Yay! It's gardening season again! =) I hope to have a wonderful container garden again on my porch this year. I am going to try my best to learn from the mistakes I made & things I experienced last year that I could not overcome. My main worry, of course, is the return of the devil, I mean spider mites. I have expanded a little bit this year (only a little cuz I have a tiny porch to work with). I'm planting 2 dwarf fruits, a few flowers, some onions, a few organic vegetables & a better selection/higher quality pepper.
This year, I decided to try a few different methods of seed starting to see which one I like the best for my future gardens. The first few seeds I started were in Jiffy peat pots (small ones) with Miracle Gro Organic Choice Potting Mix. This method worked out well and left me with about an 85-90% germination rate. The only slight issue being that the peat pots soak up a lot of water, so these seeds required a bit more water than the same setup would in a plastic cup or whatever. I am mostly happy with this method. I also decided to try one of the Jiffy peat pellet trays (25 count). This was my favorite method of all. Not just because I got a bit better germination rate than with the peat pots, but also because all of the plants growing in these pellets seemed to germinate a little bit faster & have had a bit of a head start on the peat pot ones so far. They also required a bit of extra water as they dry out pretty quickly once removed from the greenhouse after the seeds sprout. With both methods, seedlings were moved to a sunny windowsill a day or two after their first set of leaves (cotyledons) opened up. I will end up with some extremely beautiful tomato plants this year, for sure!
I also have a little 6 pot (plastic) Veggie Tales cactus greenhouse, a few Jiffy peat pots with flowers in them (both for my daughter) & an experiment pot with Mammoth Dill Weed in it. My last plant to arrive, which will be the only one store bought & only one not started from seed this year will be my Dwarf Lemmon Tree. :) I'm sure I will show it on here in future posts. Below is a list of what I have planted so far & when I started the seeds for them. I am profoundly amazed and full of excitement regarding one plant this year so far. My Cherry Tomatoes were started on March 10th, as you'll see below, and are currently (at 22 days of age) about 5 inches tall, 3 or so inches wide and filling up the 16 oz cups very quickly. What's so amazing is that they were started a week after my other tomatoes (in peat pellet greenhouse) and my other tomatoes are about a third of their size! As always, feel free to contact me through Blogspot or GardenWeb. I am quite often on both.
- Steve
2009 Garden List:
***(5) means 5 pots or pellets with 3-4 seeds a piece.
Plants started in Jiffy peat pots on March 3rd:
California Wonder Organic Bell Peppers (5)
Early Girl Hybrid Tomatoes (5)
Jalapeno Early Organic Peppers (5)
San Marzano Organic Tomatoes (5)
Plants started in Jiffy peat pellet greenhouse on March 10th:
Cherry Tomatoes (5)
Serrano Peppers (5)
Southport White Globe Onions (5)
More Jalapeno Early Organic Peppers (10)
I also started back up my Garlic Chives on March 10th (from last years root clusters) by simply pouring warm water over them. I didn't even add anymore soil. As of today, April 1st, they are monsters already, some over 6 inches tall!
Plants started in Jiffy peat pots on March 17th:
Indian Princess Nasturtiums (3)
Plants started on March 24th:
Dwarf Strawberries (1 decorative container with about 7-8 seeds)
Veggie Tales Cactus Kit (6 little pots with 3-4 cactus seeds a piece in a mini-greenhouse)
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