To begin, I decide which seeds I want to start. Celery needs an early start prior to transplanting in garden. I like trying a new vegetable each year and this year is celery. I hope it turns out better than the okra (2017) and egg plant (2018).
I prepare the Pro Mix Ultimate Organic Mix which is approved by our organic certification. I add water and stir with my hands to a moist consistency and fill the cells.
Upon researching celery seed germination, I soaked the seeds in water for at least 24 hours. Now I see these tiny seeds in the water and am wondering how am I going to pick these seeds and drop them in the cells. I found a white plastic spoon, added more water to the seeds, and fished two to three seeds on the spoon and dropped seeds and water into each cell. The hard part was keeping track of which cell I dropped the previous seeds into. I was told I am a woman with patience and I guess I used all that patience to start celery seeds. Once I had 3 varieties (ParCel Cutting, Redventure, and Tall Utah) in 216 cells, I placed the plastic covered trays on our old fashioned water radiators (in place of heating pads) to germinate. I made sure the cells remained moist. After 7 days, the celery began sprouting. Then the trays were placed under florescent T5 6500K lights.The first picture was taken March 2. The second picture taken March 9.
Ben really likes his tomato plants. So the two of us decide what varieties to get started. I separate the cherries from the slicers. Each packet gets a letter which is much easier to write on the tags then the entire name. Can you imagine the nightmares I have if I can't find the cheat cheat sheet?
Tomatoes are much easier to seed then celery and I put two seeds in each cell. I find that tomatoes are easy to transplant into bigger pots and separating the two plants does no harm to either. The tomatoes were seeded on February 22 and began sprouting on February 26.
Photos respectively March 2 and March 9.
I also started 4x4 cells of leeks (King Richard and Tadorna). The Tadorna germination not as good as King Richard and one cell was reseeded to King Richard.
Photos respectively March 2 and March 9.
Peppers were seeded on February 24 and are slowly making their way into the world. Lettuce and Kale were seeded this past week and will post more on them in the near future.
Even though the snow and wind are blowing outside, I have springtime in the house and watching the seeds transform before my eyes.
