Last night I happened to find a 50′ x 3′ roll of plastic mesh fencing with 1″ square holes. It cost me $10 and will cover my garden perfectly when laid out in two strips, side-by-side. Now I’ll be able to remove the garden cloth which ought to be a boon because I’m pretty sure it’s not good for these young plants to be smothered like this–even if it is for their own protection.
Indoors
Due to the unseasonably cold spring so far, I have opted to keep my upside-down tomato planters inside until I am confident the sprouts have taken firm root. Out of 7 hanging planters, six of them had at least one sprout survive the first week. I probably broke the root of the sprouts that dying.
I have plenty of starts to spare, so I re-planted the dead sprouts and put some more lights up for all of the plants.
Jerk Pests and Their Jerk Hunger
I have seen the enemy… and it likes watermelons. And onions.
Okay, I haven’t necessarily seen the enemy, but I did spot a squirrel, a crow, and a robin all making advances on my garden as I stepped into the back yard to see how my little green beauties were doing.
I checked the garden this morning as I left the house. I noticed an unnatural cylindrical hole in the ground and didn’t have to look far to see what came out of it.
One of my 4″ Charleston watermelon starts had been yanked out, pod and all. Whatever took it must have been a small creature because there were no signs of digging; it dragged the pod only a couple of feet before eating the rest of my precious plant. We don’t have many squirrels in our yard, but we have a lot of crows who love the crawly treats in the garden dirt.
Garden
Saturday brought us some really lame weekend weather: rainy and 50s. Today was sunny and perhaps as high as the 70s. It was a perfect day to send my little green babies out into a world full of cats and raccoons and birds who would like nothing more than to eat them all up right now.
Sprouts
It’s official: At least one of every type of plant has broken the surface, including the two season old watermelon variety and the cantaloupe. The lettuce sprouts have grown too tall for their growing box lid and some of the soy beans are touching their ceiling.
Hydroponics
I just purchased a some fancy hydroponics fertilizer from a local sun shop. The strawberry buds have begun to bloom and the leaves are looking very healthy. I am considering expanding the hydroponics rig when all of the other plants have been moved out into the garden. I’d move the fogger into a central canister and fabricate a small forced air system to pump the fog through two or more growing trays in parallel.
Hydroponics
Today I needed a little pick-me-up so I decided to treat myself to a creative project. When I proposed the idea of making a hydroponics rig some time ago, Emily thought it would be a good idea. Tonight I went out and built that rig:
Sprouts
It pays to read.
The back of each seed package indicates the number of days each plant should take to sprout. The lettuce varieties indicated 1-3 weeks to sprout; among the longest of any of the seeds I’ve planted. The fact that they germinated in possible record time and that they may soon be too big to keep the lid on their growing tray has put all of the other seeds to shame.
Seeds
The Butterhead lettuce is growing like weeds. 17 out of the 18 cells have growth, the tallest of which are approaching an inch. Over half of the Bon Vivant lettuce has sprouted.
Meanwhile, in the 50-pod trays, there is still little sign of life. A soy bean that I left on the dirt surface as an experiment is beginning to sprout. I imagine these larger seeds will take some time to catch up with the tiny lettuce seed. Still, I’d expect to see some action in one of the 100 pods growing tomatoes by now…
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