Summer Seedlings: day 14

I'm following the summer crops that have been seeded in the Aerogarden seed starter.

We've just reached the 14-day mark, and I've re-filled with water and added nutrients.  We should be good for another two weeks.

Foliage

Here is what they look like on day 14:

Top view:

It appears like there is good solid growth on most species.  I would say that the Nasturtiums are doing less well than the others with yellowing of some leaves even while they continue to produce more leaves.

 Roots

The view from the underside tells more of the story:

Tomato root growth is abundant, as is the growth from the Dill and Basil.  These roots are lengthy and intertwined, possibly reaching the maximum needed for seed starting.  The pepper roots are coming along nicely, but they still have some development left

Tomatoes

The first thing that stands out is that the tomatoes have exploded.  They aren't too leggy yet, and they are not pressed up against the lights, but they have certainly grown effusively.  As I look closely, I can see that most cells germinated 3 and 4 seeds, leading to an abundance of stems.  I knew that I would have to thin, and that moment is obviously upon me.

So I trimmed the tomatoes back to 2 stems per cell and this is the result:

They're not noticeably different, but are in a better place for the future.  All seedlings are putting out their 3rd set of leaflets.  Some of these leaflets are protruding out beyond the grow lights.

 Roots like these are long, branching, and intertwined.  Some rootlets will be broken when separating them for transplanting.

Putting all the information together:

• Weaker stems have been removed, so we are down to the two strongest plants per cell
• Each plant is on its 3rd true leaf.
• Plant height is ample - not quite touching the overhead lights.  This is well beyond all other crops
• Leaves are beginning to extend beyond the lights, where they will probably wither from lack of light.
• Roots are well developed, branched, with fine rootlets.
• Any further root growth will likely be lost when separating the cells, due to breakage.

At the same time:

• the tomatoes will require me to raise the lights soon, even while other plants (like the basil) would benefit from having the lights closer.  
• the tomatoes are beginning to overshadow their neighbors, possibly restricting their growth.
• I am beginning to suspect that the tomatoes are hogging all the nutrients that the nasturtiums would like to use, leading to some yellowing

Taking all this information together, it looks like for the tomatoes, it is time to transplant them to pots under the fluorescent lights.  Any time this week they will be ready to go.  I would like for them to grow another leaf so that they have 4 true leafs before transplanting from the pot to the outside garden.  And some of these are destined for containers.

Herbs

 Meanwhile, the rest of the plants are developing nicely.  Peppers have modest leaf production above ground, and a few exploratory roots below the surface.  These plants look like they are good for another week or more in the Aerogarden.

The dill and nasturtiums are doing well, with good root growth and leaf development that is obviously a little further along than the peppers.  Any time after this weekend (day 21) these will be available for transplant into pots.

Summer Seeds

The time of the Cool Season crops is nearly over. My napa cabbage is going to seed, although the bok choi is beautiful. I know it's only a matter of time for it as well, though. I have been harvesting whole heads of cabbage and lettuce, recently, to hit the 1/3 target by the end of April, and that's mostly been achieved.
 April Challenges:
1. Remove and safely store the row covers. Well, the covers are removed, but I cant get a solid day of sunshine to dry them out for storage. So they are lying flat in the back yard.

2. Harvest at least 1/3 of your cool season crops. This has not been achieved. I've brought in 1/3 of my napa cabbage and butter crunch lettuce, but very little of the Bok Choi, Chard, and Kale. The last two freeze rather well. I definitely need to be more aggressive with my harvest.

3. Sow warm season seeds. Here, however, I've done much better.

 

Here, I have Tomatoes on the far right, Peppers in the center, Nasturtiums on the middle left, and a row of Dill on the far left.  Once again, I have been tremendously impressed with the Aerogarden's ability to sprout nearly everything.

Below are the dill, nasturtiums and peppers. Several of the Nasturtiums have come up, but not all of them have spread full cotyledons.  All the Dill is up, and most of the peppers but there are at least 2 cells that have produced nothing.

 

On the other side, the many rows of tomatoes are growing well.  I have three rows of tomatoes, with the third row (from the right) a patio cherry tomato that is designed to be self-dwarfing.  Other tomatoes include Roma, Better Boy.  Basil is in the fourth row.

 

I can see that 2-4 seeds sprouted per cell, so some painful thinning will have to take place in the future.  This is at about 7 days since sowing

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?

Seed Starting

I have begun starting a new round of seeds in the Aerogarden.  The one thing I can recommend about the AG is that it has an extremely high seed germination rate.  These seeds were sown 4 days ago and have already come up with happy seed leaves.

Seed starting for me has always been a balancing act between opposing forces:  between moisture and damping off, applying a gentle heat but not to the point of drying things out, strong light for growth and to reduce stretching, but not too much to start algae.

It is like setting a series of plates to spinning and hoping to keep them up in the air for the next six weeks.

The Aerogarden keeps the plates spinning for me.  It can monitor all the variables and advise me if something needs attention.  Otherwise, it just does the work of growing and lets me enjoy the results.

Germination success is the greatest reward for me, but the system also has a fun interface that keeps track of all the little details.  Things like when I planted, how long they've been growing, all the details that puzzle me later on. The screen shows me the light cycle I have chosen, the days since seeding, monitors the water levels and the time until adding nutrients.  This means that I can be as hands-on as I want to be, but if something comes up I can neglect it for a week and the garden will take care of things.

Of course I'm not entirely satisfied unless I have put Excel to work in some way.  This is a planting diagram I pulled together that corresponds to the seedlings above.  So I can tell that the Bok Choi and Roquette have sprouted, while the spinach and chard are still thinking about it.