I'll show you mine if you show me yours. Actually I'll just show you mine, it's O.K. we're all busy and nobody has time to take photos of their seedlings when there are more important things to be done in life like looking at photos of my seedlings.
This is one of those Saturday posts which means it's Friday night at 7 p.m. as I write this and I'd like to get it wrapped up quickly so that I can go and stare at my seedlings.
It's a thing you do, any gardener knows that. You plant the seeds and from that day on you star at them. First it's the dirt, then you put your reading glasses on because you're pretty sure that's a leaf about to pop out.
Days and weeks go by and every morning and night you just ... look at them.
Every single time, every single year, I'm amazed at how I've managed to create life. Permission granted for all mothers to roll their eyes right now.
I'll have a larger post explaining my system for growing this year later but for now you can see how things are doing and compare them to what yours look like.
But don't be alarmed if yours are a lot bigger or smaller than mine. It's not a big deal. Even my own plants have a huge variety in sizes depending on how quickly the seed germinated or how fast I potted them up.
These peppers for example, were all planted on March 1st.
They're all at completely different stages. The one on the left, a sweet paprika pepper is MUCH taller and just starting to produce flower buds. The middle pepper, the Sweetie Drop pepper is very short and stocky with no flower buds. And the pepper to the right, the Pot A Peño (a Jalapeno pepper for pots) is mid sized with flowers.
PEPPER TIP: I learned while reading my growing bible, The New Seed Starter's Handbook that for a bigger yield of peppers mid and late season that includes BIGGER peppers, you should snip all but 5 of the early buds.
So I'll be doing that tonight when I go downstairs to visit them.
My Jerry Springer post yesterday took hours to write so that is all the talking I have left in me for the week.
Two puzzles today, a fun little 18 piece and an 88 piece, because I've kind of short changed you on entertaining words today. Writing The Jerry Springer post this week took all of my weekly word allotment and brain reserves.
Have a good weekend! Rain here. Plus a private lesson with Philip because even though he's the best dog in the world. He's also a made up of 1% shithead.
My hope is to train at l east .5% of that shithead out of him. Wish us luck.
Beautiful seedlings! Haven’t started mine yet, haha, might just bite the bullet and buy some starts. I know, can I even call myself a gardener? My poodle was 1% sh*thead too, but after he hit two and half he decided to become the best dog in the universe. I’m sure yours will too.
I'll come back in 9 months and let you know. ;) ~ karen!
I’m about ready to throw in the trowel (pun intended) my seedlings are testy this year. They’ve sprouted and stopped. For weeks now I’ve been staring at these little sprouts encouraging them to grow, the radio is on the timer with the lights so they’ve even got good music. Nothing. Since I have a bale of peat moss I thought I’d follow your recipe this year and make my own starter mix. I don’t know what the problem was and I don’t know if it’s too late to start more seeds or just buy plants this season. All suggestions graciously welcome :)
You might need more nutrients. Add compost. Or ... as a kick start try giving them a liquid fertilizer. Mix up say, 1/2 tsp per 8 cups of water (or whatever the ratio the bottle says) and water them with that. It could also be the temperature in the room. If it's too cool and they don't like it, they'll protest. ~ karen!
Started over 2,000 and they were SO healthy (FL). I even hardened them off so they could withstand the horrible sun/heat that alternately shined at 90F then dipped overnight to 34F. They were hardy, thick stemmed sweethearts until they weren't sold and extended 2' from their 4" pots and when the rains finally came and turned their pots into septic containers. The deer fence you sold me on, WORKED. Each year I want to know why I continue, then those yummy Sungolds produce, the zinnias show their happy faces, and I again realize I'm a gardener that loves those tiny seedlings and the feeling I get watching them (and yours). Thanks for the puzzles!
Seedlings are like babies. They're cute and then you look away for one second and they've turned gawky, gangly and awkward. ~ karen! ps that's a LOT of seedlings. And now I want to go and count mine
I’m have some nice big healthy tomato seedlings. If it wasn’t so friggin cold (Kingston Ontario) I would put them on my hardening off cart (wire shelf wrapped in vapour barrier and clipped in with binder clips). I might just do it anyway. I need the room under the lights for later stuff that’s sprouted.
I also have pepper plants that were started at the same time as my tomatoes that STILL do not have true leaves. They are just sitting there. They have lots of healthy roots though so I may just move them to pots anyway. My tomatoes really took off after I put them in 3” pots.
It's amazing how quickly things go when you pot them up. ~ karen!
I started my sunflower seeds about 6 weeks ago and I swear they are pushing the overhead grow light up by sheer will. Too bad they are hogging the lights from the other shorter seedlings. Good tip about the pepper seedlings. I'll look that up now in my copy.
Some of my luffa plants are starting to bloom, so do the bitter gourds. Keeping my fingers and toes crossed that they'll survive after I put them in the ground.
I love reading about your stuff, but the website is so cluttered that my browser keeps reloading the content making it impossible to get a good read.
I got a little carried away with the seedlings this year...turns out I can't do "tomato math"! I should not be left unattended with a seed a catalog and a credit card....19 varieties and 360 tomato seedlings later! I thought I would just plant 5 of each, but that's still 95 plants! Who needs 95 tomato plants?! I'm gonna be canning tomatoes until the cows come home!!
I used to do that sort of thing. I still do that sort of thing.😆 ~ karen!
How do you keep your pets out of your seedlings? I have four cats and it is a *struggle*
My seedlings are on shelves in my basement and my cats just were never interested in them so it wasn't a struggle for me. And Lip isn't allowed downstairs in the basement. I'd say put the seedlings out of reach from the cats but we both know no such place exists. ~ karen!
Weird question - I get your email, and got an email announcing a post about going to a mall, but I get a 404 page not found error when I follow the link. What am I doing wrong?....
Hi Kim, you aren't doing anything wrong. It was just a post that wasn't supposed to publish yet. That post will be published on Friday. :) ~ karen!