my seedling shelves today

My shelves are tucked in the corner of my garage this year. It stays about 60F out there. I think this low temp will be good for the seedlings. I'm thinking they'll grow a bit slower and end up a bit stockier and less leggy than when they were indoors at 70F. We'll see.

Here's the list of what I've planted so far: my 2016 planting list. I'm having more trouble than usual with failed germination this year. It's the old seed. I'm noting the ones that don't come up and throwing out the packages. Mostly it's the ones from back around 2009. (I suppose that's pretty old - I love to save seed.)

new seed trays to try out

Here are the new seed cells I'm going to try this year. I'm still deciding what to plant in which. 'Til now, I've only used the bottom right trays, which have 48 cells per 10-20 tray.


The new trays I'll try have 24, 128 and 200 cells per 10-20 tray.

I got my seedlings shelves out and stacked the trays on them. They're ready and waiting. I'll look for some soil mix. I think I have some out in the shed leftover from last year. I'm working on setting up a convenient watering method as Pam commented these smaller cells will dry out fast.

Below are some old photos I took at a nearby greenhouse a few years back. The farmer, Gretta, had a beautiful set up in her hoop house as she was getting ready for a CSA season. I was amazed at array of beautiful seedlings. I'll look the photos over and take some pointers from them. Of course, I can't plant as many as plants Gretta.... I think she is using all 128 cell trays.

seedlings inside under lights

I have lots of little seedlings growing. Beets, broccoli, marigolds, lettuce, escarole, endive, eggplants, peppers, tomatoes.... Some I'm on time planting, some ahead of schedule and some behind schedule.

the onions are sown!

I planted a whole tray of onion seeds today. Its exciting to have extra planting space to be planting for this year! The varieties I planted are on my 2014 planting list.

plant shelves are up!

Today I assembled the lights for my seedling shelves. I searched and found the light holders in the shed, hung them on the shelves and added 4 new plant lights. To start the process, I put my little sweet potato sprouts on one of the shelves. My first sowing should be mid-February - 2 more weeks - when I plant my onion seeds. Don't know if I'll be able to wait that long....

19 weeks and counting

I've started the countdown to my last frost. Should be about May 10 for my new garden. 19 weeks!! All my seed starting is based on this countdown. The first seeds to plant will be onions and celeriac, which get started 11 weeks before the last frost. So I have 8 weeks to get ready. Lights, shelves, potting soil, trays, seeds. It's exciting to have a date set and a countdown going!

last seedlings

These are my last seedlings of the season. They will go out in the cold frame soon. Maybe tomorrow. I will pull aside the cucumber vines and pull out the eggplants to make room for them. These are mostly salad greens. Spinach, lettuce, escarole and arugula. A few broccoli's. I just love a cold frame full of winter spinach!

my plant shelves today

fall seedlings

As the summer crops fade, I am increasing the numbers of seedling I'm planting. Mostly greens: lettuce of all types, arugula, spinach, endive and escarole and beets. They'll go into my community plot after the squashes and corn are pulled (only 26 days until frost!! OMG). And then, they'll go into my cold frame when the cucumbers finish. I had such a nice early spring cold frame full of greens that I'm looking forward to fall. I think they will grow well past the first frost.

I've resorted to starting all my seeds inside under lights. The sun and rain are too unpredictable for small seedlings outside in the big world, especially when my schedule is all mixed up.

seedlings

empty seed trays

I looked up my old posts describing my plant shelves and lights. Also the old planting table I used to use. Here's the link.

I set out my trays and plants cells. Sowing will happen soon.

gardening by the moon calendar

I have been looking forward to hanging this "Gardening by the Moon" calendar by my planting shelves this year. And tonight when the moon is so full seemed an appropriate time to dig it out of a drawer and hang it up.

It seems that above the ground plants should be planted on the waxing moon and roots on the waning. Or is it the other way around? This is new for me and will be fun to read about over the coming months.

The calendar has a number of planting tips and timing information. It looks great on the wall. It comes in three version for long, mid and short growing seasons.

(Caren Catterall at Divine Inspiration Publications sent me this calendar free to review.)

empty plant shelves

My husband brought the plant shelves and lights up from the basement today and assembled everything. Looks like a new garden ready to go. This is the only window in the house that gets beautiful full sun all day long in the winter. Its high enough to be out of the shadow of the neighboring house. And it faces directly south. I often find Skippy stretched out in the puddle of sunlight on the rug here.

seedlings on the shelf

I have six and a half trays of seedlings growing now. Only four fit under my lights, but the sun's doing a good job with the others. The lettuce is starting to look pretty with red frilly leaves. The early tomatoes will need bigger pots soon. Onions continue to grow well though I decided not to trim their tops. Broccoli and peppers have their second leaves (1st true leaves) and my surprise seedlings sprouted well are thinking about getting second leaves. I hoping this will give me a clue to their identity.

Yesterday's planting list (one 9-pack of each):
Cabbage, Super Red 80
Cabbage, Savoy
Hollyhock, single mixed
Lettuce, Prizehead
Beets, Lutz
Beets, White Detroit
Mixed fall greens
Spinach, Bloomsdale

getting ready to plant: trays, soil and labels

Now that I've got seeds and a plant shelf, next is trays, soil and labels.

