March 16, 2009: Sprouts Are Springing Up All Over

With the exception of the peppers I planted on March 13, everything else is starting to sprout. Tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, lettuce and mesclun are all showing signs of growth. I only had one single bulb, 18" florescent fixture and that certainly wouldn't be of much use with something like 168 seedlings, so I called in my son John. By this afternoon, I had a cute little "greenhouse" on the counter in the garage. It has two 4' double light fixtures, it's four feet wide, two feet deep, and high enough that I can add a wire shelf and two more light fixtures if I need them. He made it with an OSB top and bottom, framed it with 2x2s and stapled a double layer of heavy plastic sheeting on three sides. The front is a flap of doubled plastic sheeting that is weighted at the bottom with a 1x1, and has a big bungee cord to insure it stays shut. I can just undo the bungee and lift the flap, laying the weighted end on top of the box, and access the plants and lights. I have two heating pads, turned to low under the peppers and tomatoes. They, with the lights, are keeping the air at 70F. I'm going to add a sheet of aluminum foil insulation to the back to reflect light forward, and possibly a foil tent over the top of the lights to reflect the light down.

Look hard...the sprouts are yellow, the perlite is white. These were planted two days ago!

John is a good builder, a good thinker and a good son......he's going to build us a new garden shed this spring.