Monday, March 16, 2009

March 17, 2009

Well Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Not only do I hope you're wearing green, but you're garden is turning green (at least your seedlings).  What's more, I hope not only are you considering eating potatoes, that you're considering planting some. 

Speaking of green, some of my cukes aren't.  The leaves on a few of my cucumber seedlings are turning yellow at the tips.  Normally I would think that is too much water, but I have really let the soil blocks dry out before I rewatered.  Normally, with the fan going, I will bottom water every 3 days.  Of course I've never grown this type of cucumber (it's a Wautoma pickling variety).  Any thoughts?

As it sits, my seedlings are not going to work as perfectly as I'd have hoped.  It's my fault.  You can't label soil blocks like you can potted plants.  The lable just doesn't stick to the dirt, hehe.  So despite my best efforts to label the soil block rows, when they went up to the light system, the placement was more towards height then type.  I know what you're doing right now, stop shaking your head.  And it's not funny.  I guess relying on my memory to remember what is parked where wasn't such a good idea.  Oops.  It's the green onion/spinach episode all over again! hehe

Well, I just had to write a short post in honor of St. Patrick's Day before work.  Take care and enjoy your garden!

5 comments:

  1. I wouldn't worry to much about the cucumber seed leaves turning yellow. Seed leaves are not always very healthy looking, as long as the true leaves come out green they will be ok.

    The soil blocks would be pretty difficult to label. Maybe you could recycle some smaller plastic trays from the store to separated each variety and label with some tape or something.

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  2. Sinfonian, just draw up a simple sketch of each tray and write down what is planted in it. Put a piece of tape on one end, number it and correspond that tray with the sketch. The tape Identifies which tray it is, as well as which end is which.

    Granny

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  3. I had the same problem you're having with labels and soil blocks. I had them sorted together by plant and did a drawing showing what was where, which worked, but as they grew and needed to be moved around under the lights due to height differences, I would have to change the drawing with each move... I thought I had kept pretty good track of things, but I have one plant labeled a tomato that has gotten it's true leaves, and it's a pepper :) oops!

    I also had a distraction by a certain little girl when I was potting up. She came running in crying with 2 scraped knees. While the tray was initially labeled in the drawing, I neglected to label the front of the tray. I sat the tray down, and when I came back to it after the consoling and bandaging was complete, I didn't remember which was the front :) oops...again! Those were tomatoes for a friend, so I told her I'm sure they're all tomatoes, they just might not be the type they are labeled.

    Listen to Granny - a drawing will help, but be sure to label the front on both the drawing and the tray...

    Kym

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  4. I have an idea that may or may not work. If you can write very small, how about using tack 'heads' to abbreviate plants or at least come up with a key and write a code on the tack with a sharpie and then pin the tack into an empty spot on the top of your soil block?

    ex)
    Cu1 = cucumber variety 1
    T1 = tomato variety 1
    M1 - melon variety 1
    P1 - pepper variety 1
    E1 - eggplant variety 1

    Just an idea.... I dunno how well the tacks will stay in the soil blocks, but gravity oughta keep them down and the pin from shifting around.

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  5. I say to heck with the labels - you will have a mystery garden this year! Of course, you will be able to tell what the basic type of plant is (no confusing a cucumber with a tomato plant) but you will have to guess which variety it is where there were multiples planted!

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