Although spring is around the corner, my winter sowing continues. I wasn't sure if I was going to add more containers since this was the first season that I've tried this method, but I saw sprouts from my first containers and decided to move on. Seeing those little sprouts of green was just the motivations that I needed. I have 30 containers sowed. Here's the status:
Germinated:
Sunflowers - Lemon Queen
Sunflowers - Velvet Queen
Dill - Long Island Mammoth
Dahlias
Petunias - Mixed
Sowed but no germination:
Cherokee Purple
Homestead
Delicious
Germaine Johnson
Paul Robeson
Brandywine - Pink
Hillbilly
Squash
Zucchini
Added this week:
Lettuce - Green Salad Bowl
Spinach - Giant Noble
Greenbeans - Blue Lake (Bush & Pole)
Greenbeans - Jade (Bush)
Greenbeans - Gourmet
Sunflowers - Mexican
Sunflowers - Evening Sun
Snap Dragons - Mixed
Calendula - Mixed
Anyone else winter sowing? How are things going for you? See Part I of my winter sowing endeavor here.
The tomatoes aren't doing as well as I like, but I'm still seeing lots of green. I have plenty of zucchini that has come through, but only 1 squash has sprouted. I started a few more last night in hopes that I can at least plant 4 of each in the garden. I decided to build 4 x 4 trellis' this year for the squash, zucchini and cukes. They produce delicious veggies, but they take too much room in the garden. I have several ideas for the trellis, so stay tuned for future posts.
In my last post, I mentioned trying to start dill for my pickles. I have 2 sprouts. I started six, hopefully the others will germinate.
The chili and cayenne peppers are doing great. I have 12 that have sprouted. I'm hoping for 16 chili, cayenne, Hungarian, and jalapeno.
I've started several varieties of mixed sunflowers in newspaper pots and Mexican sunflowers in the peat pots below. I love the orange color of the Mexican sunflowers. I hope they germinate, I want to plant them behind my tomato plants.
I have more sprouts, but not as many as I would like. Next year, I will start the germination process earlier. To date, I have 2 jalapeno, 2 Cherokee Purple, 1 Beefsteak, 2 Boxcar Willie, 1 German Johnson and 1 Kaki Coing that have germinated. None of the sweet or hot peppers have germinated or the Hillbilly or Paul Robeson tomatoes.
Tomorrow, I'm going to start a few more Cherokee Purple and Beefsteak pots since they germinated quickly so I can have a few extra heirlooms on hand just in case the other tomato seeds don't germinate.
I'm loving the grow lights. I need to pull out a banquet table to set it on this week-end. It's setting on the floor in one of the guest bedrooms now. I can say that purchasing the light was money well spent. The seedlings seem happy at this point. I set a few pots of dill under it a few days ago. It seems that dill needs light to germinate, so I'm hoping that it will warm the soil enough to germinate the seeds. I found the perfect stand in my attic last week-end that I plan to turn into a germination station next year. It has 4 tiers, and is wide enough to hold several flats per tier. Sure wish I had spotted it earlier. (I really need to clean my attic out, lol).
Any experienced dill growers out there? I need dill for my pickles this year. I had a few dill plants in the garden last year as companion plants and they did well. I'm hoping to germinate a few seeds. Research has shown that dill doesn't transplant well, so I don't know if I will be successful with transplanting it in the garden if the seeds do germinate.
The thing that I tried and was successful in producing last year was sunflowers. I'm going to try to germinate my seeds inside this year. I love sunflowers in the garden, and hoping to share the experience with my grandchildren. How's your seed germination going?
I have a sprout! Actually, I have several. Last night I had none, this morning I had 5. For the experienced gardeners, is this how the sprouts are suppose to look for heirloom tomatoes? This is a German Johnson, but my Cherokee Purple and Boxcar Willie look exactly the same.
I don't know what I was expecting, but this wasn't it. I thought the sprout would be shorter, and I certainly wasn't expecting germination so quickly. It has two leaves as expected, it's just tall. When I realized I had sprouts, I immediately removed the cling wraps. I haven't put together my grow lights yet, so I had to set them in the window. Hopefully, the lights will be put together tomorrow. I didn't realize the picture was blurry until I loaded it onto the computer. I hope someone can see enough of the sprout and can let me know if I'm on track with the seedling process, and will leave me a comment on how I should proceed.
Spring has arrived and I'm so excited. I'm going to attempt to germinate my veggie seeds this year. I've decided to try heirloom tomatoes. Here's a few of my tomato packets that I've been admiring all day. They're just like a big chocolate candy bar to me, at least that's the effect they're having on me. I'm salivating just thinking about plucking a fresh tomato this summer and slicing it with a little mayo and pepper. I can't get enough of them.
I so enjoyed the tomatoes that I canned for soup and chili this winter. They were as fresh and delicious as they were last summer. I decided to plant Hillbilly, German Johnson, Cherokee Purple, Paul Robeson, Kaki Coing (a bonus pack), and Roma tomatoes. Pole beans, squash, cucumber (slicers & pickling), zucchini, Sugar Baby water melon, and lots of peppers this year.
I'll start my seedlings this week-end. Since this will be my first year at this endeavor, I'm hoping that I'll be successful. I didn't buy a heating mat, I decided to use my baseboard heaters for germination. I can regulate the temperature with the heaters or use the top of my fridge. I'll let you know if it works for me. I did buy a 4 foot grow light. Not sure if I will use it or if I will set up a table and just use the light from my kitchen door. Research has shown that if I turn the plants so they don't reach for the light, I should be okay.
What are you planting this year? How do you germinate your seeds? I'm a novice gardener, so any tips would be appreciated.
What is it? Are these seedlings from my last year's petunias? I'm a lover of petunias. Red, pink, and purple petunias find a place on my deck each year. Today when I was ready to plant this years plantings, I found containers full of seedlings. I love surprises .
Last year, I was a little late getting my plants in. We had a late frost and I lost quite a few plantings, so I had to replace the ones that didn't survive. We headed to the beach early June, so my gardening was put on the back burner until we returned.
This is what I found when I went out on the deck. Surprise!
The container had exploded with color, lol. I actually thought someone had intended to surprise me by planting the flowers, but mother nature had done her thing and left me a beautiful gift. I googled images of petunia seedlings to see if my petunias had reseeded and germinated. Yes! I have tons of petunia seedlings in my planters.
I took the seedlings and added them to my new plants today. Since I plant the same colors each year, red, pink, and purple, in the containers on the deck and this year was no exception, the seedlings should blend right in when they bloom. Can't wait to see the end result!
