February 29, 2012 - Busy Days Ahead

Although I have a few February planted seedlings growing in the house, tomorrow I'll begin the marathon planting that always takes place in March. My planting calendar shows me what lies ahead for the month. In/Out refers to direct seeding....whether the seeds will be started inside under lights or outside, directly into the garden.




I've taken Ed's advise and begun to presprout my next planting of spinach seeds. It has been two weeks since I planted 12 soil blocks with Space spinach, new for 2012 seed, and only four have managed to germinate. I now have another 18 presoaked seeds resting in a damp coffee filter, keeping warm in a plastic baggie on top of a shop light.



Many of February's seedlings have been moved from under the shop lights to the laundry room window. They seem just as happy there, as long as I remember to turn the containers every couple of days to keep the plants growing straight.

Moving some seedlings cleared up a lot of space on the grow shelves for the March plantings. I've decided to go with the 6-pack cells rather than soil blocks this time around, as I can crowd more plants into a smaller space (72 cells per flat vs 36 soil blocks) while waiting for the mini greenhouse in the garden shed to warm up enough that I can move some of them out there.



18 comments:

  1. It's definitely going to get busy the next few weeks! I have never thought of pre-sprouting spinach. I always pre-sprout my tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cabbage, cauliflower & broccoli.

    I need to start my 4 early tomatoes that will start out in the greenhouse today.

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    1. Robin, I need to find my mini greenhouse in all the shed clutter! I'll want to put the brassicas out there as soon as they sprout.

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  2. If you don't mind I'll use part of your schedule to start my seedlings as well. I usually keep 'out" planting dates but not when I started actual seedlings so it will be interesting to see actual full lifecycle and compare to package instructions. Thought our area last frost is later than yours - May 15 I start my tomatoes and peppers first weekend of march to get them in earlier. But everything else should match perfectly :)

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    1. Jenny, if you want my entire schedule just go to
      My 2012 Planting Calendar

      I start my peppers and tomatoes for a March 10 (or Mother's Day) planting. I used to start them both at the same time, but the tomatoes got too big.

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  3. I always presprout my seed too. Well sort of. I don't want to snap off the little roots when I plant so I let them soak for exactly two days. When I see the first of the roots start to come out and I plant. Sadly my earlier planted spinach seed (soaked for only one day) didn't make its germination test (only about 10%) so I'll be replanting it all. Spinach seed just doesn't last from year to year well. I have better luck with onions. But that's OK. I've got tons of seed I bought this year.

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    1. I presprouted a few last year, but didn't see that much difference between that and setting the seed flats on rope lights. If I remember correctly, they took about the same amount of time to show some green. That was with tomato seeds though, which normally germinate quickly anyway.

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  4. I like your list. Very nice. That window seems ideal for plants. Enjoy.

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    1. Gardener on Sherlock, the window is great. Unfortunately, it is about an inch too narrow for 4' shop lights, and it has a northern exposure. Soon I'll have to make some adjustments, remove a shelf, to make room for the large tomato plant. It is quickly outgrowing the shelf height on the grow shelves in the bedroom! It will get its very own 2' light if it needs one.

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  5. That's an impressive list. No coarrtos? I did not see them mentioned.

    My marathom will gein March 1 as well. Ton's of lettuce, more cabbage and escarole indoors. The bulk will be flowers. Can you believe i have non plantrd yrt!

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    1. Oh, TONS of carrots, Ed. I won't plant those until April, and will do several succession plantings. We can never have too many carrots. A link to my full year's list of planting dates (so far) is in my sidebar, Granny's 2012 Planting Calendar. Many things are subject to change, of course.

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  6. I've liberated heaps of space under the grow lights as well after planting out a number of cups and dragging a horrendously heavy flat of plants. When those are transplanted I am going to rip it in half and create two 2'x1' flats instead. Much too unruly as a 2by2!

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    1. Stay at Home, I just did my light juggling act again. Eventually I'll figure out the best setup, it takes a bit of trial and error. If everything just grew at the same rate....LOL!

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  7. Do you start your cilantro directly in the pot that it will stay in or do grow seedlings that you transplant? I always seem to have trouble with cilantro. I'm not sure why!

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    1. Gardeness, directly in the pot. I'll scatter the seeds in a fairly large pot, then thin them out to about 3 plants. They will blossom and go to seed rather early if you don't keep it cut back, which is fine with me. I'm not fond of the taste, but the bees love the flowers so that's why I grow it. I did find out, by trial and error, that the roots will grow out of the bottom of the pot, and then it can't be moved to another location....I ripped out the roots of the last pot of cilantro, and it killed the plants. This year I'll set the pot out where it can stay all summer.

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  8. Hi Granny - did you develope this tool? It's quite useful! I start seeds this weekend inside. Can't wait!

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    1. David, do you mean the planting dates spreadsheet? My Planting Calendar is here and a link is in my sidebar.

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  9. That is so cool that you have shelves in your window.

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    1. Meems, I just had to remove the center shelf and move the tomato plant in there. It got too tall for the other shelves!

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