Thursday, February 16, 2012

One month into Growing

According to this blog the plants began on January 12th. That is those started in the first 'Lettuce mix' flat.  Over the course of the last month it has been interesting noting the various stages of growth. How the plants are fairing with each incarnation of grow light set up. Bearing in mind that they started out under two 100watt equivalent CFLs and later moving up to the recent addition of another two sets of shop-lights. Three total.

At first I thought the flat was a wasted experiment. They grew very tall. A flat of very leggy plants made it precarious to water due to them falling down. Later it was decide they would do well to be completely dug up, spaced, and planted deeper up to their first leaves. They recovered remarkably well. Turns out now there are a hundred useable aka transplantable plants growing happily.

Since then I have been inspired to add another grouping of Tomatoes, Eggplants, Peppers, Brassicas, and even Corn. Yep. Corn. Btw it is doing fantastic. One of the better growing plants actually. Suspicion tells me that here soon they will end up being planted in 5 gallon buckets and around 2-3 Feet in height by the time I can transplant them. How exciting! So far, however, they are about 4 inches tall.

My birthday passed on the 13th of this month. Turned out fairly mellow but quite decent. Ended up receiving a $40 dollar gift card to our regular big blue box store with the caveat of finding something for the garden. Suspect it should work out nicely. First impression is that it will be applied to hoop tunnels over a couple beds to get things started. This is the first year of the massive garden. Nothing has been over wintered. Aside from a few Alliums which were transplanted several weeks ago into frozen earth (well the top 3-4 inches were workable due to the rain - but it has since frozen and they live under cloches) the land is barren.

Surprising about the alliums. They are a bulb plant though which are generally rugged. The eighteen garlic plants left in the flat are getting out of control. Rather, they were out of control until being trimmed back. *whew wee* The entire lower level of the house is an italian restaurant. Sniping off garlic chives is intense. So much in fact that it gave me a headache from the intense aroma. The leaves have a bold flavor. Brings me to ponder that throughout the year nothing really needs to be harvested. Just cook with the occasionally clipped leaves. Sustainability.

Enough Yaking. Here is another video :


6 comments:

  1. Leggy seedlings, oh no! I also grow my seedlings with shop lights, can't remember the bulb strength though. I learned that to prevent legginess you have to have the lights very *VERY* close to the seedlings. I noticed from your video that the light is a good six inches from the seedlings- lower it! Much lower. As low as it can go. Tall seedlings can even touch the lights without a problem, it wont burn them. Right now my lights are hovering about an inch above my flats- the inch allows a little air space and some light to extent out the sides of the light housing because not all the seedlings fit perfectly under it (otherwise I'd have the light resting on the flat!)
    Hope I could help!

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    1. Thanks Kay. Good idea. The current plants aren't leggy at all since I replanted them weeks ago. They appear to be quite happy. Id say currently the plants are about 4 inches away. Some are growing big enough that I cannot lower the lights any further. Perhaps I could raise the others up with something under them but as they are doing well right now.... :) Some of the corn is nearly 5-6 inches tall!

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  2. hey, i LOVE what you've done with your yard. i can't wait to follow your whole gardening adventure this season. thanks for finding my blog.

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    1. Thanks Em. I am thrilled with your coupling of Veg*n-ness and gardening as well!

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  3. Well, happy birthday! Belated obviously. Sounds like you're taking good care of your seedlings. I've never had much luck with indoor starts. May yours do very well!

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    1. So far so good. They are holding out fine in the sunroom the last two days. Which is a good thing considering it frees up space under lights and means that soon enough Ill just scratch the grow light and use the sunroom!

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