taking advantage of the light

seeing my box of seeds just sitting on the shelf made me anxious to get them in the ground, and seeing the empty space under my grow light was depressing. knowing i will have a space crunch once the tomato plants more mature, i have been hesitant to plant anything else....until today. i've decided to take advantage of the growing light now and deal with the plants at a later date. worst case scenario, i give them away to somebody who will look after them and grow them out. best case scenario, i find a way to grow them all in this small 10'x10' spare bedroom.

i didn't get too adventurous on varieties i was going to experiment with. i stuck to beans and peas. i guess i thought they might do well because they are cool weather plants, and being indoors might serve them well. i've chosen to try; purple fava bean, cherokee cornfield (bean), triumpho violetta (bean), edamame soybean and carlin soup pea. here is a picture of the set-up now.

while i was sowing the new beans and peas, i decided it was about time to transplant my tomatoes. the roots for the 'purple calabash' were starting to show at the bottom of the old tray, so transplanting will give them more room to grow. the better the roots, the better the plant. i planted the seedlings deeper than they were in the starter tray. the little hairs on the stem will turn to roots once they are planted deeper. i planted them so the soil level was above it's primary leaf set, but below it's first true leaves. below are pictures of the 'green pineapple' and 'purple calabash', respectively, after the transplant.

thanks for following my experiment and please check out the 'renegade phoenix' blog i have linked on the right side of the page...it may just change the way you look at life.

saltspring seeds have arrived

yesterday, i received my order from saltspring seeds. these seeds will become a part of my collection and will be grown when i have time and space, hopefully sooner than later. they are all heritage seeds and are gmo free. when stored properly, they will also serve for food security.

this is the second purple calabash to come thru. he's still trying to shed that seed pod.

the green pineapple is growing fast. it's first real leaves are growing thru the primary leaf set.

the purple calabash is really getting big. it's abot 2" tall now. it's main stem is reaching for the light and will soon be ready to transplant into a larger pot.

a new sprout appears

yesterday, it was just starting to break the soil, but today when i got home from work, it had fully emerged. the seed pod is still on the head, but will soon be shed.

the green pineapple is really starting to take off. the main stem is starting to come thru it's first leaf set and will soon be very prominent on the plant.

and finally, the purple calabash. it's growing so fast, very soon i'll have to move the plants down away from the light a little more, making them stretch for the 'sun'. i don't want them stretching too much, because they will get 'leggy' and weak. i'm aiming for 'short and stout'.

adding reflective mylar to the growing shelf

i was out today looking for a more appropriate fluorescent light for the tomatoes. at the store, the guy who helped me said that my lights were fine, but i may want to try adding some reflecive mylar around the shelf. thankfully, the shelf i'm using isn't very big, so the mylar wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg. i bought ten lineal feet of it at $2.50 per foot. it was a one time cost that may very well be worth every penny.

since the plants are still less than 2" in height, putting the mylar up today won't really help them much. but once they start growing taller, the light at the top will not be intense enough on it's own, so the mylar will help distribute the light to the bottom of the plants. also, because of the light i have, i had to move it to sit on top of the shelf, so i could wrap the mylar around it. the corona box is used to keep the seedlings as close to the light as possible. i still have to figure out how to best cover the last open side of the shelf. i know i will need continuous access to it to tend to the plants, so a sturdy 'door' will be something i will be working on over the next few weeks.

now it's time for a plant update. the last update was 5 days ago, and the green pineapple plant (above) was just starting to poke thru the soil. well, has it ever grown since then. it is now about an inch tall and looking stronger every day. it did have a tough time shedding the seed shell, which only happened last night. it only has one of it's primary leaves, so i hope it still does well.

above is the purple calabash plant. every day, it seems like there is some new growth on it. this is by far the strongest of the 2 seedlings. it's hard to have expectations on a plant, but i expect to eat some mighty tasty tomatoes of this guy sometime around early may.