Seeds Update

Yesterday I checked on the seeds and the 3 pots with lavender had white fuzz mold on them. I cut those 3 out and tossed them so the mold won't spread. Those seeds were old and I wasn't sure they were going to grow, but I didn't think they would mold on top. Guess I need to get some lavender seeds, though I read that planting marigolds around your vegetable garden will keep the bugs away so maybe I should get seeds for marigolds instead.

I realized I didn't list what I planted on Sunday, and I also wanted to make a chart of the germination times, so here we go!

Seed Company	Vegetable Type	Germination Rates
Burpee	Garden Bean - Greensleeves	7-14 days
Burpee	Garden Bean - Royal Burgundy	7-14 days
Burpee	Garden Bean - Super Wax	7-14 days
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds	Pepper - Purple Beauty	not listed
Burpee	Letuce - Burpee Bib	7-10 days
Botanical Interests	Carrot - Tonda di Parigi	10-25 days
Crosman's Seeds	Kale - Dwarf Blue Curled Scotch	7-10 days
Botanical Interests	Summer Squash - Black Beauty Zucchini	5-10 days
Seed Company	Herb Type	Germination Rates
Botanical Interests	Sage - Garden Broadleaf	5-15 days
Burpee	Sweet Basil	7-14 days
Seed Company	Flower Type	Germination Rates
Botanical Interests	Sweet Pea - Princess Elizabeth and Cupid Pink	10-15 days
Burpee	Viola - Helen Mount	7-14 days

Planting for Spring

Last year I planted seeds indoors on April 20th in a collection of toilet paper tubes, egg cartons, with no grow lights and not a lot of planning. It was a very wet and dark spring into summer, so my plants didn't have much of a chance anyway. My results, well, were leggy seedlings that didn't have much of a shot and died quickly.

This year I'm starting quite a bit earlier. Now. I've been holding off getting supplies until now so I wouldn't plant too early, but I can't wait any longer! The new supplies I bought for seed planting are:

Jiffy-Strips 10 - 50 little peat pots Jiffy plastic planting tray and lid Hoffman Seed Starter Mix - 10 quarts Burpee Vegetable Starter Garden seed mix Burpee Viola Helen Mount flower seeds

How to Plant Seeds

1. Place peat pots in the plastic tray.

2. Spray down the peat pots a bit so they're damp.

3. Fill pots with seed starter mix

4. Water thoroughly - I sprayed the seed mix from the top and sprayed all the sides of the pots as well.

5. Make markers for the seeds and place them in pots to lay out where to put the seeds. When making tags for seed labeling, make sure the tags will fit into the peat pots and you can put the lid on! I read a tip a while ago about using plastic knives for markers. I collected a bunch from the junk drawer at work, and wrote on them with a Sharpie, and went about putting them in the pots, and then I realized there's a lid...

 

6. Sprinkle the seeds in each pot on the seed started mix, being sure to read the packets to find out if you need to presoak or nick any seeds.

7. Lightly cover the seeds with a layer of the starter mix and spray again. I also poured some water into the tray. There are ridges in the bottom that will keep the pots from sitting in the water, but hopefully they won't dry out during the day.

8. Put the cover on tray, put in a warm place, and wait. I turned the lights on my seeds now to give them a little more warmth.

Busy as a Bee

I went on a trip to Rochester over Mother's Day weekend for a slew of events - graduation, baby shower, friend visits, family visits, and Mother's Day. One of the lovely things I did on Monther's Day was go to the Public Market with my mom for breakfast and plant shopping. We had some great empanadas made by Juan and Maria and then went looking for plants. During May the Rochester Public Market is open Sundays just for plant sales. Although it was cold, we stayed long enough for mom to pick up some irish moss, ostritch ferns, and some interesting begonias I can't remember the names of. Mom also bought some wildflower seeds, and I picked up some seeds for sage, spinach, and kale. I'm pretty sure all the vegetable seeds I've purchased are for dwarf varieties, so I shouldn't have a 2-foot wide kale plant appearing on my fire escape.

Tuesday night I split up some of the basil seedlings and planted sage seeds - only six this time - in a larger pot. I think my intiial round of seed planting was over zealous. I wasn't expecting anything to grow from my seeds, so in each egg carton cup I put at least 6 seeds. Whoops. No wonder my seedlings aren't getting any bigger. They probably don't have any room.