April Garden Update

Last post, I talked about the seedlings, some of which were added to the outside raised beds.  But there are a few crops already planted and growing well.  At the very end of February I planted butter crunch lettuce, and this is what it looks like after 5 weeks of growing:

There are a couple of the new arugula transplants at the bottom right.

According to the planting information, the lettuce will be ready in 60 days, which would put it at the end of April. Realistically, I could begin harvesting individual outer leaves in about 2 weeks.












The Kale and Chard are at about the same place, having been planted a couple days later:

Transplant March 5

And the Napa cabbage trailed by about a week so it will be ready in early May.

Growing for 30 days - April 4

I harvested a few of the outside leaves this evening for some greens to stuff my gyros.  Perfectly sweet and tender. 

SeedWatch Day 14

Day 14 in the AeroGarden has seen a little change from when we left it a week ago.  The Bak Choi and the Arugula have been thriving.  Here it is at day 14 and you can see true leaves that are well developed

Germination was at 100% and I've known for a week that thinning would be necessary.  I seeded three seeds per cell and it was a simple, though not comfortable, task to pick the weakest of the plants to cull.  Here it is after reducing the herd:

The rocket was only double seeded and I didn't make any reductions there.  For each of these plants, the second set of true leaves is just beginning to emerge. 

These seeds were sown 14 days ago, and they germinated in about 4 days, so they have just 10 days growth on them, but they look like they are ready to be transplanted now.  In 4 days, they will have two weeks growth on them and could be transplanted then.  But to where? 

Put them directly in the Garden  I have a raised bed prepared for them, with a little napa cabbage growing at one end.  I could harden them off and plant the cell plug directly in the garden.

Re-pot them to a larger cell inside.  I could transfer them to a larger container of potting mix and grow them inside for another two weeks.  The clear drawback is that I don't have a place set up with as much light as they are getting in the AeroGarden now.  I'm not sure that another week of less adequate light will do them any favors. Perhaps I need to invest in another LED grow light for larger plants.

Re-pot them to a larger cell outside.  My raised beds have plastic low tunnel covers. Does it make sense to transfer them to larger potting cells and then grow them outside under the tunnel, rather than just planting them directly?  I think that would only make sense if I didn't already have space prepared to plant them directly.

Now, on the other side of the house, the Chard has had a limited germination, and the spinach has failed completely. 

Four out of the five cells of Chard germinated.  But the growth has been satisfactory, with a second set of leaves developing now

After doing a lot more reading, I'm beginning to understand the spinach problems.  The AeroGarden recommends that after germination, the lights should be run 24 hrs/day.  This gives the new seed leaves an abundance of energy, and keeps the true leaves from stretching and becoming spindly.  This has certainly been the case for the leafy greens I have right now.

Swiss Chard on day 14 after thinning.

But, the Bok Choi came up almost immediately and I had to turn on the lights. I have no doubt that this overheated the soil and prevented the spinach from germinating.  It was just too warm.  I've read the care gardeners exercise in germinating spinach, with paper towels in ziploc bags with alternate days in the refrigerator.  I wonder if I could germinate them first, and then transfer them to the AeroGarden cells to grow out.

Seedling Update

So it is two days later than my last update and technically day 6 of SeedWatch with a small burst of activity.

The previously sprouted Bok Choi has continued to develop, while over on the right the Swiss Chard have begun emerging, and even a single lone Spinach sentinel.

The main purpose of this record is to create a time log of how and when things happen.  I'm hoping that by documenting what I see now, I will be able to reference it in the future.  It gives me a baseline for what is normal.

Bok Choi, a close reading

Here I can see that my bok choi jumped right up in less than four days, despite being listed as 10 to 21 days to germination.  And this is from two suppliers, Burpee and Gurney, and the Gurney seeds were a mix of varieties.  None of this seemed to matter, as  all of the seeds germinated within a day of each other.

You can certainly see some variation among the seedlings:  the purple variety on the right seems to be doing very well, and even looks to be starting some true leaves.

I wonder if the top left cell is smaller because of a poor seed there, or if it is simply on the periphery of the seed tray, and may not be getting the same amount of water and nutrients.

I tried to plant 3 seeds in each plug, and in most cases, all of them seemed to germinate. Now, I'm faced with the task at some future point, of eliminating at least one stem from each cell, to give the other two a better chance to thrive.

The Latecomers: Spinach and Chard

On the other side of the seed tray, the Chard has definitely begun to emerge by day 6, while the  spinach is still lagging behind.  And both of these are listed at 7-10 days to germination, so I still have several days to watch them.  Perhaps it is too warm for the spinach to germinate easily.

It isn't surprising that different plant types would emerge from seed at different times, but at about the same time as each other.  Yet it is still interesting to see the process unfold.

I also like the fact that the purple bok choi variety above shows its color from its earliest days, as does the red legs of the chard.

The Minimalist Gardener

I also note that I have not been required to do anything for these seeds in the last week.  I don't worry about water levels, or fiddle with light timers, or fret about damping off or mold growth.  Not yet, anyway.  I've simply been free to watch the seeds unfold.

On the other hand, outside the temperatures have been in the 70s, with today's high projected at 78 F.  That's too high to keep things under plastic row covers, so I open the ends during the day, and close them up in the evening.  This is contrary to the tenets of minimalist gardening, so it troubles me a bit.  Perhaps agribon row covers would not have this problem?

Leafy bed is planted

Just a post to confirm that the Kale and Chard have been planted in the upper bed.  The challenge on the February garden schedule was to get the first bed in by the end of February.  With an off-the-record midnight planting session, I can confirm that this goal was met.

Kale lists itself as 45 days to maturity so I can begin harvesting leaves in the middle of April.  Chard and Buttercrunch lettuce are both listed as 55-60 days to maturity, so they will be ready at the end of April.  Both of these should be picked young, starting with the outer leaves.

The high temperature today was in the low 70s, although at 6 am this morning, I was scraping frost off my windshield as I left the house.  The new seedlings are under plastic so they should be fine.  In fact, the lettuce that I transplanted a few days ago is standing up straight.  So any doubts that I may have had that February was too early for cool season crops have certainly been put to bed, so to speak.

So now I have the second and third beds to plant if I wish. I am following the garden layout I detailed here.   I don't have to do any more than one, but they are sitting there fallow if I am so inclined.

Markers February 2016

The state of the mountain:
The upper bed has been prepared and has been covered with a tarp for the last 6 weeks.  The lower two beds have also been covered with tarps for 6 weeks, but the beds beneath them have been too wet to work.

This past week I put up the hoops  (8' grey electrical conduit) and covered them with plastic to further seal out the moisture.  The rainy weather has been constant for at least the last week, and it snowed on the 15th (last Monday)  so the pattern of having the most miserable weather in February has been holding constant.

However, I have swiss chard seedlings started (Bright Lights) and ready to plant.  At the Walmart garden center I found 9-cell packs of Kale and Butter Crunch Lettuce.  Both of these are ready to plant in that upper bed, which is scheduled to be the Leaf bed this year.

I wish the spinach or bok choy seeds had come up by now, but neither has done anything.

The middle bed is too low, and is inundated with ground water.  We need to create a proper raised bed in that location to help the drainage situation.

I need to get large flat pavers to hold down the ends of the plastic row covers, and 2x6s for the sides.