beginner vegetable garden in jiffy greenhouse

Hello all, I recently started some jiffy greenhouses. I can finally have my very own garden this year and I am excited. I have a 36 cell and 12 cell greenhouse with the jiffy peat pods. I went overboard planting different varieties at once. My 36 cell has beans, squash melon pumpkin onion spinach zucchini chamomile and peppers and my 12 cell has morning glory and oregano. So far everything has starte germinating except onions spinach and peppers but that's ok. My concern is that my beans are insanely tall but have no leaves my morning glories also are super tall and have pinkish leaves but aren't fully grown leaves. Should I remove the tall ones and leave them uncovered? Ive never grown anything from seed before! Also I don't over water them they have remained a perfect moisture for days. I also misted them with the water and hydrogen peroixde recently to rid of that cob webby mold it seems to be helping.

These are a picture of my morning glories from yesterday but they've become another 2 inches in the last 24 hours!

Do you have the peat pots in a lighted area? Once they germinate they need to either go under grow lights or a window with sun. I don't know where Canaan is but they could probably be set outside at this time of year as long as you are not experiencing the unbelievable wind and cold we have tonight in PA!! The beans, squash, Light will help them not get so tall and leggy. In the future you will probably find that beans, squash, melons, zucchini, and spinach can be direct seeded in your garden. But if you have a short growing season it doesn't hurt to start the squash and melons inside. The morning glories will tend to get long. Once they get their true leaves and the weather is nice you should be able to plant them out. The peppers are getting a late start and can take a while to germinate. Next year start them in March or April so they are large enough to be set out. They grow slowly. It may be too late for this year to get mature plants that produce once they germinate.

With all new seedlings I find I need to protect them in the beginning from real shifts in the weather. I often shade them from intense sun when the temps switch suddenly as they are going to do this week. Tonight they are predicting frost here and by Thursday highs of 85! Shading prevents them from shriveling up in the heat until they adjust. My rule of thumb is that if I am feeling uncomfortable with the constant changes at this time of year so are the seedlings! You will do fine and have a wonderful learning experience!

Thank you. I had to remove a few yesterday because the lid was squishing them. Mostly everything is getting super tall now but not leggy very thick and strong stems. Its been cold here lately from storms so there hasn't been any good light.. :( but thank you. I hope I can manage to keep a few vegetables. Alive!

I think you can remove the lid at this point. Next time plant tomato, pepper and eggplant seeds (if you plan to start those) separately since they will take much longer. Start them in March or April. Squash and melons are usually started inside about two weeks before you want to plant them outside since they germinate easily and grow fast.

You could actually transfer things that are getting too big to larger pots at this point if it's too cold to transplant them directly. Just get a small bag of potting MIX to do that. Any cup will do. I use plastic cups or used yogurt cups - make holes in the bottom for drainage. That will help them keep growing on until you can get them outside. Is your Canaan in New Hampshire? A very good friend comes from there if that is the same one. Then I can understand that it is cold at the moment!! It is unseasonably cold and windy here! Good luck - sounds as if you will definitely have something!

Thanks for the tips. Its been cold for the past three days. It should be almost 90 degrees Farenhiet on Thursday. I will put things in my actual garden then. Right now I put my tall things in plastic solo cups with miracle grow potting soil. Everything else is still covered in the green houses I have my small one in front of the furnace radiator and the bigger one is sitting on a heated blanket since its so chilly today. There was frost this morning and hopefully the last frost we get until winter again. I livve in new york by the way.

These are my tall beans my pumpkins and zucchini are almost ready to go into the cups as well.

Just wanted to know if my beans are looking good or not.

Beans look great! You could add some more mix to them to cover the stems a bit more. Isn't this nuts to have frost on Memorial Day weekend? We came close but avoided it. Now summer weather will hit with a vengeance and you will have to protect the seedlings from the sun!! I think this coming week you can probably put most things outdoors! Good luck. Keep reporting how it goes! I have never grown beans indoors before. When you plant these out put some new beans between the plants in case the indoor ones fail. The beans may or may not adjust well to transplanting. That way you will be sure to get something. Some people suggest planing rows of beans every week or so just to keep new crops going all season. I haven't even started beans just peas here.

The bottom line with starting seedlings is to remove the covers and get them under lights as soon as they germinate. If you cover them too much they can build up too much moisture inside the lids and then rot. As long as your temps are at least in the 50's and 60's they should be happy!

Thanks! I actually just moved everything in to my actuall garden today. The beans have gotten even bigger and now have leaves. I also have some really good looking zuchinni and pumpkins. I am hoping most will survive. If not ill end up buying already grown vegtables from lowes and do it the easy way. :P

But the "easy" way won't be as gratifying as eating your own fresh produce from your own seedlings! So hang in there and enjoy what you do get!! Another tip, until the beans get high watch out for birds snipping them off. That would be a shame after all your efforts. I usually cover my seedlings with a light white ground cover cloth so they are not tempted until the beans are a few inches.

Nice tip. Luckily, birds are not fond of this yard and niether are squirells, deer, etc. The dogs and cat and my loud motorhead boyfriend keeps those away haha. I had blank rows in my garden and ended up buying two pepper plants from home depot. I then dug around in my peat pods where I put my own peppers and sure enough the seeds had started germinating but very slowly. Ill give them some time and see what happens. Then I could compare home depots peppers to my very own. It would be interesting.

Karalyn105,
Peppers are HOT weather plants, and will stall if the soil is not warm enough for their liking. I kept mine inside so long waiting for our crazy weather to stabilize outside that I harvested at least 5 little bell peppers indoors!

Keep your pots on the electric blanket until it is waaaaaaaay warm enough to plant them outside. Otherwise, they might get stunted and not produce the harvest you could have.

Linda

I won't have room for the peppers if they do grow. Would they do good in a large pot?

Since I've been gone all day i checked on my garden and everything has changed so much. Its a great feeling. One pic shows the entire garden. The two big plants are the peppers I bought. And the second pic shows a random squash that grew next to my one squash i planted came up out of no where!. Should i leave it or move it?

Now that ive transplanted everything that grew, i didn't wanna throw out the other things i planted in the jiffy. I left the container opened on the porch where it gets hot. All three of my peppers have sprouted and i miracly woke up to a germinating spinach. So i have gotten at least one of everything except onions but that's okay! Id say for being a very first timer, i have an official green thumb! :)

Indeed you do - nice going! Now the real fun begins - watching them grow - then eating what you have grown! Great feeling!