Fish Fear Me

Are You Kidding Me?

Great:

The National Weather Service has forecast about 5 to 7 inches of snow to fall Wednesday night, April 10, into Thursday morning's commute, said meteorologist Lisa Schmit.

And yet, there's hope:

In the middle are about 8 pepper seedlings that I need to transplant now. It looks like I will get 28 or 29 plants out of 48 cells in this first batch, which seems disappointing to me, but others say a 60% yield isn't bad at all. The cukes did the best and the heirloom pear tomatoes the worst. 

I bought a second grow light, but I'm going to have to do some more arranging as I need room for another full tray. I want to start some herbs this week and maybe retry some of the tomatoes. 

Given the weather this spring, I have the time.

They're Alive!

I expected to see some seedling results at this point, but I'm a little taken aback at how quickly the cucumbers have not only germinated, but in some cases reached 2" in height:

(click to enlarge)

The left side are "burpless beauty" salad cucumbers, the right are "northern pickling." The top two cells on the right are green pepper that aren't showing any signs yet.

The tomatoes are just starting to sprout now, the peppers are still not visible.

I propped open the cover to the cukes when I took this picture before I left this morning, and I think they grew another half inch while I was at work. I'm going to put the taller ones in the stage two pots tonight and the rest will probably transition before the end of the week. That's been the plan with all of the seedlings, transition to the larger pots after they get to 2" and then let them mature the next six weeks or so until time to transplant. I'm starting to think I started the cukes too early. Hmmm.

I'm also a bit puzzled by this last instruction: Allow pods to fully form. They will tell you when they are ready. 

Huh.

Spring(updated)

Spring technically arrived yesterday morning, but you wouldn't know it around these parts. We're still stuck in a rut of temps well below normal, as in single digit lows and highs not making it above freezing. We should see a bit of a warmup this weekend, but the forecast says it will still be cooler than normal for the week after that.

On the bright side, I did get seeds started for Mom, my brother, and myself. Four units with 12 cells each of various tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. Then I promptly knocked over the one evenly divided between red and yellow grape tomatoes. Clod. I'm going to redo that one because everything got mixed up. Oh well. 

This is my first time trying to grow these plants from seed. I've always bought plants ready to transplant at the store, taking whatever was available. I'll update with a specific list of varieties when I get home tonight. 

Update: Okay, here's what I got started:

• Large tomatoes: Brandywine, Marvel Stripe, Green Zebra heirloom seeds from Renee's Garden.
• Small Tomatoes: Red and Yellow Heirloom Pear from Renee's Garden.
• Peppers: California Wonder, Sweet Red Pepper from Lake Valley.
• Cucumbers(Burpee): Burpless Beauty, National Pickling.