My new inexpensive light setup for the tomato seedlings!

$21.67 at Home Depot...

2 75 watt Eco-Friendly CFL's.
2 8 & 1/2 inch light fixtures with clamps

33 tomato plants...





- Steve

First pepper seedling update of 2010!

Finally, after painfully waiting for my pepper seeds to germinate, some of them have popped through the soil! =) I counted them last night and so far I have 4 Caribbean Red Habanero's & 3 Sweet Yellow Stuffing Pepper seedlings. I'm excited to get some pepepr plant seedlings started pretty early this year. Especially since most of the seeds I started are heirloom peppers. On another similar note, 2 of my Lavender Hyssop seedlings germinated a few days ago. This is awesome to me, as I hear Lavender is quite hard to grow from seed. I'll post a few pics of these wee babies probably sometime in the next few days.

Jung order arrived & Tomato seedling update

Finally, the last of my gardening orders placed almost 2 weeks ago arrived yesterday. I got everything I ordered from Jung except for the California White Garlic & St. Croix Grape plant, which are on backorder. That kind of stinks, but is ok since I probably wouldn't be planting either of them yet anyways.

Jung seed packets I received yesterday (doesn't include a few in my original post that I ordered for the father-in-law):

Alibi Hybrid Cucumber
Yellow Pear Tomato
Connecticut Field Pumpkin
Yellow Brandywine Tomato
Mariachi Hybrid Pepper
Sun Sugar Hybrid Tomato
Yummy Pepper




Next, a short, but sweet picture update of the first set of tomato seedlings, which I started from seed in dirt(pellet) on January 23rd. They are my typical crappy camera phone pictures, but a bit less crappy this time due to good light! Yay for a quick taste of Spring! =) Some of these tomato plant seedlings appear to be leaning a bit, so I will probably give them some mini-stakes later tonight when I get home.

Rutgers:


Persimmon:


Better Boy:


Wisconsin 55:


This is the SSE facing window setup. The cups on box are tomato seedlings that were just last night potted up. They are Amish Paste, Black Cherry, Sungold & Sungold Select II.


This is the SSW facing window setup.

An update on the tomato seedlings

They are growing well. I'm tired, so a short post with pictures follows. I gave them their first (diluted about 1/2 strength) dose of the Dyna Gro Foliage Pro 9-3-6 today. =) I have nothing but great expectations for this fertilizer. Thanks, Al from GardenWeb!




Tomato Pics:

First window (SSE facing):



Second window (SSW facing):



Rutgers:



Persimmon (Seem to be doing the best):



Better Boy (Seem to be healthy, yet a lot shorter than the others):



Wisconsin 55:



Sungold (Started later than the others):



- Steve

More Stuff Arrived! =)

Yesterday, I got 3 more FedEx packages. I received my heating mat thermometer, my fertilizers & my cold frame! Yay! The only thing left, that I have not received yet, is my Jung order. Below are a few pictures of them. Also, I believe I have finalized my list of what i'm growing this year. I have yet to start the Stevia or Echinachea Purpurea because it's too early to do so. I will probably start a few seeds of each in early to mid March. Here's my final list (well, as final as any gardening addict like myself can get...i'm sure a few more items will pop up later on...lol):




Tomatoes:

Rutgers
Persimmon
Better Boy
Wisconsin 55
Sungold
Sungold Select II
Black Cherry
Amish Paste
Martino's Roma




Peppers:

Chillie Chili
Hot Banana
Mucho Nacho Jalapeno
Melrose
Capsicum Baccatum (Pendulum)
Chile de Comida (Guajillo)
Chocolate Habanero
Caribbean Red Habanero
Red Thai Burapa
Tabasco
Sweet Yellow Stuffing

*I may add one or two more sweet pepper varieties when I receive my Jung order.




Other starts this year:

Lavender Hyssop
Mexican Papaya
Garlic Plant
Stevia
Echinacea Purpurea
St. Croix Grape




Ongoing from last year:

Triple Crown Blackberry
Wineberry Raspberry
Strawberries (2 patches)
Elephant Garlic
White Globe Onion
Garlic Chives (will be the 3rd year for these!)
Indian Mint
Dwarf Lime Tree
Dwarf Cavendish Banana




I also have 15 or so various non-edible plants that will continue to grow in my garden this year.




Here are the pics of my newly arrived items. I'm excited about the cold frame & the fertilizers! The cold frame will allow me to get some of the seedlings outside a few weeks or so before the last frost date around here (April 15th-23rd), which is great since I started many of my tomato plants a few weeks before you are supposed to in my zone. Come on July 4th tomatoes!

The fertilizers should give me much more productive & healthy veggie plants this year. I've been researching a better fertilization plan & with the help of a few kind folks from GardenWeb, have found that a 3-1-2 ratio is best for vegetable plants, as it most closely matches what levels of NPK they naturally take in. The Foilage Pro 9-3-6 also has Calcium, Magnesium & a few other essential minerals that should help prevent things like the BER I had last year in my San Marzano's. The Protekt 0-0-3 will be added to my fertilization plan a bit later on & help with fruit production.

