I am staring to feel as though this is going to be a "late" season, in that rather than nice healthy seedlings sitting in my driveway in mid April, lingering cold weather could push things more toward late April. But Mother Nature is fickle and unpredictable, and warm weather could be closer than it feels....but sitting here writing this entry, the gray sky threatening flurries, it sure feels like winter is going to be stubborn about releasing its grip this year!
So onto something more pleasant to report...it is just 3 days since planting lettuce, spinach, beets and other greens, and life is springing up in all but 6 of the 72 flat cells. In truth, 22 of the cells showed life in just 2 days. I'm not using a heat mat on this flat, so it is clear that these crops germinate just fine - and very quickly - in ambient temperature (my office tends to run at around 65-67 degrees F).
Nothing is showing in the pepper/eggplant/tomatillo flats yet, which isn't surprising - typically, 4 days is as fast as I've seen eggplant or sweet peppers, with hot peppers emerging at 7 days, at least.
For those who want to know which lettuce varieties I am growing, here is the list:
Mikola, Forellenschluss, Laitue Grosse Brune Paresseuse, Cherokee, Magenta, Red Lepracaun, Italianischer, Dalgali, Mottistone, Teide, Blackjack, Kagraner Summer, Bunyards Matchless, Bioinda a Foglia Riccia di Taglio, Winter Density, Spotted Aleppo, Sunset, Grettona, Brauner Trotzkopf, Purplus, Jeanne, Australian Yellowleaf, Brown Goldring, Cracoviensis, Bologna, Dark Lollo Rossa....I am in the hands of my friend Jeff for most of these (a few, in italics, are great JSS varieties I've enjoyed the last few years). Don't ask me to try to pronounce some of them!
And Spinach varieties Renegade, Tyee, Scarlet and Emu
My main tasks tonight - finish sending out dwarf project seed and prepare for the first tomato planting. We'll see how the energy holds out...
So onto something more pleasant to report...it is just 3 days since planting lettuce, spinach, beets and other greens, and life is springing up in all but 6 of the 72 flat cells. In truth, 22 of the cells showed life in just 2 days. I'm not using a heat mat on this flat, so it is clear that these crops germinate just fine - and very quickly - in ambient temperature (my office tends to run at around 65-67 degrees F).
Nothing is showing in the pepper/eggplant/tomatillo flats yet, which isn't surprising - typically, 4 days is as fast as I've seen eggplant or sweet peppers, with hot peppers emerging at 7 days, at least.
For those who want to know which lettuce varieties I am growing, here is the list:
Mikola, Forellenschluss, Laitue Grosse Brune Paresseuse, Cherokee, Magenta, Red Lepracaun, Italianischer, Dalgali, Mottistone, Teide, Blackjack, Kagraner Summer, Bunyards Matchless, Bioinda a Foglia Riccia di Taglio, Winter Density, Spotted Aleppo, Sunset, Grettona, Brauner Trotzkopf, Purplus, Jeanne, Australian Yellowleaf, Brown Goldring, Cracoviensis, Bologna, Dark Lollo Rossa....I am in the hands of my friend Jeff for most of these (a few, in italics, are great JSS varieties I've enjoyed the last few years). Don't ask me to try to pronounce some of them!
And Spinach varieties Renegade, Tyee, Scarlet and Emu
My main tasks tonight - finish sending out dwarf project seed and prepare for the first tomato planting. We'll see how the energy holds out...
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