Steph, I knew you couldn't stand not being in the conversation! Glad you finally joined us.
I'm proud of you!
So. What're you growing?
Zones 8-9 Spr/Sum 2011 Veggie Gardening is UNDERWAY- Pt l
The game is afoot, stephanietx!
My DH (bless his heart) just asked me why I don't get more seed started at one time. I'm very ineficient, he says. Well, I don't have the room, so I get as much as I can going, plant them into larger cups and then start some more under the light I have. So this weekend he's says he will help me figure out how to get electric into the shed/greenhouse so that I can have some heat in there to set up more lights and shelving. Woohoo! (As if I haven't got anything planned out for the weekend already, but I'll fit it all in!)
I'm slowly dragging him into the garden-side!
terry_emory, here is my new set-up. It may give you some idea.
I just bought this 4' shelf at Lowe's. They are having a sale in which if you buy something small they give you a $10 coupon to spend when you buy more than $50.
This 5 tiers shelf was $69 and I got it for $59.
With this purchase I got another $10 coupon that I used to buy the shop lights ....
Can't wait to start my watermelons the first day of March. My poor tomatos suffered terribly because of our two frosty nights but to my surprise my Hillbillys survived although severely wilted. I'll have to add some Jungle Growth container (blue bag) to mt coco coir as I always lose soil when I remove the root system as the roots usually grow huge. Meanwhile I am enjoying some good ripe tomatos except for this one or two birds that eat one or two of my biggest ripest tomatos every season but I welcome them as I am an animal lover and have more than enough to share. These are the type of birds that dive bomb you if you get to close to their nest yet they land right next to me just like my Blue Jays. I love it!
Nice setup Drthor!
Did you sow your seeds directly into those 4"? pots, or is that after you've potted up once? Are you going to pot up at all?
And, I'm still not getting how come your plants are so happy and not leggy with the lights so far away. Please comment on this. Thx.
Linda
DH is going to look for another set of shelving frames in the garage. If he can find them, we'll move the sprouted seeds to that unit with the lights and then I can use this set of shelving to sprout more seeds. We only have 2 or 3 four-foot lights, so we can't do too many seedlings, but I'll do all I can do! Thankfully, the room I have this set up in gets LOTS of morning light and is well lit through the early afternoon so the cups on the ends may be helped by that. This is totally experimental for us.
I'd like to do cukes and melons, too. Last year I direct sowed them and the cukes did okay as did the melons, but it took them what seemed like FOREVER to really get going!
tplant, I have a very small space so can only grow a few tomatoes. The Mockingbirds would always ruin the biggest best one so I went to the Natural Science Museum and bought a rubber snake and placed it near the plants. Worked like a miracle! It's realistic enough that my neighbors were fooled the first time they saw it. chuckle. Cam
Wow! That is very nice drthor, thanks for posting the photo. I'll have to check out Lowe's this weekend.
Last spring I also planted some watermelon and they grew slowly till summer, then they took off. This year I'm going to try some Sugar Baby watermelon again. My first year here I had some left over seeds and they did well putting out 6-8 melons. However the animals got to them before they had a chance to get ripe.
I made a mistake and ordered too many of these seeds last October and would be willing to send some SASE for those wanting to try.
Thanks
Dane
I grew Sugar Baby two summers ago (2009). Last year, we grew Crimson Sweet and they were amazing!
Linda, yesterday I planted:
Tomatoes
Wayahead (4)
Homestead (4)
Earliana (4)
Sioux (4)
Chadwick Cherry (2)
Pantono Romanesco (4)
Peppers
Red Bullnose (6)
Sweet Chocolate (4)
Orange Bell (4)
Golden California Wonder (4)
I planted 2 seeds/cup so if possible, I might be able to salvage the second one and double my plant count!
DH draped plastic over the set up to help the temp stay consistent and to direct the heat. It's a lovely 70-something degrees in there.
Gymgirl,
I have already potted up my tomatoes on 5" pots, they are much larger and deeper than the 4" I started my seeds on.
I hope they will be ok for a month.
That's all I need ...
I grow my seedlings with this light:
http://www.texashydroponics.com/shop/product.php?productid=2986&cat=286&page=1
I have to keep the light at least 12" higher ... otherwise I cook the seedlings.
I think the true reason why I am finally growing something is due to the light.
My seedlings are never spindly or very tall. I never have dumping off disease. I keep th elight on only for 12 hours.
They just grow really short and strong ... untill they go huge !!!
I am very happy. I spent money for this light ... but well worth it.
I start 3000 -4000 seeds every year with regular shop lights. Not disagreeing with you drthor just don't want people to spend money they may not have if they don't need need to.
The only time I've had problems with leggy tomatoes is when I started them too early in warm conditions. Now I start them 6 to 7 weeks before plant out. I haven,t started mine yet. I have found it's easier to speed up their growth then slow it down. Last year I started them on Feb 4 th and it was a little to early. This year I will wait a week longer for plant out date of around March 18 th weather permitting. The cool spectrum lights work great.
LIsa,
I've just potted up another 45 seedlings to 16 oz. cups. How in the world DO you deal with 3k-4k seedlings?
My seeds still haven't sprouted. I was hoping I had some overachievers like Linda and they'd sprout overnight! LOL
Linda I do it over a period of months and I use nursery pots. It's work but it's also fun.