This is also my first attempt at using the Germination Station (heated dome seed greenhouse). I'm antsy to see how fast & better it makes the seeds grow.




Heat mat thermostat:



My new Cold Frame (will be put together in mid-March when i'm ready to use it):



The fertilizers:



The Germination Station:

Baker Creek Order & Some IGC Stuff Have Arrived!

Yay! I am so excited! My Baker Creek order arrived yesterday morning. Excellent fast shipping (bought last Friday night & got here on Wednesday) & I got everything I ordered. I also got my Germination Station & 2 Seedling Propagation Mats from Internation Greenhouse Company (aka Greenhouse MegaStore) yesterday. I'm looking forward to seeing how the heated germination station helps with seed propagation. Here's a few pics of my supplies i've gathered so far. First one is the Baker Creek order, second is the IGC stuff & third is some miscelaneous supplies (insecticidal soap, spray bottles, plant tags, bag of Perlite, etc.) I bought at a few different stores...




Baker Creek Seeds:

Bianca di Maggio Onion
Chocolate Habanero Pepper
Tabasco Pepper
Caribbean Red Habanero Pepper
Thai Red Chilli Pepper
Thai Yellow Chilli Pepper
Sweet Red Stuffing Pepper
Sweet Yellow Stuffing Pepper
Orange Banana Tomato
Sungold Select II Tomato
2 packs Amish Paste Tomato
Roma Rio Grande Tomato
Black Cherry Tomato
Echinacea Purpurea
Stevia






IGC stuff:






Misc. supplies:

A quick update on the tomato seedlings

At 16 days from seed, they are growing their 2nd, 3rd & 4th sets of leaves! Growing out not up, like I hoped for. My plan seems to be still working this year. I'm now trying to find a good potting medium to replace last years, as I had a Ca deficiency in the San Marzano's & a slight one or two other issues. Along with that search, i'm trying to find a new better fertilization method. Here's a pic of one, crappy cam phone pic, but you can still see the nice 2nd set of leaves. =)

Tomatoes & Stuff...

The tomatoes are growing up nice, despite son boy wiping out the cherry tomatoes...silly little boy. =) Most plants are now heavily growing in their 2nd sets of leaves. They'll be on the third set of leaves soon...I love this stage when they take off sideways, slowly grow upwards & form a nice sturdy stem. I think the ceiling fan in the room is making them stronger. If used in moderation, a fan definitely helps.

So, I got my tax return this past Friday & had to go a bit crazy with the gardening stuff. I think I stocked up well on seeds & a few things for the long term garden collection. =)



From Jung, like I originally wanted to do:

California White Garlic
Alibi Hybrid Cucumber
Colorado Potato Beetle Beater
St. Croix Grape
Super Sweet Jubilee Hybrid Sweet Corn
Blue Lake Fm1 Pole Bean
Yellow Pear Tomato
Blue Lake S-7 Stringless Pole Bean
Connecticut Field Pumpkin
Yellow Brandywine Tomato
Mariachi Hybrid Pepper
Sun Sugar Hybrid Tomato
Yummy Pepper



From International Greenhouse Company:

1 Cold Frame Double
2 Seedling Propagation Mats
1 Thermostat for Seedling Mat
1 Germination Station



From my new favorite online seed store...Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (I love this place!):

Bianca di Maggio Onion
Chocolate Habanero Pepper
Tabasco Pepper
Caribbean Red Habanero Pepper
Thai Red Chilli Pepper
Thai Yellow Chilli Pepper
Sweet Red Stuffing Pepper
Sweet Yellow Stuffing Pepper
Orange Banana Tomato
Sungold Select II Tomato
2 packs Amish Paste Tomato
Roma Rio Grande Tomato
Black Cherry Tomato
Echinacea Purpurea
Stevia
Bright Green Cap







These are my Tomato Seedling babies so far (see post below for varieties):












- Steve

Excellent Germination Rate On Tomatoes!

A short but sweet post for now. All 5 varieties of my tomatoes I started in the Jiffy peat pellet greenhouse are doing great! After 6 days, about 60-70% of the seeds had popped up through the soil and straightened out towards the light. Yesterday, the germination rate was easily over 90%. In fact, they are growing so well that, after only 8 days, I already potted up all the Rutgers to their next home and will probably do so with the rest of them as time allows over the next day or two. Below is a picture of the whole greenhouse full, taken yesterday afternoon before I potted up the Rutgers. The picture was taken after I thinned out/pulled about 30 or so weaker looking seedlings! They are starting to get a bit leggy, but will be moved to a sunny windowsil location very soon, which will hopefully help the legginess to stop like it did last year.

On another note, this year I want to keep better track of mineral levels in my potting mixes to avoid BER & the like. I imagine I will get a pH testing kit, read/research a bit on GardenWeb & also change around the potting mix composition a bit.