The Game Picks Up Speed

I figure too Ivy that since I'm doing this just for fun if I get a few duds it's worth it! Right now I have double the eggplants I need b/c I just couldn't prick out those boys - it's the only thing I put 2 seeds in and they all came up of course! Luckily I have 5" deep cell packs because they are going to have to fight it out!

I am with you on the nuking of the dirt Jessamine!!! Loved that this year!

Ncgardenaddict- What type of eggplants did you grow?

The only ones where I have doubles this year are ones my daughter "helped" me with. She loves to sprinkle seeds.

I tried a shallow but wide pot for some old seeds of verbena and nicotiana. I put miracle grow potting soil in the bottom, and added a 1 to 2 inch layer of soiless mix on the top. Then I sprinkled my seeds over it. It's an experiment because I don't want to transplant any of the seeds. Do you think it will work? I may move seedlings if they are crowded, but I want to grow them on in the same pot.

weezingreens,

This is a marvelous thread, what a treat to see all of your healthy plants growing!
Keep up the great work and please keep posting.

Hmm.. I am sure I will forget some.. Lavender Touch, had it last year, a white one-can't remember the name, a tiny one-can't remember the name of that one either, and then one I can't remember at all?

That help? HAHAHAHAHA!!! Sorry!! :)) All my info is at home I'm afraid. I can't remember how to get to work some days it seems like!!

I will TRY-keyword-to look them up though and tell you..

Braindeadly yours,
Nicole

Nicole, some days I can barely remember my name. I seem to remember plants but not people! Pretty sad, huh? I got a mix last year of 3 types and never planted them.

O.K. Here they are. It's from John Scheepers and it's called "Bambino". They are supposed to be tiny ones. It doesn't say what the individual varieties are. There is a small purple, a long white and an egg shaped one.

Hey! Sparked my memory there Ivy! I have that one! I was going to put that but couldn't remember if it was an eggplant or a tomato!! HA!

I can always remember people's kids and dogs names but not theirs! LOL!!

Thanks, Drdon. I spent yesterday going to Anchorage to pick up 8 bales of potting soil. I like the Sunshine # 7 mix that has the moisture polymers in it. I wash my flats, fill with cell packs, then fill the cell packs with potting soil. Next, I pour about a quart of water in the flat, under the cell packs. Within a couple hours, the potting soil has wicked the moisture and the flats are ready for transplanting.

Very clever indeed. Top watering can be a rather inefficient method of initial wetting. Superb! I'm jazzed for your success and am glued to this thread. Bravo!!

Yes, I fill so many flats that I'm looking for shortcuts. Adding water under the cell packs is one way to do that. Trying to water potting soil when you are ready to transplant can be very frustrating.

Weezingreens, by posting these helpful hints, you are helping so many gardeners. I always hated watering in my potting soil so I switched to peat pots and pellets. Thanks for the tip. Now I can use the potting soil! Please, never stop posting your techniques.

P.S. My shallow pot of experimental seedlings got dug into last night on my deck. Some seedlings survived. Any hints on how to prevent critters digging in my pots?

I had a tom cat that we kept in the basement at night. He decided my flat of onions would be a nice litter box. Threw him outside, no cat in the house since.
Don't have to spend good money on cat litter either.
You will probably have to set the container in at night.
Have a great day!
Bernie

Hi all, this has been a great thread for me to follow, I've really enjoyed reading everyone's techniques and learned a lot (I'm still pretty new at all this)

Ivy, Just wanted to say I have the same frustration with critters! I was finally able to put my huge pot of wandering jew outside a few days ago, and I look at it yesterday, and there's a huge hole in the dirt on one side. I saw a squirrel burying a nut in there last fall, before I brought it in for the cold of winter - I wonder if he remembered and found that nut again come spring? lol
Katherine

Yes he did, and got that nut finally after you hid it from him all winter. lol
The robins are the hole diggers here. I wondered, then watched while several went 3" in the dirt for big juicy worms.

Ivy, you might try setting your seedlings out in a domed flat. That way you can cover them when you are not around to protect them. The domed lids work as a mini greenhouse and afford the plants light without suffering from windburn or cats! However, in warm climates, I'd remove the lids during the heat of day and replace them at night. Here's a picture of some seeds I winter sowed and placed covered on my porch. Nothing up yet.... too early here!

Weezingreens - Thanks so much for your informative postings. Your operation looks like it runs like a well oiled machine. I have just read your other 'Let the games begin' thread and am in awe of your patience in transplanting. With everything you've got going (or growing), how on earth do you have time to be so generous and active here at Dave's as well?

