow. I'm sure it will be fine, but I'm not happy that it will be "feeding" my seedlings for up to six months, I'd rather feed them myself!

    I do have a cart full of composted manure out in the shed, as well as vermiculite and peat moss, so I should brave the snow again and go mix some up.

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  19. I had to stop reading for a minute when I got to "hot glue gun" and compose myself! I'm just picturing hubby coming home and seeing my hot glue gun out for seeds, he would think I had finally found a way to marry the gardening and crafting obsessions LOL! I still use the glue bottle since I delegate the carrot seed strips to the kids, I'm still too scared for them to handle the gun :)

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  20. Erin, I don't think I'd try a hot glue gun for seeds! It sure does put nice holes in plastic, though ;-)

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  21. How envious I am - I'm a ways away from starting. Have never tried celery - it has such a long season. Are you goin to let it grow in the light and be green or try to cover it up so it stays white?

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  22. David, definitely going for the green. I've not grown it before either, so I'm just hoping it germinates and I don't kill it before it gets out to the garden!

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  23. Kitsap, unfortunately I didn't have my usual seed starting mix, so I had to grab the only thing they had in stock. Miracle grow will either kill the seedlings or feed them for six months!

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    Kelly, thanks, I need all the luck I can get!

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    Stoney Acres, I'm hoping I can just get enough lettuce growing on my window sill (under lights) to keep me in fresh greens for sandwiches!

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  24. ooooh, I love the hot glue gun idea! Perfect!

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