Monday, April 6, 2009

Monday Seedling Update

Even more seedlings are coming along this week. I seeded some more soil blocks on Friday and the basil and cabbage are up, but not the tomatoes yet. I really don't need more cabbage, but I thought it might be damping off. Nope. It has recovered very well and is trying to take over the flat again. Now what will I do with the reseeded cabbage?

So here are the photos of all the little seedlings. Brassicas and Lettuce with no more signs of damping off:

Boy do those brassicas need to be put in the ground soon. It isn't worth transplanting them and they are getting crowded. The flowers are doing well. At least the ones that germinated. The bottom row has all germinated they are just tiny. The marigolds in the middle had four ungerminated spots so I reseed the blocks. Now we have two new little seedlings. I'm hoping the other two empty ones come up soon:

The peppers are doing quite well and have their first true leaves coming in. I still don't know which ones are which, but maybe I'll just plant them all:

Then I took a look at the little seedlings outside in the ground. The spinach was soaked for two days before sowing on 3/17. All the seed seems to be coming up:

The radishes are also poking up. They were sown when my lettuce was transplanted on 3/26. It only took 11 days for them to peek up in the cold weather. The peas that were planted the that same day still have no sign of coming up. We just need a little warmth.

And finally my lettuce is beautiful in all its redness. I have a fondness for red lettuce. I'm sowing five lettuce every two weeks and rotating them in the garden. The latest sowing includes lettuce seed from Dan. These are not red, but are yellow and green. I can't wait to see them. They will contrast nicely with these red lettuce.

And last but not least, the turkey. I'm not growing it. It grows itself. I was in the laundry room checking the seedlings and heard a loud sound from outside. The wild turkeys must be starting to mate. I fear for our neighborhood. They tend to stop traffic by standing in the road and not moving. Last year there were mommy, daddy and 12 little turkeys. They all seem to still be around, but are at breeding age. We are never going to be able to go anywhere in a car.

10 comments:

  1. Hey Daphne- We seem to travel in the same blog circle. I've seen you comment on other blogs before so I came to check out yours.....it's very nice. I'm from Montague, Mass (now living in FL) and I love to read blogs from back home...... to keep me in touch with New England living.

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  2. I was wondering what had happened to the peas I planted, and yesterday with the nice warm temperatures we had, they decided to stick their little heads up out of the ground. YAY! I just had to dig down and check on the Nasturtiums, and found the one I dug up had a teeny tiny shoot, perhaps there is hope yet. *smile*
    All your seedlings are looking nice and healthy.

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  3. HAH! Your spinach and radishes look identical to mine. I think we must have planted about the same time, and my shelling peas came up three or four days ago, and the sugar snaps just peeked out at me yesterday.

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  4. Turkeys!!! Cool. How do the soil blocks work for you, for starting seeds? Do they crumble? Do you have issues watering them? I haven't used them before, but I'm considering buying a soil blocker. What kind of soil do you use?

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  5. Your seedlings look great, Daphne! Love the red lettuce. And there can't be too much cabbage: don't forget about coleslaw! Or just add the thinnings to stir-fries and salads. Yum! Love your turkeys, too. Just don't feed them, unless you want gazillion turning up in your backyard as the flock multiplies!

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  6. Your seedlings are really doing well Daphne. Those turkeys can be quite mean too, can't they? We have wild geese that do the same thing here, stand in the street & block traffic.

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  7. Those peppers are looking very nice. Nice to see the spinach, radishes & lettuce growing in real soil. The spinach & radish that I planted in the soil are still no shows after more then a week. Can't wait to see the australian yellow leaf growing. I haven't started any yet but should in the next round of lettuce seeding. I have started your chard & tatsoi and they are growing well in the coldframe now.

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  8. I over-planted my cabbage too. I never have the heart to thin and toss perfectly good seedlings. I have found however, that I have no problem at all thinning them and adding them to a salad!
    How cool it it that you have wild turkeys in your neighborhood? I'm jealous.

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  9. Everything is coming along beautifully! You have a lot growing! My early broccoli crop is not doing well- something eating one of them, lost one maybe 2, and there are ants all over! That's what happens when they get stressed out too much! I have some to follow, but I fear it may get to hot by the time they are ready- best of luck to you with your babies!

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  10. Welcome Dennis, I love reading blogs from Massachusetts too. I love to hear when others plant their crops and what they do.

    Keewee, usually we would have had a warm day by now. That is all it takes to get them moving. The forecast however calls for some colder temps. Sigh.

    Annie's Granny, I keep checking those peas every day. Nothing yet. At least yours have come up.

    Pam, yes I have issues with them. I'm going to have to write a post about just them sometime soon. You do have to treat them with much more care than cell packs. They can be knocked over. You have to water them carefully or they wash away (did that accidentally once with my outside watering can, the end dribble when I stopped washed half of one away, the rest I aimed in the flat away from the blocks to bottom water). But they are much easier to plant than cell packs and supposedly less root disturbance. All in all I find them harder to deal with than packs, but the lack of plastic may win me over in the end.

    Our Friend Ben, thanks. I love the red lettuce too. It is so pretty in a salad bowl. Well too much cabbage, hmm. I've been eating it all winter long. I bought a lot of the local cabbage when they were having $1 huge heads for sale in the fall. Then just as I ran out the St. Patrick's Day sales went up. I just finished off my last of those. Though the cole slaw isn't finished yet. I'm thinking if I eat it all summer long too then I'd get really bored of it come fall and winter. It is such a staple for me then. As to the turkeys. If only I could eat them, but I don't think it is legal unless it is in season with a permit. Thank goodness they don't love my yard though. They are scared of the dog. They could rip my garden to shreds if they wanted.

    perennialgardener, I don't know if they are mean or not. I've never gotten close enough to find out. My mom raised turkeys and geese when I was growing up. The geese were mean. The turkeys were friendly enough, just stupid. A wild turkey might be mean though if it viewed me as a threat.

    Dan I love the real soil too. It is nice to finally have things growing there. I can't wait to see how the Australian yellow leaf does. Even if it doesn't hold up over the summer, it will at least be pretty in the spring and fall.

    Stacy, hmm I've never actually done that. I plant them. If I have extra I keep them and hold them just in case some get chopped off by a cutworm.

    Tessa, thanks. Our spring has been fairly nice to us. No really bad cold snaps after it has dethawed. I can only hope it stays that way.

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