Monday, March 30, 2009

Monday Seedling Update

Since I've taken my LED light down, the seedlings have had to survive with just natural light. In the morning they are down in the laundry room. That window gets the morning sun well. Then around 1:30pm I move them to the dining room which gets great afternoon sun. Needless to say this is a lot of work. It worked great while the sun was shining, but for the last couple of days it has been cloudy and dreary. The seedlings are starting to stretch out a bit. Before they were nice stocky little things.

Inside I have the plants that were seeded a week ago. They have started coming up. Above is a container of flowers: Borage (lowest two blocks on the left), tihonia (lowest two blocks on the right and the whole right hand column), marigolds (twelve center blocks, only eight of which have germinated so far), and under the plastic to the far right are my three monarda blocks only one of which have come up yet. They are tiny little things. Their seed is like dust.

I also have some chard inside (not shown) and a group of 15 chili peppers that were sown two weeks ago. I drew a picture of where they all were. I do this for all my blocks since labeling them seems wrong. Usually I mark one side so I can tell which way to orient the container when comparing it to the drawing, but I forgot this time. Whoops! Now I'm not quite sure which side the cayennes are on. I'm hoping I'll be able to tell as they grow. I have them in sets of 3 cayenne, 6 serrano, 6 jalapeno. So if only there is a difference between the ones on the ends I'll be able to figure it out. So far not so much.

The peppers are growing well. One of the chili peppers didn't fit in the above container so I left it with the brassicas and lettuce outside. So far the outside one has survived, but it isn't quite as large. It is still cold outside and not yet pepper weather even under plastic.

The outside plants were all sown two weeks ago under the LED lights. Shown above bottom to top: broccoli, cabbage (one which is a tricot), chard, Chinese cabbage. They are mostly doing well now that they are seeing real light. The last couple of days of dark weather has them starting to strech again. Sigh.

I put in toothpicks to hold up the worst offender the Holland greens. One of those plants seems to be doing OK, but this one has fallen over again amidst the Tatsoi and Fun Jen. It was growing between the LED lights which are spaced 3/4" apart. If it was directly under it would have been fine, but because it grew up between, it just is too leggy. I'll plant it anyway, but I'll plant it deep. Not yet however as it still needs a couple of weeks of growing like the rest of these plants.

Even though a few things have gotten leggy, I've been pretty happy with how things are going. There have been no major disasters. No tripping on the stairs. No pots upturned. No damping off. Currently I'm spraying the inside seedlings every day with chamomile tea and that seems to be doing the trick. The blocks are holding together better now that I'm treating them well. I put boards under their containers so when they get moved they don't tip over. I just need a real light for them. I'm going to buy a shop light soon. The buds are swelling on the trees and as soon as they leaf out, no more sun in the laundry room. Time is ticking. I need to get to the store.

14 comments:

  1. Daphne, I was wondering why you're not still using the LED setup?

    EG

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  2. EG, I don't like them. The LEDs are not bright enough. They also don't spread out their light, so if a seedling is between lights (each LED is 3/4" apart) they reach up between them and get almost no light at all. Tessa was saying that the good ones (expensive) all have little deflectors on them to help spread the light. I could live with all of that if I could get the natural light in also, but you have to put the LEDs right on top of them and the panel holding the lights block the sun. I don't find them to be any better than natural sunlight through the window on a party cloudy day. Since the natural light is as good (better on sunny days) it seems silly to use it. So I'm not anymore. It is back to fluorescents for me.

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  3. I've tripped carrying a whole tray of pots that I had just seeded with tomatoes! Only once, now I'm extra careful. You've got a really nice variety of veggies started.

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  4. Daphne, I hate to hear that about the lights, and appreciate the information.

    EG

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  5. Go for that shoplight!!! I think your seedlings look great. And to be philosophical, even if you can't tell the pepper plants apart, you'll know which they are once they start setting peppers! The outdoor crew looks especially happy.

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  6. They all look very healthy to me. I thought I was busy but you have so many on the go. The Camomile tea sounds interesting, does it relly make a difference ? if so I may give it a try.
    Maureen :)

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  7. I'm also having better luck with most seedlings in the plant window, with no artificial light. Only the peppers, tomatoes, basil and marigolds seem to like the artificial light in the greenhouse, the brassicas and greens not so much.

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  8. You are getting a nice collection of seedlings. I started some of your chard & tatsoi on Sunday. They are in the propagator now and will go in the frame as soon as they germinated. The 'fun jen' has an interesting name, what does it taste like?

    I can't wait to be able to shut off my light and have the lower hydro bills. To bad about the LED's. I have been looking at a 100w LED bulb that can replace my metal halide bulb. They are not available until the summer but I imagine they will be way to expensive to be worth buying.

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  9. Nice little seedlings!! Can you talk more about the Chamomille Tea? I'm interested in the scoop on this.

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  10. Michelle, I think about it every time I drag the flats up and down the stairs. It is too easy to trip especially with the dog under my feet.

    EG, I was sad by the news too, but hey I knew it was a possible ending.

    Our Friend Ben, I'll get one. Had to do the research first. I've decided to go for T8s since they are more efficient and it seems to be where the market is headed. And yup once they start I'll know, I'm not sure how many of them will fit. I may only want two cayennes in the garden. I'll see.

    Maureen, well since I've been doing it for the last two years, I haven't lost one seedling. It could just be randomness. This is not a controlled study or anything.

    Annie's Granny, luckily for me I have natural light in early spring. Later I'll have no choice.

    Dan it is the plant I called my frilly bok choi last year. I've heard it called a pai-tsai, but then I've heard that label applied to Chinese cabbage and tatsoi too. I think its botanical name is Brassica rapa Pekinensis. So I think it is more closely related to Chinese cabbage than bok choi. It has stems that are about 1/2-3/4" wide and frilly leaves that are more lettuce like in texture than bok choi like. The taste is very mild and delicate. It makes a great Asian salad, but doesn't hold up to cooking (except the ribs). I like it a lot, but so do the slugs. It is their favorite treat in the garden.

    Kate, sure. Chamomile tea is reported to have anti fungal properties. So if you make a tea with it, and mist them every day as soon as they come up, supposedly you will get less damping off than if you didn't. I use one tea bags worth of blossoms to about 16 oz of water. I use that spray to keep the tops of my ungerminated soil blocks wet too as damping off can happen before the seeds even reach the surface. Another one of those folk preventatives is to sprinkle cinnamon on top of the soil. Same reason, but I've never tried that one. Does it work? So far I haven't gotten any damping off this year. I figure I have the blossoms since I grow them in my garden. I might as well use them.

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  11. Sorry the LED didn't work out. I thought it was a really good idea!

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  12. Everything is coming along nicely Daphne. My peppers didn't do as well as yours, think I should of given them some bottom heat until they germinated. Oh well, try try again I guess. :)

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  13. Wormandflowers, Yeah I thought it would save so much electricity. I'm sure the technology will get there, but not yet.

    perennialgardener, bottom heat really helps to germinate them. I don't grow them with bottom heat, but they really don't like coming up without it. Eggplants are the real important ones though. They never seem to come up unless they have lots of heat.

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  14. I love reading about your seedlings growth. I've learned a lot about gardening from reading your blog, so I really appreciate that you keep us updated and also let us know any work you've done and why.

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