March 2, 2011 - The Lettuce Is Up, But Granny Is Down

It only took twenty-four hours for all of the lettuce seeds to germinate in their asparagus-crate-turned-nursery! Yesterday they were moved into the laundry room under the lights. I'm going to have to get busy and finish readying the mini-greenhouse out in the shed, as I only have room for one flat under lights inside.

Germination was better than I expected, as some of the seed was one or two years old. I planted two or three seeds in each cell, and in most cases all of them germinated, so they will have to be thinned to one per cell. The spinach isn't as quick to come up as the lettuce, but I see a couple of seedlings peeking out this morning. The parsley, on the other hand, will take its own sweet time.



Lettuce seedlings.


Tucked in under the lights.

While the lettuce seedlings are up, I'm down. My granddaughter, Alicyn, had a bad cold last week, and she decided she'd share it with her Gamma. I have the cough, snotty nose and sore throat......the whole shebang. Oh well, it's too wet to work out in the garden this week. Maybe I can manage to bundle up well and finish cleaning out the shed.


35 comments:

  1. I hope you get to feeling better, granny...want me to send ya some of my chewing tobacco to fix ya up? lol

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  2. Oh, YUK, EG! My ex father-in-law used to chew, and spit in a can. The babies would always manage to tip it over....it was just nasty! Once we went for a ride with him. I was in the back seat, our windows were down, and he spit out his window. It came right in the back window and splatted all over me! I never forgave him for that ;-)

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  3. Colds are no fun. I'd been lucky until two weeks ago when I got one from who knows who. It lasted exactly one week! Good luck banishing yours.

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  4. a good pot of ginger tea Granny... good for what ails ya!!!
    glad to see your seedlings doing so well... mine are coming along nicely too, didn't freeze in our cold snap... whew!!! spring's on the way .....

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  5. hmm i did a comment and it disappeared... LOL... anyways... a big pot of ginger tea Granny and i'm so glad your seedlings are doing well... spring is around the corner!!!

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  6. Sorry to hear you're sick. It's going around in our family too. I guess it is 'that' time of the year.

    Just curious as to why you seed lettuce and spinach indoors? I always thought those two were very easy to directly seed outside. Do you get a jumpstart with starting them inside?

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  7. Marcia, I'm giving it a week, no more. It had better be gone by then!

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    They both showed up, Roasted!

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    RandomGardener, we have a very hungry pet rabbit, who loves his fresh lettuce. It has gotten quite expensive in the stores, due to frozen crops, so hopefully I can get enough growing under lights to keep him happy. It will also give me an early start on it in the garden. By starting seeds inside every couple of weeks, I'll always have some ready to take the place of the plants I harvest. I've not had very good luck transplanting spinach from seedlings grown inside, but I still try every year. Some day I'm bound to get it right!

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  8. No don't bundle up and clean out the shed. Get some tea and a nice blanket and a good book. Rest up while you are sick. And I'll lend you my hubby. He brings me wonton soup from my favorite Chinese restaurant when I'm sick.

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  9. Nice germination, and fast too. Did you heat the area with pads or lights? In my kitchen things went MUCH slower.

    I'm surprised you sowed spinach indoors. I've always thought it was a direct sow thing. I'm interested to see your results because that would be very handy indeed! We like our spinach...

    Sorry to hear about your cold. I had a sore throat for 3 weeks, with the las two joined by the common cold stuff. Throat was so bad some days I needed to advil myself up on Doc's orders. Wierd season for sure. Get well soon!

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  10. Sorry to hear you're sick. Lots of folks here have had cold symptoms and the colds (or flu, or whatever it is) have tended to linger. So, take good care of yourself.

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  11. Daphne, how nice to have a husband who spoils you when you aren't feeling well. Mine doesn't. We won't talk about that.

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    Sinfonian, just follow the link in the first sentence....or go directly to my February 26 post. It was such an easy setup, and it's working great.

    Never did have much luck sowing spinach indoors, but I just keep trying.

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    Dianefaith, I had my flu shot, so hopefully this is just a cold that won't get too out of control.

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  12. Granny, you need to rest not clean out the shed. All that will be there for you when you are feeling better.

    Glad to see the lettuce germinating. I have great success growing spinach from seed inside. Especially in soil blocks. So easy to plant out.

    I hope this cold goes away fast and you are feeling better soon.

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  13. I hope you feel better!

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  14. Rachel, OK, I'm cleaning Mr. Granny's man room instead. I'd rather be cleaning the shed!

    I should have done soil blocks for the spinach, but I had all those plastic six packs, so I decided to utilize them. Most of my spinach will be seeded directly into the garden, though.

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    Thank you, Katrina. If I could just get over the cough, I could stand the rest of it.

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  15. REST you wild woman!! :P Please rest and let your body heal up. So nice that your grandbaby is so good at sharing. heh

    Seeing your sprouts is making me realize how already behind I am!! I have a dentist appt tomorrow and my oldest has an appt up at the children's hospital tomorrow afternoon. It'll at least be this wkend before I can get some lettuce n such planted. Hopefully I'll have as great germination as you have! We gotta feed our furry lil rabbits! :)

    Take care,
    Wendy

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  16. Sheesh, Wendy, I'll rest already!

