February 19, 2012 - Sunday's Seedlings



The new seedling rack has taken over my bedroom!


Four of the shelves now have full sized 4' lights. I bought two of them this week, which means I might not have to "borrow" the shed lights this year. Unless I get really carried away with planting, which is always a possibility. Three shelves are already filled, so the lettuce will probably be moved to the laundry room and put under the 2' light soon. Actually, it could probably go out on the front porch most days now.


I have decided to keep all four of the Mini Gold tomato plants that grew. I had only planned on trying to keep one growing inside to maturity, which will be the big one on the left (they were all planted at the same time). Now I think I might try to keep the other three growing until they can be planted out on May 1, and I'll put them in my three front planters....the ones that have always held flowers in the past. I'll plant them as Ed suggests....the tomato as a "thriller", some Dark Opal basil as a "filler" and sweet allysum as a "spiller".


The Southport White Globe onions aren't doing so great. They don't seem to have many roots, and fall over quite easily. This container was planted with 80 seeds, and I'll be lucky if half that many survive to be planted outside. The identical container, with identical seeds, never did sprout any seedlings. I finally scraped off the top layer of seeding mix so I could reuse the rest of it, and noticed two tiny sprouts. I ended up scraping that layer into a pot outside. Maybe something will eventually take off.


I should be eating fresh baby Red Sails lettuce in a week or so!


The Tall Utah #527OR, Improved celery has been thinned to one per Dixie cup. It's growing well.


Parsley, Parris Island Romaine lettuce and Chioggia beets.


More beets. This is my first try at starting them indoors. Most have been repotted into individual Dixie cups, but I'm not so sure it's not a waste of expensive seed starting mix to plant them individually like this. I probably should have done them in six pack cells and just snipped off the extra seedlings.


More beets.


And another planting of lettuce, Wild Garden Mix from Ed, just beginning to show.

Not shown:

Several Dixie cups of Johnny Jump Ups from Debbie Clegg. I was surprised at how quickly they germinated! I thought they'd be really slow, like the parsley, but they were up in six days.

24 soil blocks of Harris Model parsnips, not yet germinated.

12 soil blocks of Tyee spinach, the first one germinated today.

2 Dixie cups each of parsley and New Zealand spinach. I didn't think the first planting of parsley was going to grow, so I planted more. Now, like last year, I'll have way more than I can use.


23 comments:

  1. I love it! I have the same set up with lights in a room etc. I have four units since I start all my flowers from seed,too. Thank you for sharing , I 'm not the only one in the world to have little seedling plants going under lights. Most everyone I know buys them from the local garden center....I think that is a good idea about the beets---need to do that ,too!:-) Just like your carrot planting idea, great one to try....:-)

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  2. looking good. nIce to see everyone is practically on top of the new season.

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  3. Your celery looks fantastic---I hope I have as good luck with mine. You seem to have had good germination. Last year was my first year growing it--it was easier than I thought, but I needed a whole lot more than I got-LOL!

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  4. Granny your seedlings make me smile :) It figures that all the Mini Gold tomato plants have all germinated and are looking so healthy. I can't wait to see your planters.

    I sowed some celery this weekend. I forgot how tiny the seeds are and will have to thin them out once they grow. Yours are looking so good.

    Have you even grown New Zealand spinach? This will be my first time.

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  5. I think we should have a pool on how many tomatoes you finally end up with. I'm betting on 48.

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  6. Geesh, you have plants growing like crazy! I need to get a set-up like yours. Right now I only have one light, but I'm going to have to pick up a second light soon. A third will most likely be in order when I start the tomatoes!

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  7. That's quite a set-up! I'm interested to see how the starting the beets inside works out.

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  8. Oh it all looks fantastic! I'm looking for a place for my rack today, have to wait on lugging the lights and chains out since we are showing the house tomorrow evening - I don't want the people to think they are looking at a "grow house" with the flourescent light emanating from the windows as they come up the walk LOL! After that it's seed time... we only get like one person looking at the house every couple months in this market :)

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  9. Robbie, once I get the cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, peppers and flowers going, I might have to move out of the bedroom and let them have the whole room, LOL! Hopefully it will warm up enough to put the cool weather seedlings out in the mini greenhouse in the shed. Which means I'll have to "borrow" another shop light from the ceiling.

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    Thanks, Stay @ Home. I was getting real antsy to get outside, until I woke up to big snowflakes this morning.

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    Sue, I'm afraid I planted too much. Another case of higher than expected germination ;-)

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    Rachel, I planted it once, years and years ago, but only once. I assume I didn't like it much, but I'll give it another try. It's supposed to do well in heat, but maybe that's why I didn't like it in the garden....probably wanted its spot for another crop of something.

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    Daphne, I'm only going to plant two seeds of each variety this time, so don't count on 48 plants. I have 12 varieties I want to grow this year, so maximum (including the Mini Golds) should be 28 growing plants. That's only about 20 more than I really need.

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    Thanks, Dorothy!

