About a month ago, we started our seeds inside. I had been saving egg cartons for this, and the boys helped poke holes in the bottom for water drainage.
We had seeds for carrots, bell peppers, jalapenos, tomatoes, and lettuce.
After a couple weeks, Jesse transplanted some of the thriving plants into plastic cups, because they had outgrown the egg cartons but weren't ready for outside yet. He put these on dark towels to help them really soak up the sun and stay warm, since we don't have a heating lamp.
At that point he also planted some additional seeds, yellow squash and dill. The squash and dill are growing well, as are about a third of the egg carton plants. The 5 egg cartons in the picture above didn't really grow well, probably because they didn't get quite as much heat and sunlight. Live and learn!
Jesse picked up four more tomato plants, four red pepper plants, and four jalapeno plants, which are a little bit farther along than our seeds. We're hoping to transplant everything to the garden in a few weeks.
We're still pretty much novices at this since we only had our two tomato plants in pots last year. Any advice for beginners? I know a lot more about the saving the produce once it's actually grown than I do about growing it...
Well, this will be a little tricky since you don't know which plants are which, but last year we had our hot peppers next to our bell peppers, and they cross-pollinated, so I would suggest putting the different types of peppers in different areas of the garden. We also spray blossom-set on the blossoms at least in the beginning to help the stuff set on. But that's personal preference. Nate knows way more about it than I do!
ReplyDeleteAlso, we don't plant our plants outside until they've been "conditioned." We put them outside on the porch or deck starting for only a half hour a day and working up to all day before we plant them in the ground outside. That way, they don't get sunburned. We also use Miracle Gro - the starter for the first week or so in the garden, and the regular stuff about once a week, again more towards the beginning of the season.
ReplyDeleteI had read about conditioning, although I didn't realize it was to prevent sunburn! And good top know about the peppers. We can at least separate the ones we do know from the bigger plants.
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