jizutsu's Blog

Nothing else is showing signs of life in the seed tray upstairs.

I finally got a tomato plant! The Green Zebra decided to come up. . .I thought it was a Sun Gold at first, but am damn glad I marked the jiffy pots! I sure would have been in for a surprise, expecting little orange tomatoes and get bright green bigger ones instead. But no more tomatoes, or peppers have decided to come up. My guess is they want a fashionably late entrance.

No new sprouts for the cucmbers, but the three that have already sprouted have opened their seed leaves and two of the have started budding their true leaves. . .once the true leaves open, I'm going to give them a little watered down liquid fish fertilizer snack. . .and if no others sprout by that time, I'll wait a couple of weeks and plant some more cucumbers so we have plenty this season.

So one broccoli has opened and one is still in the soil. Not sure what's taking that one so long - the other seemed to just spring up and this one looks a little lazy to me. Been laying in the dirt since before I left for Montana.

The Edible Pod Peas have still only sprouted 2, but both are looking very healthy. Hopefully more of those will pop up soon, but if not I'm planning a succession crop of all the peas in another 3 1/2 weeks or so. . .

The Homesteader Peas are all up, but one of the sprouts looks a little brownish yellow, so I don't think that one'll make it and if it does, it may not last very long. All the others look healthy so far, however.

The Dwarf Grey Sugar Peas are doing the best of the peas, by far. All 6 are up and healthy. I'm thinking about starting a growth chart for all the peas just to see how fast the different varieties grow and all that. . .more work, but would be fun to see the change.

The second Mallow pot finally sprouted. Only one so far, but those seed leaves have already opened up. The first pot is doing very well, too.

The Rosemary has emerged and opened their seed leaves. No signs of life in the second pot yet, but maybe soon?

There is some life in the Garlic Chives, but nothing upright yet. Those look like they should go upright in a few days.

The Chinese Lanterns I've got downstairs have more than a couple random sprouts popping up. It'll be interesting to see what they turn into.

And I think I need to grab another grow light and set up another station for the plants. Totally running out of room for the seedlings downstairs and I have only 1 shelf left upstairs. . .

3. Yomogi (seed tray)

These seeds are totally new and I happened across them in a random trip to Uwajimaya in Redmond with my mother, so i figured why not? Following the directions on the packet, it said to sow them 1/2" deep, but the seeds are super tiny, so I'm not quick sure how that is supposed to work. I put them in 6 cells with the standard mix, but not sure how many seeds per cell since they were so small. The packet also says that it's 45 days to maturity, so I should be seeing something pop up out of those cells soon. . .

4. Dill (seed tray)

Sowed 1/8" deep in standard mix. 2 seeds per cell, 6 cells. The packet says I should see sprouts in about 2 weeks, depending on weather & soil. Being that it' sitting in a seed tray on the kitchen sill that gets about 10 hours of light a day, it should be sooner rather than later. . .

5. Celery (seed tray)

Sowed 1/8" deep in standard mix in cell packs. 2 seeds per cell, 6 cells. These guys shoud pop up around the same time as the Dill (or so says Mr. Ed Hume).

6. Italian Basil (seed tray)

Sowed seeds in 1/8" deep in cell packs with standard mix. 1 seed per cell, 6 cells. Not sure when it's supposed to sprout, but I'm not expecting to see anything going on in these cells for a while. . .

7. Husk Tomatoes (3" jiffy pots)

Sowed in 3" jiffy pots with standard mix. 4 seeds per pot, 7 pots. Put these behind the Sun gold tomatoes in my insulated light box in the garage. The packet says they should sprout in about 2 weeks, so right along with the Dill and basil. . .

8. Garlic Chives (4" nursery pot)

Sowed 1/8" deep in the nursery pot in standard mix. located outside insulated lightbox, but near the heat lamp. The packet says they should sprout in 7-14 days. Keeping my fingers crossed as this is another I've never grown from seed.

9. Red Kale (re-purposed 20 oz. water bottles)

Sowed 1/2" deep in standard mix. 2 seeds per bottle, 4 bottles. I placed these next to the garlic chives, outside of the light box since they are more cold hardy. . .not too sure when these are supposed to come up, either. . .another new addition this year.

Since I'm running out of room and containers in the garage, I'm starting to improvise. . .