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    Kaytee, believe me....it just gets worse. You might as well buy two or three. Eventually you will, you know ;-)

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    David, my Crockett's Victory Garden book assures me beets are the one root crop that transplants well and can be started indoors. I'm hoping the parsnips will transplant without turning into tangle rooted messes. I have started them inside in the past....but I think I ended up with some very odd shapes. I'll probably plant half the parsnip bed by direct sowing, just in case.

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  10. Erin, LOL! As we drove up the street toward our house the other night, I asked Mr. Granny "Who left the garage lights on?". It turned out to be the lights from the grow rack, through the bedroom window. I'm just waiting for the police to come knocking to check out what I'm growing in there!

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  11. LOL. So many wonderful little babies already! I got seeds yesterday at Molbaks but NO fortex! I even asked them to check their inventory list that tells every seed they sell. Will continue the local search!! We got carried away with seed purchases but prob won't even have room for it all. We have access to "food bank plots" to grow anything we want for the food bank, so might do some of that also. Got the lights (three out of four were in stock at freddies) and some seed starting mix. We're almost ready to plant and a bit behind the curve but not too bad. Going to get that shelf and lights up today or tomorrow if it kills me!
    We got four freebie lettuce starts when we went to the NW flower and garden show that are about the size of your starts. I need to pot them up better but they're growing in my living room windowsill. lol
    Love the pics of your progress and the "lights left on" story. Do u unplug them at night? That'd make for one BRIGHT nitelite! :)
    Hands itchin to start digging in the dirt here! Will continue the fortex search in town. Sorta a fun mission!

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  12. Amy T., glad you got the lights. I'd have bought more than two with my rain check, but they only had three in stock, and one box was opened and ripped up. Did you notice if the regular price had been raised on them? At our store, the $10.99 sticker price had been changed to $15.99! I sure like that they have a pull chain, so I can keep them all plugged in and just turn on the ones I want. Yes, I do turn them off at night. The rope light that I use as a heat mat will be bright though, as it will be on 24/7 for the tomatoes and peppers.

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  13. oh my everything looks so great!!! Your lettuce is beautiful!

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  14. Mrs. P., you expected anything less from Mrs. Lettuce? :-)

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  15. Your seedlings look great! The light set up seems to be working great for you. The only thing that has germinated for me so far is the shallots, 18 cups so far. I'm really going to have to play catch up!

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  16. Ed, how about that Mini Gold! It sure took off from the other three. I'm just planting lettuce every few days, 'cause SOMEBODY gave me so many seeds I can afford to play with them ;-)

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  17. That seed starting rack is AWESOME! I bet the florescent glow gives a nice romantic feel to the bedroom at night.

    I sure hope my seedlings look half as good as yours.

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  18. LOL, Kris! The lights are really bright, so I turn them off around 8 PM. The nice light comes from the rope lights that stay on 24/7. With containers covering them, they just give out a soft glow.

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  19. rope light as heat mat. hmm. good idea! I have a single heating pad for humans which i'll maybe turn on low and try to cycle between plants for a couple weeks...or something. the house is fairly warm so shld be ok.

    Tera's putting up the shelf/lights now. They had three at my freddies too so we got three and then asked for a replacement rain check for the 4th! The young guy obliged and we will go back for the 4th. I was super happy that tera thought to ask for that. We too had a ripped open one of the next type over and almost grabbed it by accident. I def didn't want to take a ripped open one. Not sure why ppl do that!

    So going to grab lightbulbs today. Did u use the t-8 bulbs they suggested on the box or something different for the bulbs? I didn't get the bulbs b/c i thought I needed T-5's but in fact t-5's are smaller tubes I read and won't fit the T-8 fixture. SO, i'm going with T-8's and praying hard that it's the right type. they also had a choice of daylight, "natural light" or cool light. I'm going for the 5000 watt which i think was natural light. Any suggestions?

    do you set the plants on top of the rope lights for heat mats? hmm. love that idea. not sure tho if i can find rope lights now. Wanted some for borrowed baby's bunkbeds also. hmmm.

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  20. Amy T., I tried people type heating pads before I got the rope lights. One worked fine, it was an older one. The other was way too hot, even on low. The rope lights are better, they keep the plants around 80-85F if I have them on a solid surface, probably a bit lower if they are directly on the wire shelf. Yes, set the plant containers right on top of them. They are available all year, I got mine at Lowe's, I've also bought them at ace Hardware and on Amazon.com. We used the long ones around our porch in Arizona, but a 12' (or two 6', they can be attached to make one) is perfect for 3 loops on the shelf. They take much less electricity to run than the heating pads.

    I got the T8 bulbs, I think those are probably the only ones that fit. I got the cheap GE ones at Lowe's, just regular shop lights...I think they were somewhere around 3200-3600 and certainly bright enough. $5.99 for a two pack.

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  21. Wow, your seedlings look amazing! I have to start mine soon!

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  22. Nice looking seedlings. Mine have also spread to a rack in my bedroom and looks like another rack may be going in there soon as I do have to start transplanting something but mostly flowers right now. Have tomatoes and peppers doing great however.

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