Short post again tonight. Duty calls as a parent. I spent the evening at our co-op preschool dealing with preschool business, then following it up with some great parent instruction on siblings and defiance. Great topics. Anyway, one of my sons' instructors is an avid gardener and despite her experience, always comes to me with questions. I feel a bit odd advising her on gardening, but she asks and I answer. It's fun to talk gardening after talking parenting. Hehe, my two favorite things, or at least my only two hobbies.
Well, tonight after the meeting we were chatting about gardening. I let her know it was fine to effectively winter sow under hoop covers (she built hers like mine after touring my garden). I don't see why it wouldn't work just like a take-out container, hehe.
Then I mentioned it was time to start cole crops, greens and tomatoes indoors if you're starting from seed and want to transplant your own seedlings. Apparently she does not have a good window to even give it a go, so I went and offered to start some tomatoes for her. After rattling off the varieties I am growing, she said she would like a random sampling of 10 tomato seedlings. Boy, that's a ton compared to my measly 6. Well, at least I'll get good mileage out of my light setup. I've got the room and I should be able to make the light work for varying height tomato plants.
Speaking of my tomato plants, tonight when I got home, all three of the rest of the tomatoes had sprouted, so I took them upstairs after the meeting. Then I grabbed 2 Rubbermaid leftover or sandwich containers that were past their prime and put three cups in each. That way, when I watered the seedlings heavily like EG does, the water leached out into the container, to be wicked back up tomorrow or the next day. Oh, and I used DoubleD's water bottle method. It's the same one I use to refill the cats dishes, hehe. As Alton Brown says, multitaskers...
Lastly, I found that the coffee filters were drying out so I respritzed them. I checked but no sprouting yet. I hope I didn't mess it up by letting them get too dry. Ah well, if there are no sprouts by this weekend, I'll do the soil blocks anyway and sow directly into the blocks instead of placing the germinated seeds. Makes little difference in the long run (a week earlier or so).
Enjoy your garden!
Oh, that's exciting. I love talking about gardening as well. This is only my second year growing a large variety of crops (of my own, I've gardened all my life with my parents) and my older neighbor always comes over and asks my advice. I guess some people would just rather ask than read up on it, which is fine, it gives us readers & researchers something to add when we're talking to people.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping to grow 10-15 different kinds of tomatoes this year. My front porch is going to look like a jungle, a delicious jungle that is. Can't wait. I even bought some mountain tomatoes that are a 50-55 day, and they set fruit at a lower temp. I may have tomatoes in May - YEAH!
I think it's nice that you're growing some seedlings for that lady, i'm sure she'll appreciate it! Good luck with your coffee filter method.
ReplyDeleteEG
Sinfonian, I think EG must have that special touch with those seeds. I've had my peppers on a damp paper towel, encased in a Ziploc bag and sitting on a heating pad at 85F for three days now, and the others in seed pots for 11 days...nothing showing yet. I think I've talked Mr. H into heading for home a bit earlier, either March 1 or 8. I'm anxious to get all my tomatoes started!
ReplyDeleteGranny
Now I have to take that back...I have four (out of six seeds planted in starter mix) baby pepper plants! I went to check them right after I posted the above, and there they were. They are now tucked safely under the light, and I'm running out of room for plants in there!
ReplyDeleteGranny
Duty calls as a parent. I spent the evening at our co-op preschool dealing with preschool business, then following it up with some great parent instruction on siblings and defiance.
ReplyDeletedo not worry, it does not stop after children, then there are grandchildren and coming up there are great grandchildren.
John
Forget about the gardening and tell me what you learned at the meeting about siblings and defiance. My two and five yr olds are pushing it. Actually, it's the two yr old that's the defiant one. She's also a girl.
ReplyDeleteThere's the problem right there, I suppose.
LOL, if you figure out how to stop sibling defiance, don't post it, write a book! I'd like to know a billionaire first hand.
ReplyDeleteHurrah for emerging seedlings! I just checked on my tomatoes tonight too and most all of them are up - but just barely. Swiss chard is mostly germinated as well.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it nice to find someone who is interested in the garden to talk to?! It's even nicer when you can stroll through the garden and talk "shop".