    Do you buy greens for your little Poopypants? Our Cookie is so spoiled, he has to have fresh red leaf lettuce. Green just won't do, although I notice he's getting less choosy in his old age. Anyway, the red leaf is up to about $2 for a really small bunch now, so I hope I can get some growing quickly!

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  17. SB, where have you been, girl? I've missed you! Weren't you cleaning up after a hurricane or something the last time you posted?

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  18. Wow, that sure is fast germination Granny! Sorry to hear you are not feeling well. I was sick all week, and finally starting to feel myself again!

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  19. Meems, I hope I shake this bug quickly, I have work to do!

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  20. Yep Sir Poopypants gets bagged spinach and carrots mostly. I learned iceburg lettuce doesn't seem to do much for his digestion system (or maybe it does TOO much!) He loves the mixed salad mixes as well, but he seems to love spinach and carrots the most.

    I've read it's ok to feed them fruit but he's turned his nose up at every kind I've tried. Oh, and he actually RUNS (hops) away from cilantro. He hates the stuff!

    Hugs,
    Wendy

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  21. Wendy, Cookie won't eat fruit either, but he loves craisins, and gets way too many of them. They say 1-2 a day, he probably gets 8-10 every morning. He loves radish tops and beet greens, as well as carrots and their tops. He likes kale and loves endive. He does eat a bit of iceberg now, but wouldn't touch it the first nine years of his life. He also never ate much hay, although we still give him Timothy in his pooper box, and he nibbles a bit of it. He's so tiny, I can't believe how much he eats! He has a HUGE bunch of greens and a whole carrot every night, the craisins and alfalfa pellets during the day. Mr. Granny used to go out and harvest fresh alfalfa for hime at least once a week, but we finally weaned him off of that....I was afraid Mr. Granny was going to get shot for raiding the alfalfa fields!

    Oh, he does love apples. I almost forgot, they're so expensive right now I haven't been buying them.

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  22. I agree with the others, you bettter rest a bit for a couple of days and take care of that cold!

    Boy those seeds germinated in lightning speed!!

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  23. I had read that bunnies love endive, I bought some seeds not too long ago and will be trying them this year for him. I'll have to try the craisins. (altho I love those too!) Gally loves the dried timothy hay, he will munch on that first sometimes. I've been feeding him a carrot a day too, I was worried it might be too much but he chows that thing down to nothing and looks for more!

    :)

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  24. I read all the house bunny blogs and groups, and they all said "only 1 craisin a day", "no alfalfa", "only Timothy hay", and on and on. But then they'd write about how sick their bunnies got, and how they died at young ages, so I just ignored everything I read and did my own thing. He's ten years old now, and never has had a sick day in his life, so I guess I did something right.

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  25. Sorry you're sick. A good, hot cup of tea with lemon and honey,and some chicken noodle soup will do wonders. And stay inside and be a blob on the couch, with your big fluffy slippers, jammy pants, and fuzzy sweatshirt. You DO have those, right??? I enjoy reading about your spoiled rabbit. I have two, but they are outside bunnies, and not spoiled at all. I feel bad for them, but not ready to bring them inside and retrain the cats and dog to leave them alone.
    ~~Lori

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  26. Lori, I wouldn't be a true gardener if I didn't have fluffy slippers, jammy pants and fuzzy sweatshirt. That's my normal gardening apparel!

    The only exercise Cookie gets is when I let the dogs chase him. Under our watchful eyes, of course. It gives Annie some much needed exercise, too.

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  27. Robin, that's the coolest bottom warmer ever! Two days for the lettuce, and the parsley even popped right up after the container was set in there. I was expecting that to take another week or two. Two days under the inside lights, now they're all out in the mini-greenhouse. Next I'll be starting cabbage and broccoli.

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  28. Get better soon! *hugs*
    You have one happy snacking bunny! I have an anti-social bunny. He never wants cuddling or hugs or to be anywhere near us humans, but he loves the dog!

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  29. Crystabel, Cookie has never been real tame. If I can catch him, he seems to like being held and cuddled, but I think he'd rather just be left alone. When he had the run of the house, he'd actually chase the grandkids and growl at them! They were all scared half to death of that tiny little rabbit. Except grandson Kevin, who always holds him, even though he's been bitten more than once.

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  30. It's sure nice to see green growing things-looks like your crate was the perfect place to germinate stuff.

    I'm sorry you got sick....hope you're feeling much better by now. Can't keep a good one down!!

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  31. Uhoh granny, I hope you are feeling better soon. My whole house is laid flat from some nasty virus. Good luck getting out to the shed!

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  32. Sue & Kelly, thanks for your concern. I think I'll live, but my ribs sure hurt from coughing! I get out to the shed twice a day....once to turn on the lights, and once to turn them off. My clicker isn't working that allows me to control the switch from in the house!

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  33. Wow! looks like your way ahead of the ball istead of being on it :o)...good going..I feel like I'm too lazy already...

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