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.

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.

The lower bed

Napa cabbage

This is the lower bed, which I set up today.  The raised bed has been used for the last few years so the soil is in good shape.  There just isn't enough of it to fill the bed.  Today I added peat moss, compost, and one bag of actual potting soil.  The resulting mix was very light and workable.

This bed had been part of a high tunnel in the past but now I'm dropping it down to a low tunnel.  The high tunnel was creating too big a profile and kept catching the wind abs breaking ribs

Napa Cabbage is listed at 75 days to harvest but I need to subtract two weeks since these are already at the transplant stage.  That gives us 60 days from today, so around the beginning of May these should be ready to harvest. 

The March Challenge is to prepare the remaining three beds.  This is the first of those three.

March Photo Record #1

This is the exterior of the first raised bed with low tunnel as it was set up last weekend. This is assembled from 4 hoops of 1/2" grey conduit draped with 6 mil plastic.  Because of my troubles with gusting wind, I have clamped the plastic to the top of the raised bed using 2 x 6s and one in-elegant 4x4.

In the background, you can see another bed covered with a brown plastic tarp, weighed down with planting containers and concrete blocks.  That will be part of this month's project.

On the right is a look at the interior.  You can see the conduit hoops (used because they are UV resistant) set into 1" pvc that has been fastened to the raised bed frame.

This bed has been planted for about a week.  Kale is in the foreground, with chard in the middle and butter crunch lettuce at the far end.  I watered it about 4 days ago but you can see that the soil is still darkened.  The plastic creates a microclimate that conserves moisture, and condensation forms on the inside of the plastic.

With cool days as we have in March, I won't need to water much for the next several weeks.

I amended the soil with compost and turned under the leaf mulch that I covered the bed with last November.  When planting, I added Espoma Plant-tone organic fertilizer.












Below is a closer view of the bed