I was also interested to see your wintersowing and wanted to thank-you for seeds you sent earlier this year. I am trying this for the first time this year. I winter sowed the roses, columbine, bellflower and spiraea. No action yet on these or any other perennials but I do have several types of poppies sprouting already.

Susan

Thank you Bernie, Katherine, and Weezingreens! I was really mad this morning, but it looks like most of them are ok. Maybe I should look and see if there are any nuts planted in my pot!

Weez, is it too late to winter sow my delphiniums in flats outside? We are between 36 and 42 degrees at night but it might get colder again. I don't know if they need a good freeze or just cool night temps.

Ivy, I sow mine indoors, and me seed packet suggested a week or so in the fridge. However, reading Tom Clothier's Germination instructions, he lists D. elatum as: Sow at 22-24ºC (71-75ºF), germination in less than 2 weeks. One way or the other, I'd say you'd be safe to go ahead and winter sow them now.

Susan, don't you just love the paper pots! I do all my peas and tropaeolum (nasturtium and canarybird vine) in paper pots to get a jump on our short season. My husband & I will spending our evening TV watching with a paper pot maker in front of us. I need hundreds of them!

This is my first time trying the paper pots. Santa put a nice round pot maker in my stocking this Christmas and then I found another square and slightly bigger one through the Regal Gift catalogue. I am hoping that it will make planting out of finicky or more sensitive plants easier with less disturbance to the roots. Also I have used them in many recycled containers that are too shallow to plant in directly but with the clear covers they make great mini greenhouses for seed starting. For example containers that you get bakery goods, berries or roasted chickens in from the grocery store.

Peat pots are just not an option here. In our cool season and cool soil, things just don't break down fast enough. If I try to tear the pot apart, the roots have embedded themselves in the fibers. Using the paper pots, I can easily unwrap the pot and the roots just hang out the bottom... works great!

Yes, some of the plastic containers work like little greenhouses. I've often thought that Slurpee cups with the plastic bubble domes would be great for starting cukes or zukes!

Weezingreens, you are so cool. You even make paper pots. Great idea on the slurpee cups!

Here's a question, maybe obvious-

Does a seedling's ability to withstand colder temps when hardening off have anything to do with it's hardiness rating?

The only hardiness rating I'm familiar with is the USDA zoning, and that refers to winter temps, I believe. There is Sunset zoning, as well, but I don't really know what it is based on. I would have to say, however, that the seedlings of plants that fall within my USDA zone 3 are more likely to withstand the cold night temps than those that are perennials not zoned to my area but grown as annuals. Right now, out in my greenhouse, I have the thermostat set to drop to 50F at night. If the outside temps are in the mid to low 20's, the lower shelves can drop down to the mid-30's. The flats of seedlings are fine down there. I selected dianthus, Brussells sprouts, violas, and other cool loving plants for the lower shelves.

This has been very fascinating and informative. I don't know how you do it! Here am I with 5 trays in the greenhouse, and I thought I was doing good! I'm still rather experimenting with the greenhouse. Today it was 72 degrees outside but 100 inside the thing. I think one of the plants I brought out from the house got kind of cooked! I guess I'll learn by trial and error! Keep us posted on how your plants are doing. Doris

I finally got around to posting a couple pictures of this year's seed starting setup! It's in my basement.

DH made "I" shaped frames out of 2x4's so double sets of lights could be raised & lowered on one set of ropes tied to the rafters. The ropes adjust with taut-line hitches (DH is an Eagle Scout).

I can fit 16 flats on this shelving unit ("Gorilla" shelf from Sam's Club), which is set up in a side-by-side configuration rather than being 6 shelves tall. I'll post another picture to show more clearly how the lower lights are set up.

You can see tomatoes, peppers, and daylily seedlings to the upper right, basil seedlings to the lower right, assorted flower seedlings are to the lower left, and the upper left shelf has 2 double size seedling heat mats with lots of little seed starting flats (aka takeout containers).

Due to lots of seed trading this winter with the generous folks here at DG, I knew I was going to need more seedling space this year, even though I also did a good bit of wintersowing! DH (dear, dear DH) got me another set of "Gorilla" shelves and put them together last weekend. I set up a pair of lights this morning and promptly filled the space with a couple more flats of pepper seedlings, a flat of alyssum & lobelia, and some tomato seedling flats that wanted to be off the heat mats.

I took this picture to show how my setup works with these shelves. The shelves are adjustable, and the shelf supports knock into place using the slotted holes. (These are *so* much easier to set up than the metal shelves that bolt together!) The slotted holes are just the right size to take a 1/4 inch wooden dowel, so that's what I use to hold up the lights for the lower shelf. It's easy to adjust the height of the lights by moving the dowels to a different set of holes, but I found out that it's a good idea to remove the light fixtures before you adjust the dowels.... it seems more efficient to just hand onto the lights at one end while moving the dowel with your other hand, but it turns out there's a significant risk of having the lights slip off the dowel at the other end and crash down on some tender little marigold seedlings!