2. Cayenne Pepper

I sowed these into Jiffy pots (the 3" ones to start) with 6 seeds per pot with my standard mix. I then placed the jiffy pots into clean yogurt containers for additional insulation and wrapped in plastic wrap. These were also placed closest to the heat lamp since everything I've read has said that these will germinate when the soil temp is around 80 - 85 degrees F. The packet said that they will germinate in 10-25 days. . .and since today is day 10 with no signs of life, I'm inclined to think it's more like 25 days in my garage micro-climate.

3. Sun gold tomatoes

These guys were sowed into the 3" Jiffy pots as well (2 seeds per pot, 4 pots) - I remember doing them in the cell packs and failing miserably since they don't like their roots disturbed. Since tomatoes are such warm weather plants, I've placed the tomatoes next to the cayenne peppers (just for their proximity to the heat). Their packet says they should germinate in 5-10 days. . .not so much. Working on day 10 with abo#@!$ely no signs of life.

4. Green Zebra tomatoes

Sowed these guys EXACTLY the same way I did the Sun golds. . .just on the other side of the peppers. Same germination days, same result as the sun golds (so far). . .

5. Lincoln Homesteader Peas
6. Sugar Sprint Edible Pod Brush Peas
7. Dwarf Grey Sugar Peas

The peas were sowed into the cell packs, 1 seed per cell sowed 1" deep in standard mix. 6 cells per pea type. I also left the plastic cover off the tray and placed the peas as far away from the heat lamp as possible so they stay relatively cool. As of this afternoon, I have 2 sprouts (seed leaves and all) from each of the peas. . .even though they're from 2006, hopefully they are as viable as the were last year (100%).

8. Large American Flag Leeks

Sowed the leeks 1/8" deep in standard mix in cell packs (1 seed per cell, 6 cells). Their packet says I should see some little sproutlets show up within 6-16 days. . .nothing yet, but I'm hoping for the best. This is the first year I've grown leeks. . .

9. Lemon Cucumbers

I sowed these in the cell packs as well. . .1/2" deep in standard mix (1 seed per cell, 6 cells). These were placed in the seed tray on the side that was closest to the heat lamp. The packet says should sprout in 5-10 days and 1 showed up this morning! The seed leaves haven't opened yet, but at least it popped up. . .hopefully the others will soon follow suit.

10. Broccoli

The last ones to go in the garage seed tray. . .I sowed these in the cell packs, 1/4" deep in standard mix. 1 seed per cell, in 6 cells. I picked these seeds up from Central Market in their bulk section (who knew they had seeds for sprouting in the bulk section?!?) so I'm not sure what variety they are, but I figured I'd give them a try this year. . .and if they don't work, then another year of store bought broccoli won't kill us. . .

11. Rosemary

I've always bought the starts for these in any place I've lived, so starting rosemary from seed is totally new to me. I sowed them 1/4" deep in the 3" Jiffy pots (4 seeds per pot) in the standard mix. These should start in 10-20 days. . .no signs of life yet, but I am pretty optimistic about it. ;o)

12. Mallow

I've never been too into growing and caring for flowers (what's the point? You can't eat them. . .or at least most of them), but I do like to look at them. And since I've got all this time on my hands, I figured "why the hell not?" and sowed some. I sowed these into the 3" Jiffy pots (2 pots, 4 seeds per pot) 1/8" deep in standard mix. . .their packet said they should start to sprout in 20-30 days, but I've got 2 cute little sproutlets coming up in 1 pot! And the first one came up two days ago. . .not bad for 20-30 days. . .now if only I could work the same magic with my tomatoes. . .

13. Green Onions (Tokyo Long White)

Before I realized just how big these guys are, I sowed them in a rectangular container with the cilantro (we eat a lot of salsa at my house) 1/4" deep in standard mix. The brown container has been sitting on my kitchen shelf with no plastic covering. The packet said they should sprout in 6-16 days and I've seen signs of life on the green onion side, but no seed leaves yet. Once these guys get big enough, I need to go in and pot them up into containers if the weather doesn't straighten out by the time these guys are ready to move. . .

14. Cilantro

Because we eat so much of it, and I always end up wasting so much of a bunch, I'm growing this stuff in the kitchen. In the other half of the brown container (see Green Onions, above), I sowed these seeds 1/2" deep in standard mix, aiming for about 1/2" around all the seeds. Not sure how long it takes them to sprout up out of the dirt, but after 10 days, there are no signs of life on that side. . .