Greetings, fellow garden lovers! I know I'm in good company eager for spring on a cold day in early March with snow in the forecast. Blogging is brand new for me, but seems a pretty good substitute for being out there. I have posted pictures of the garden as it evolved over the past two years on my Planning and First Year pages of this blog, and will document our progress and share what we have learned. I appreciate any feedback or suggestions!
So far this year, we have added lots of composted rabbit manure to the beds and started onions, parsley, and lettuce. The straw-covered beds are garlic planted last fall from our own seed stock (German White hardneck). There are tiny garlic shoots already- they started in the fall and never really died back.
Below are 2 week-old lettuces (Black Seeded Simpson and Ruby).
I started onions from seed this year for the first time. They were planted in trays the first week of February and are now about a month old. When they reach about 4 inches, I trim them back to direct energy into bulb growth. Each tray contains about 75 plants (Copra and Red Bull, purchased from Fedco Seeds). I spaced them closely and will tease them apart gently when I plant them in two weeks. I will also grow some onions from sets this year so I can compare sets vs. seeds. Parsley is growing to the right (about a month old). Parsley takes some time to germinate. I had heard that pouring boiling water on the newly planted seeds helps; I did this and they came up in 10 days.
Nice garden. It should be nice and colorful in a couple months. What kind of light do you use? I plan on starting luffa seeds in about 2-3 weeks under a 400watt metal halide.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Steve! We use one cool and one warm bulb, purchased at Lowe's, in each shop light. I believe the warmer lights are around 2,700 K and the cool lights are around 4,000 K. It's cheaper that using grow lights, and it has worked well for starting seeds. From what little I know about lighting, seedlings need mostly cool light. Our plant stand is also in front of a south facing window. I have never used the halide lamps but will be interested to know how your luffa seeds do. Has anyone tried "Daylight" bulbs for growing? They are closer to 5,000 K and I wonder if they are better for seedlings.
ReplyDeleteI think a full spectrum with warm and cool should be better, and I think how you have it at close distance helps as well. I usually direct sow however angled luffa or chinese cucumbers take 3 months to produce fruit, and it would be better to get an early start on them since they continue producing until the frost. Unlike regular cucumbers, these keep growing as each plant can cover over 400 square feet of trellis space forcing me to expand my trellis even more this year.
ReplyDeleteHere's the only plant I really intend to grow from seed indoors.
http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/2012/09/growing-angled-luffa-loofah-gourds-from.html
Thanks for the info Steve. The luffa gourds look like something out of science fiction! The flowers are lovely, too! And your trellis system is amazing.
ReplyDelete