Monday, April 20, 2009

Indoor Seedlings Update

First of all, my seedlings look woefully far behind compared to other bloggers even those that are in a close climate. Next year I'll be starting them earlier.

I'm very happy to report that I got germination from all of the varieties of tomatoes I planted. I wasn't sure that I would since I saved many of the seeds myself and this was my first time saving seeds.
Now I have no idea what I'll do with the four additional tomatoes I started in egg shells just last week. I don't have room for that many tomatoes. Hopefully I can give them away.

I also have one pepper sprouted. I dug around in the other cells and see that they others have a very small root protruding. I covered them back up and I'll wait.

My golden beets are doing well. They didn't germinate in all the cells, but since each seed you plant is actually a cluster, I gently pulled a few sprouts and spread them into the empty cells.
I spread out my bright lights chard in a similar way to the beets. Last year I didn't know that I should thin the chard and so I ended up with 3 plants clustered together in one spot. I think I should get a higher yield with each plant having more room. They are beginning to get their first set of true leaves. However, it seems that all the seedlings of the bright lights variety are of a reddish hue. Maybe they will change as they mature, but if not I don't really mind all the red, and hopefully my Pot of Gold yellow will round things out.
The oregano and thyme I started last week sprouted, the thyme first and then the oregano just today. When I planted them I couldn't believe how small the seeds were. I just sprinkled some in. I figure I'll thin it out when they get bigger. The thyme is pictured below.
Lastly my volunteer tomato is looking a little yellow. I think I'm over watering it.
I'm looking forward to seeing what else sprouts this week!

3 comments:

Cheryl said...

Don't worry. In a few weeks when you start potting things up you'll be worried about where to put everything.

Dan said...

I wish I waited to start my tomatoes except the one early one I am trying. They are getting huge and out of hand already, planting time is still 30 days away...

The only thing I will keep starting really early is peppers. They seem to take ages to grow and benifit from the added time under the light.

My bright light chard is also predominantly reddish colored, I only have two yellow. The reddish ones must mature into other colors, I hope.

Anonymous said...

I've never transplanted beets, thinking that as a root crop they should be undisturbed. I will have to try this, especially as I love the gold beets and they seem to have low germination.