Seed trays: I like seed trays with small cells (1" x 1.5" cell, 12-packs, 96-per tray) so each seedling gets its own. Except for the seedlings that get bigger (like tomatoes, peppers and large squashes), these little cells work well. The goal is one seedling per tiny cell. Plant a couple seeds per cell and thin.

I saved as many old seed trays as I could. I have quite a few, but most get ripped during transplanting. I went by Agway just now to look for new trays, but the kind I want aren't in. I'll check back next week.

Onions and celeriac are the first seeds I'll plant. The recommendation for onions is: fill cells with soil, compress to make a uniform surface, then sow 5 seeds in each 1-1 1/2" diameter cell and cover with 1/4 inch of soil. If the seeds are too shallow, the onions will tend to push themselves up out of the plug. Thin later to 3/cell and then transplant each cell 6" apart into the garden.

Potting soil: I have been using the largest cheapest bag of fertilized potting soil. Last year Miracle Gro. This year I have Scott's. I don't even know what's in these big plastic bags. Soil? Soiless? Of course its not organic. Someday I should look into the best potting soil to use. But there are always so many issues: economy, availability, how well it works, and an environmentally friendly product.

Plant labels: I use small labels for seed trays. Last year I used little wooden ones. They look nice and are biodegradable, but single use. And I hate to throw things out. Some of the poorer quality wood labels I bought last year didn't hold ink well. The ink ran and I had no idea what was where. This year I'm trying plastic labels. I think I can probably remove the ink with a solvent later and reuse them forever. I'll give this a try.

new plant shelf - ready to go

I had a lot of suggestions from gardeners about their seedling shelves. The best deal seems to be the assemble it yourself. This is a 35" wide x 54" tall x 18" deep metal shelf system with 4 shelves ($67.54). I have 1 shop light fixture ($8.97) hanging with adjustable chains on each of three shelves to start. Each fixture holds with two 40W 48" fluorescent bulbs. I can expand and use the forth shelf later if I need more space. Each shelf holds two planting trays, lengthwise. They hang over the edges a bit. I bought a mix of Grow Light bulbs ($9.99) and full spectrum bulbs ($6.47). Together with a plastic floor mat, it cost about $165 and is very sturdy.

Here's a commercial set up for comparison. The Delux version has 8 bulbs for 8 trays ($439.95 not including shipping). Mine has 6 bulbs for 6 trays now and room to go to 8 bulbs and 8 trays.

I looked up some information on lighting:

From Gardeners.com: "Cool white bulbs are a good source of blue and yellow-green light, but are a poor source of red light.... Plants grown under cool white bulbs will be stocky or even slightly stunted. Warm white bulbs emit plenty of orange and red light, but less light in the blue and green spectrum. If you are growing seedlings under 2-bulb fluorescent fixtures, you can usually achieve a good color balance by combining one cool white and one warm white bulb....Full-spectrum fluorescent bulbs produce a balance of cool and warm light that replicates the natural solar spectrum. These lights are excellent for seedlings."

Also, from here: "Seedlings thrive with 15-20 fluorescent light watts per square foot."

I figure I have 80 Watts per 3 square foot shelf - about 25 watts per square foot, if I keep the lights low to the plants.

planning for a seedling shelf system

I meant to look into a shelf system for seedlings this weekend. Best of intentions ... But my cold is still getting the better of me.

I was feeling good on Saturday and maybe over did it with a nice hike. After doing the school-sport-cheering-Mom thing, I took some kids and some dogs hiking. The local Boston trails are covered with a foot of packed powder. Fantastic for hiking. Unusual here. Usually we get melting and end up with icy slick paths, terrible to walk on. Packed powder is beautiful, the hike was lovely. But today I'm "under the weather" again....

Anyway, the plan is to buy an inexpensive metal shelf system (I'm hoping for good sale at Target or Costo). I have a wall area cleared and ready. A south facing window to make use of what sunlight there is. I'll buy lights and attach them to each shelf. (Someone left me a comment here with nice plans for a shelf and light set up. I hope I can locate this comment.)

Last year I tried to go with only window light and this was not enough. I then used my fish tank light and my tank didn't do so good. I'm looking forward to a nice seedling shelf. I enjoy watching the seedlings grow. I'm sure I'll end up with photos to post....

a light for the seedlings

With a streak of cloudy weather, I have resorted to a plant light. I set up a make shift arrangement using my fish tank lighting. I didn't want to burn the little seedlings, so I looked up how much light is OK:

"Experiments and tests have demonstrated that most vegetables and flowering plants need 25 to 30 fluorescent light watts per square foot. Houseplants and seedlings do well with 15 to 20 watts..." http://www.doityourself.com/stry/factsoflight

It looks like I have about 5-6 sq ft of illuminated seedlings, so I need 75-120 watts. I have two 98 watt compact double fluorescent tubes in the fixture - a bright white and an actinic blue. The blue is mainly for penetrating water to reach corals, so I'll just go with the daylight bulb. The recommendation for timing seems to be 16 hours per day, so I'll set the timer for 6am-10pm. I have the set up in the window, so this will also add whatever natural light is available.

I wish I could join my plants and enjoy the nice bright light. A few more months I guess....

seed tables are ready

I think I'm going to start my indoor sowing a bit earlier than I planned.