It's just strange to see people starting veggies so early if you live north of here but I need to realize that we are colder down here-the Hill Country-for later into the year. Also being rural keeps the temps down. When I drive my son to practice at 6:00 am and the thermometer says 22 I cringe.
We were somewhere around 67 degrees with sunshine after the morning thunderstorm. I was tempted to sit some seedlings outside under the covered patio, like HoneybeeNC does, cause I'm almost outta fluorescent light shelf space.
I'm running lights 24 hrs and rotatIng the trays. I potted up 30 more Pruden's Purple, and I'm about to add potting mix to the 4" Momotoro pots. They might not get potted up at all before plantout!
Linda
Coming down to the wire!
Made this post on another thread and thought it might be good to copy it here.
Well I got a surprise today. Back in Sept 25, I posted a site that offered free samples of cucurbits. No one new anything about them so I went ahead and requested some samples. They arrived today. You get three samples of 20 seeds. Cucurbits are squashes and melons.
Here's the link:
http://hollarseeds.com/sample-request
I'm impressed with their packaging, mylar type, zip lock with pictures and info. Twenty seeds per pack. They say they are for testing purposes and the seeds are treated.
I got Tamara F1 melon, Dewlightful F1 Honeydew melon and a pack of Sebring F1 Summer squash (40 days to edible maturity).
Worth checking out.
Dane
Is everyone ready for the 4 days of nights in the 20's? That's what killed everything I had in 2009. I'm trying to cover better this time and Im using lamps on my brugs. Im also using pipe covering for my brug saplings and my orchid tree both of which froze back to the root then. They were over 15 ft tall. Good luck everyone.
Woke to a LOUD roll of thunder around 4AM and then listened to the sleet fall. Woke up to blowing snow, ice, and COLD!!
dmtom, thanks for the link. I must have missed it the first time. I did order some free sample. What fun and a dreary winter's day!
On the coldest morning of the season, I have lift off in my seed starting area!! Woohoo!
The Sioux and Pantano Romanesco maters have sprouted. Mark's going to set up the lights today so we can move them to the light portion of the experiment.
There's lift off in Fort Worth!
Steph, what's you're planting medium? Those are some nice uniform pieces there, unlike my uneven MG potting mix which has sticks and trucks, and tires, and ducks...etc...
Some of my WS'd tomatoes have sprouted- Roma, Costoluto & Cherokee Purple. I should probably give them some extra protection with a blanket or something when I get home.
No, I am not prepared but I harvested a bunch of broccoli side-shoots. I still have two heads of purple cabbage that I outta harvest when I get home, but the rest of my stuff is under ground- carrots, garlic, onions. I have brussel sprouts that need to be covered, though.
John,
You can throw a blanket over the cabbages, and they'll be fine. We're only due for a few freezing hours on each of the 4 successive mornings, I think. Once the sun comes up and the temps rise above 32 degrees, the cabbages will be fine...no real need to pull them --- unless you just WANT cabbage for dinner!
Last year when we dipped into the upper 20s like what's ahead, I just threw a plastic tarp and sheets over my WSed milk jugs of tomatoes, and my eBucket cabbages, for 4 days in a row. They were fine...
That's exactly why I love the winter cole crops!!!
This message was edited Feb 1, 2011 11:05 AM
Linda, I used some potting soil I had on hand. Uncle John's organic maybe?? Anyway it has twigs and some small pea gravel, so I picked those out when I saw them. I watered the cups, then plopped the seed on top and topped the whole shebang off with some Vermiculite I found out in the sunroom.
Ya know,
I got to thinking that, "we've got to be some kinda' certifiable when we start admiring one another's dirt!"
It was kinda clumpy from being outside in the elements since we got it whenever, but I used my trowel to break it all up once I put it in the cups. If I wouldn't have found the vermiculite, I would've just sprinkled some more dirt on top. :)
Thanks Linda, that's exactly what I (or DW, rather) did today- we used a blanket to cover the cabbage, broccoli, and brussel sprouts.
You know, I have always used some national brand (miracle grow usually) of organic potting soil to start my seeds and I have always disliked the large components in the mix, such as small pieces of wood and what not. I pick-out the big pieces as well, sprinkle tomato/ pepper seeds, and top-off with a fine layer of more soil. I do this with many of my other seeds as well such as squash and zucchini.
Anyway, I am worried about my squash and zucchini seedlings. I WS'd them about 15 days ago in 4" pots and they finally sprouted today of all days. I started to think they rotted since they were outside in the 4" pots and not protected in milk jugs. Well, they are barely poking out of the pots as of today, but it was already 35 deg when I got home this evening and they look a bit yellow. They are in the garage now, under lights, so hopefully they will be ok.
Last year when I did my winter sowing, I ran to the feed store and bought a bag of some kind of organic mixture. It was horrible! It had large chunks of wood chips, pebbles, and lots of other filler junk. I hated it! I love the Lady Bug brand Vortex potting soil and have used it successfully in the past with my winter sowing endeavors.
http://www.ladybugbrand.com/products/Vortex-Potting-Soil.asp
END OF PART 1 - Do not post past this point. Go to Continuation Thread , Part II below.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1152863/
^^_^^
Spring plantings...
Moreton tomatoes
Pole beans and cukes..
Linda, the link posted above for continuation is not a new section. It is an older part posted before this one. Either that or my computer is nuts. Cam