seedling updates from 2/7

These pictures were taken on Sunday, so they are a week old, but here they are anyway. This tray was planted on 1/25, mostly with seeds gifted me by our friend Andrew. He gave us some artichoke seeds grown on plants last summer. This tray has been on a warmer. I'm not sure if that has helped or hindered. I planted about 20 artichoke seeds, and about 5 of them have germinated. The largest one in the center of this picture has its first set of real leaves now.


These are lettuces planted about 2/5. They sprouted real fast and are doing quite well. I'll move them to 2" block this weekend and take them out to the greenhouse.

This tray was planted on 1/25 with artichoke seeds purchased at Johnny Seeds, and they are doing quite well. Probably about 75-80% germination, and they had no heat.

Up this weekend: set up the second light station, and seed a whole lot more plants - mostly onions, leeks, and more lettuces. I'll also be transferring some plants out to the greenhouse.

fall garden update: 2/1/09

I set about cleaning up the fall garden this afternoon. It was a beautiful day and it was nice to be working outside again. It was so nice, in fact, that I decided to pull up some of the carrots that have been sitting since I planted them last fall. I planted them too close together, so many of them were quite small and a bit stringy. But the bigger ones were absolutely delicious - and there's nothing like harvesting fresh vegetables in February.

seedling updates: 2/1/2009

We have germination. A few of the artichoke seeds and a few of the leeks. Nice! The leeks will head out to the greenhouse maybe next weekend. Today's sunny weather made it about 70 degrees inside the greenhouse - and it was about 45 outside. Here's a shot of some artichokes:


And a tiny leek seedling:

I'm starting to figure out that space is at a premium under the lights. Two solutions. First is to use the small soil blocker - puts out 3/4" cubes. Once these have germinated, I will move them to 2" blocks that have a 3/4" insert, so the 3/4" cubes just fit right inside. I put the 3/4" blocks into 9" pie tins. Second solution: buy another light and some more trays.

I'm covering the pie tins with the 3/4" blocks because they will dry out much faster than the 2" blocks. Here's the complete setup right now.