Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Seedlings

Recent plantings include:

5 blocks of golden beets
4 blocks of sesame seeds
10 blocks of Sugar Snap Peas
Dill and Cosmos inside the cold frame but in the soil where they will remain
Radishes inside the cold frame
3 Sorrel in the raised bed
14 Broccoli Raab Quarantina in the raised bed( We tried Broccoli Raab just before a recent seed order so I ordered some)
9 spinach in the raised bed

Here are the seedlings as the progress. Most have moved out into the cold frame for this hot weather. The tomatoes will probably come back in as the weather is supposed to cool starting tomorrow. If the photos aren't identified in the text, hold your cursor above them and a label will appear.

The peppers and some herbs are the only plants that have remained under the lights. Today my second pepper sprouted. It's #4. I seeded these back on 3/27 so that's a month germination. I'll be starting peppers earlier next year.


The sesame seeds on the right are ones I started from seeds bought in the bulk section of the local coop. I'm also starting some that I ordered and I'll be comparing the plants. If the harvest goes well I should have plenty of black sesame seeds for topping rye bagels.



My "Sugar Daddy" Snap Peas that I seeded in the garden had horrible germination. I had the same problem with them last year. I planted between 20 and 30 seeds, the rest of the packet and have two seedlings with no signs of any more coming. So I've started Sugar Snap Peas in soil blocks. Here I can see that the seeds are putting down roots and beginning to send up shoots. I'll transplant them to the row shortly after they sprout.


The tomatoes seem to be making slow progress. Last year I planted out seedlings in the middle of May with walls of water around them. I'm not sure these are going to be ready to put out then. We may have to wait until after my last frost date at the end of May.



2 comments:

Elena said...

Just wanted to say that I'm gardening vicariously through you! I tried growing tomatoes in my apartment one year and they got really big but never blossomed and then we put them on the fire escape and a squirrel dug them up! Also, I'm learning a lot about methods. Someday . . .

Dan said...

Looks like your seeding is in full swing now. I have had some peppers take almost a month to fully germinate. They can be such a pain but it seems it varies by variety. Bell peppers seem to be the worst of them all.