Oh, other details that may be of interest.... The shelves on this unit are made of some sort of particleboard, and I didn't know how water-resistant the material might be, so I just slipped a big garbage bag around the shelf and taped the excess down to the bottom surface. There's a timer at the other end of the extension cord; all my seedling lights are on a timer, you just can't see it in this picture. I do have another pair of light fixtures that I'll set up on the right side of my new shelves tomorrow. The top shelf is level with a big south-facing window, so that may serve as "emergency" extra space! I still have a couple of flats of tomatoes to transplant, as well as some misc. annuals, not to mention the eggplants that I started last week or the tomatillos I haven't sowed yet, so the space under those new lights will fill up fast!

Critterologist - it's beautiful.

I'm so jealous!

"beautiful." Hmmm. Yes, all those little seedling flats are a thing of beauty, but I'm thinking it's a good thing you can't see the rest of that corner of the basement! What a mess! I really need to sort out those old pots & cell packs (can't throw them away, what if I need them??) and sweep up the potting soil! You know, I knew for sure bluekat76 and I were going to be buddies when she saw that corner for the first time and, rather than saying, "what a mess," she said, "I wish I could make a mess like that!!" LOL

I also have a lovely old fashioned double laundry tub (with legs) next to the first set of shelves. My folks bought it for me at an auction (birthday present), and it's fabulous for mixing up potting soil. And for Valentine's Day a couple of years ago, DH put in a "parasite tap" on the water line with a little spigot right above my potting tub! The plants & I have definitely claimed that corner of the basement....

"beautiful." Hmmm. Yes, all those little seedling flats are a thing of beauty, but I'm thinking it's a good thing you can't see the rest of that corner of the basement! What a mess! I really need to sort out those old pots & cell packs (can't throw them away, what if I need them??) and sweep up the potting soil! You know, I knew for sure bluekat76 and I were going to be buddies when she saw that corner for the first time and, rather than saying, "what a mess," she said, "I wish I could make a mess like that!!" LOL

I also have a lovely old fashioned double laundry tub (with legs) next to the first set of shelves. My folks bought it for me at an auction (birthday present), and it's fabulous for mixing up potting soil. And for Valentine's Day a couple of years ago, DH put in a "parasite tap" on the water line with a little spigot right above my potting tub! The plants & I have definitely claimed that corner of the basement....

BTW, nc, I thought your own setup was just genius.... I especially loved the light sitting on the rungs of the chair! I keep telling people, anybody can find a place for a light and a couple of flats, and that's just what you've done there!

Oooh that tub sounds great! I wish I had one. I use a big plastic Walmart storage bin. It's so low to the ground I get a backache every time I make a batch.

:) Thanks Critterologist!! One of these days I plan on upgrading to a lazy boy! HAHAHA!! :)

my dh snagged an old 5 in one table for me- you know it has air hockey and table tennis ect.... the top was ruined but the table itself is a great mixing and potting table!

Heather

Ivy, can't you put your storage bin on top of another storage bin (or two) to raise it up a bit? My back aches thinking about it! Maybe you can find an old table like Heather did..... :-)

HEAVY TRASH NIGHT BABY!!!!!! sometimes there are glass shelves too- they always come in handy!

You know, Critter, that's a good idea. The sad part is, I already have 2 bins and I never thought of it!

Great looking setup, Critter! Isn't it nice to have a hubby that helps support your habit! If you are talking about those old concrete laundry tubs, I'm really jealous! My mother used to have a set of those down in the basement, and they were lovely.

Mine are metal, but I like that better than concrete because I ususally move my potting area outside next to the deck for the summer! Now, if my DH would build me greenhouses like yours, that'd really be something! But yes, I do appreciate him!

Yes, I am jealous - Critter can make a mess and I can't Well inside anyway. I am up to 6 sets of lights now! They are all for tomatoes and veggies - no flowers at all:( I am ready to go buy transplants!! Must.....Buy.......Plants......

-Kim

Well, the stainless sinks will be much lighter! I only have one laundry tub in the basement. It's one of those plastic PVC types, and it works fine. Once we get the bigger greenhouse set up, I want sinks in it. My little greenhouse is too small for that, so we have a big tote with a sump for now, then we bring a house in from the outside tap when we're sure it won't freeze up.

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/498356/

I have another question-- and this thread is loooooooooong now- so I hope you don't mind.....

Heather