Thursday, April 9, 2009

April 8, 2009

It's time to pot up my tomatoes!  In fact, it's probably past time.  Much as I love doing it, I had to devote nearly an hour to the process.  So it took a while to get around to it.  Today was the day! 

Do you think this one's ready to be potted up? hehe



That yellow is due to it being root bound.  Of course those got burried but I should have got to this earlier.  These first seedlings were started from seed on 2/8/09.



As I said, whenever possible I burried the first leaves.  You can see that I worked on a couple of planks run over my bed. That way the overflow just got swept into the bed, no problem!  I also recycled old cottage cheese containers and reclaimed pots from Emery's Nursery. They have a recycling bin for old pots. They're close to my house so I stop by after work, check out the garden supplies and plants, then grab what I found that worked for me.  Very cool.

When I got them upstairs for the evening, there wasn't enough room for all of my trays under the lights, so I had to turn two of them sideways.  Goodness I've got to plant out those greens!



What the heck am I to do when my teacher's seedlings potted up?  The only option is to plant as many of the other soil blocks as possible to save space.

By the way, I forgot to mention that on Sunday it hit 109 under my hoop covers.  First I tried to vent the openings.



Then, when that didn't work, I just took the plastic off one side to let it completely vent.  That worked, hehe.

Since then the weather's turned back to the mid 50s and cloudy.  I so need to get those seedlings planted.  It shouldn't be a problem in the 40s for the cole crops, but I hope the hoop covers work for the cukes.

Enjoy your garden!

9 comments:

  1. Yeah! I'd say that tall one is ready! I'll be planting mine a little deep, too. They go into the earthtainers on Saturday. Woo Hoo!

    EG

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  2. BTW, You need to update the link to my site - so it will go to the new one. Sorry!

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  3. Hi Rich,

    When are you planning to plant the tomatoes outside?

    Sandy

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  4. The overflow of seedlings is a common problem this time of year. I have been moving alot of mine off to the greenhouse and outside during the day - hardening them off - which also serves the purpose of freeing up space under the grow lights!

    It got mighty warm in my greenhouse this past Sunday too. Ended up opening up the side window AND leaving the doors open - which is the usual practice during the summer season - was a hint of things to come.

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  5. I think that tall one is trying to tell you something, hehehe I really like your hoop covers. Looks like everything is coming along fine.

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  6. Your tom's should be much happier now. When I potted up the early tomato it tripled in size in about a week. It seems they like to run their roots.

    I have been venting my covers every day that has had full sun. They can certainly heat up now that the sun is stronger.

    I whipped up one of those compost screens last night, like the one you borrowed from your neighbor. I will put it to the test today screening my finished compost. I'll do a compost post soon and post a picture of it.

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  7. LOL! I'm out of room, too. The greenhouse is full, I have plants, protected by domes, on my patio table and plants, protected by a plastic cover, in my whiskey barrel planter. But best of all, I have (or will have, as soon as we go to the dump to empty out the branches from clearing a corner of the yard) an entire pickup bed where the tomatoes and peppers will soon reside until planting time. I'll just back the pickup out of the garage in the daytime and drive it back in at night. The sides will offer some protection if the wind kicks up, and I can drive it into a shady area if the sun gets too hot.

    Granny

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  8. 109? Sounds like the 'cook as you grow' plan! Your tomatoes look great to me. Mine are still only about 2 inches tall and I'm already outgrowing my light system. I think I started too many.

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  9. Wow look at those tomatoes!

    Oh my goodness! 109 in the hoop cover. I bet the plants loved that LOL They probably thought you had loaded them up and moved them down to the Arizona desert somewhere.

    I hope you do get some nice warm weather up there soon!

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