For the past week, I’ve been out of town in Chicago. In the meantime, my wife watered the indoor garden, had the mower repaired, and (probably) continued to throw her sandwich crusts in the front yard to attract crows (we’re not trailer, I swear).
Posts tagged weeds
Progress Inside and Out
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.
Checking in on the Seeds
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.
Sprouts Ahoy!
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…
Grow Light, Grow!
Growing Trays
Today I cleared much of the remodeling junk still left in our laundry room away to make room for 4.5 large growing trays. The lamp is a 4 foot fluorescent fixture which holds two medium brightness plant lights. The light is hung about about 12″ above the plant trays: 4 x 50 pod growing trays and a single 36 cell tray.
It has only been 24 hours since we planted the seeds, so there is no sign of life yet. I have the lids on top of the trays and I have lightly spritzed each of the pods as indicated in the directions. None of the trays have any standing water left in the bottom.
