April 26, Monday

Tomato seedlings were looking a bit yellow under the grow light so I repotted the remaining 4 as per the others. The first 3 have been sitting outdoors on my south-facing living room picture window ledge to get a bit of direct sun when it's over 60F. All have been growing much more slowly since I'm not warming them from beneath.

Here are the remaining seedlings under the grow light, 3 eggplant and 3 bell pepper. If nothing else, it looks a lot neater.

As for the garden bed, I see fewer lettuce sprouts now than at first. I'm not hopeful. But here are just a few inches of my row of carrots:

I went ahead and thinned them to about 3 inches apart. Don't want no spindly little carrots.

April 19, Monday

Time for an update.

A few of my tomato plants were getting too big for my grow light setup, so it was time to repot. Drilled some 9/32" holes in the bottoms of 3 of the 12 dozen or so 1-quart yogurt containers I've been saving for some rainy day. Hacked the tops off 3 fatter containers to catch the runoff. Pinched off the seed leaves, popped the root balls out of their fiber pots, and placed them at the bottoms of the yogurt pots. Turned the root balls sideways to bring the lower leaves as near as possible to the top of the pots. Filled with organic potting mix, soaked and drained in the sink, and placed them on a jerry-rigged ledge on my living room window. Am pleased how well they complement my casual decor.

The house is designed for summer shade on the southern exposure, so there is no direct sunlight. Still think it's best to keep them indoors and warm. One of our local Master Gardeners claims tomatoes should not go in the ground a day before May 31 in this area, no matter what; the soil isn't warm enough. As he puts it, "you can always move them to bigger pots". And there you are.

This leaves my grow light setup a bit less crowded, with the lamp hung at a less rakish angle:

In my outdoor bed I have many carrot sprouts but still just a few lettuce. The seeds are from last year, so I don't know what I can expect. Love that fresh-picked lettuce.

April 10, Saturday

Lettuce sprouts already in the garden bed? Maybe a couple. No sign of carrots yet.

April 9, Friday

The true leaves are up for the eggplant and peppers, so it was time to thin and repot. On Wednesday I thinned 3 of the 4 pods for each; the sprouts in the remaining 2 pods were less developed.  Today I repotted the six thinned pods into my 3-in fiber pots.

I placed the pods near or above the top of the pots to bring the plant height as close to the height of the tomatoes as possible. Also, in order to place the pots 3 abreast beneath the plant light, I placed 2 pods of each variety at the edge in their pots. By turning those edges toward the center of the tray, the outer plants are no further from the light than the 2-abreast tomato plants. They're all still shorter than the tomatoes, so the plant light remains aslant. Here's a side view:

From the left we have 3 eggplants, 3 peppers, and 7 tomatoes. At the right I've tucked in the 2 pods not repotted, to replace any repotted plants that fail in the next week; eggplant near the wall, pepper at the front.

The light emits only 2000 lumens, about the same as a 125-watt incandescent. But because it creates little heat, it can be placed very near the tops of the plants. They appear to be thriving, so I guess it's sufficient.

April 3, Saturday

Realized yesterday that I waited too long last year to plant my carrots and spring lettuce. So today I:

1. Loosened the soil in last year's raised bed (3'x6') by plunging my garden fork in as deeply as I could (maybe 10 inches) and wiggling it back and forth. My gurus agree it's best not to disturb the layers of the soil by turning them over, but to loosen them thusly.
2. Strung twine lengthwise across the bed to mark 3 rows 1 foot apart.
3. Sowed carrots in the nearest row (in photo) and red leaf lettuce in the other two. Covered lightly and watered.
4. Mulched between the rows with maple leaves from a pile I didn't bother to clean up last fall. Watered down the mulch.

Here was the result at 7 pm:

If anyone thinks there's something I could be doing better, I'd love to hear it.

Discovered today that my tomatoes suffered from both early blight and late blight last season. Late blight is very destructive but doesn't overwinter. Early blight is more managable but remains in the soil from season to season. This means all my tomatoes will go into my new bed. I had planned to put some of them in both beds. The existing bed will have carrots and lettuce for now, and transplants of eggplant and peppers replacing some of the lettuce in May.

BTW, late blight also affects potatoes. It's the fungus that caused the Irish potato famine.

April 2, Friday

Had an epiphany on my seedling layout. Carefully cut away enough of the pod tray to allow me to place my tomato pots directly on the self-watering mat. Now both pods and pots can drink directly from the self-watering system while being warmed by the rope light beneath the tray. Bingo.

From the left we have 4 eggplant pods, 4 pepper pods, 1 tomato pod with teeny sprout not visible here, and 7 tomato pots:

In fact, I don't see any reason why the pods need to be in a tray at all. They're self-supporting and could sit directly on the mat.

April 1, Thursday

Was horrified this morning to find my sprouts underwatered and limp. They were damp last night, but not wet. Gave them some nice lukewarm refreshment and they were standing tall within an hour.

My tomatoes have had a pair or two of true leaves since Sunday, so it was time to thin and repot. From each pod with two sprouts, I removed the one with the fewest and smallest true leaves, which was in each case also the tallest. Clipped them at soil level with scissors.

Then repotted the tomatoes. My farmer's eagle-eye hadn't noticed they were growing roots thru the pod netting. Snipped down the sides of the netting, then gently pulled it away. Some of the longer roots were chopped off; the shorter ones pulled right thru. Standard practice would be to leave the netting in place, but I simply wanted it gone. I'm sure I didn't hurt them (much).

Gently placed the rootballs at the bottom of 100% coir pots (save our peat bogs!). All sources recommend planting tomatoes deep, just below the leaves, at each transplanting. The bottom of my 3-inch pots was as deep as I could go. Filled them with potting mix, patted it down very lightly, and gave them a good soak.

Wanted to use a mix of sterile potting medium, compost, and my own garden soil, but could locate no sterile medium in the time I was willing to devote. Settled for Miracle Grow Organic Choice Potting Mix, made up of composted tree bark, peat moss, and sterilized poultry litter. I think it will do.

Here's where we stand this evening:

The grow light is ordinarily only an inch or so above the tallest stems. It's a high-output T5, whatever that is, and generates little heat. I need to work on a better system for supporting my various plantings above the still-operating rope-light warming system.

My eighth and final tomato pod finally has a teeny sprout about to come up; it's the pod at the right of the eggplant and pepper sprouts. That means I'm 16-for-16 when it comes to pods with sprouts. Amazing.