Saturday, February 19, 2011

Seed starting!

I'm very excited to say that we started our first batch of seeds! In spring of 2010, seeds were started six weeks before transplant, but I thought it might mean tomatoes sooner if started earlier this year. I will probably do succession seedlings as a backup in case these don't pan out, but in the meantime gardening season 2011 has begun.  Tomatoes, tomatillos, and romanesco have all sprouted.  Waiting on the wild yellow strawberries, but not holding my breath. I may try again with those soon. Peppers were started today. Here are some romanesco the day they came out.
romanesco day 1
This year I used coconut fiber pellets for initial seed starting. The kids love expanding them, and they are easy to deal with before transplanting to larger containers. It might mean more work in the long run, but the seedlings seem to love to sprout in the germination station, and you can't beat the entertainment level for the kids. The heat mat helps, I'm sure, as does the south facing window.
romanesco day 5
We belong to a local CSA and received a good number of cranberry beans in last year's share, so I saved the last batch to see if I could grow some as well. I wasn't sure how well they would do, so I tested a batch in a wet towel and they all sprouted.
cranberry bean sprouts
This means I will be direct sowing some cranberry beans in a few months, once I find a spot for them. The tomatoes are also looking happy so far.
tomato seedlings
That's about it for now. I am working on the garden layout plans still but will hopefully be able to share those soon.

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