New Seed Starting Project

[Sher]

I have seeds planted for both indoor and outdoor growing:

4 clumping green onions

5 rutabagas

8 Chinese cabbage

3 Sweet Heat peppers

1 Orange Hat micro tomato

2 Venus micro toms -- free seeds from Renaissance

someone is gonna have fun! sounds good,sher!

[Shawn]

Lots and lots of fun !

[waterphoenix]

Excited to see these fall crops come along!

[Sher]

Everything is doing well except for the rutabagas. They were getting burned by the light, so I raised it. They still looked puny, so I added nutes. They were still looking puny, so I added calmag.

I think I will transplant them into coco coir and start hardening them off. If they make it, they make it. If not, the Chinese cabbage is looking great.

The micro tomatoes look happy. Still waiting for the Sweet Heats to sprout. The onions look funny!

great progress  in just a few days

[Sher]

Here are the Chinese cabbage so far. I am hardening them off in the

seed starter bowl itself.  I just remove the bowl and set it outdoors, gradually increasing the time each day.

i have done that with several crops I planned to plant outdoors with 100% success.  It makes it so easy!

My doctor put me on a low carb diet with no root vegetables. So I had to toss the baby rutabagas.

Did your tent arrive  yet,sher?

[Sher]

Sept 4, 2020 12:21:52 GMT -5 @cornne said:

Did your tent arrive  yet,sher?

Corinne, I rethought the tent idea. I would have to worry about keeping the heat and humidity down, and make sure the light placement and air circulation was just right.

I deal with keeping heat down and air circulation in my Kratky closet.  I finally decided to expand the shelf space in the closet to make room for DWC projects, too.  For the mini DWCs the little coolers cost $12 and the pumps $13 -- and the pump has a splitter that will service 2 units.

That seems easier and much more affordable.

Plus I bought another Harvest 360 for seed starting.

[waterphoenix]

Looking green and healthy. Will you plant them outdoors in soil or a container?

[Sher]

Sept 6, 2020 8:06:30 GMT -5 waterphoenix said:

Looking green and healthy. Will you plant them outdoors in soil or a container?

They will be going into containers as soon as the temperatures drop out of the 90's and high 80's. I am having to harden them off very gradually.

If I planted them anywhere except my deck, the deer and rabbits would wipe them out in one day.

[Sher]

I got 5 of the Chinese cabbages transplanted straight out of the seed starter without the first hint of transplant shock.

I planted the others 3 days later, and they did suffer a bit of transplant shock. I think I left them in the seed starter too long without enough nutrients.

Here is a photo of the first 5.

[Sher]

Rains from Sally will be hitting us soon.  I thought I'd get an updated photo in case the rain beats them to tatters.

I think I'll go ahead and harvest the biggest, prettiest one now, even though I think it's a little early.

[ERR0R1755]

I love that vibrant shade of green!

I would definitely purchase that if I saw it in the farmer's market  section of my store

[Shawn]

It looks great.  I also hope you do not get too much rain that causes any issues.

[Sher]

Shawn, we got a lot of rain all night long, some heavy. It is still raining, but my plants appear unharmed so far.

My marigolds loved it. They are really putting on a display this morning!

And the pepper plants came through well, too.  I just hope they didn't get enough rain to cause fungal problems.  Some sun and wind ought to take care of them.

[Shawn]

Glad to know they are all ok.

[Sher]

Here is an updated photo of the Chinese cabbage.  I have another container of them, but something is chewing holes in the leaves. I will put out slug bait and see if that fixes the problem.

They still look good! Here the night leaf munching bugs earwigs!  If one is brave enough to go out with a flashlight they will get creeped out! They live in the damp mulch.