Southern seed starting!

[bryanccfshr]

My wife just moved the light up because some were touching the light and that is when I instructed her to move the light up. The weather had been warm the past few days, hopefully the cool weather sets back in and stops this vertical groth. I suspect I wll have to pot up in 2-4 weeks. Lights running 16 hours a day. I don't trust her to set them out for some natural light so that will have to wait until I get home. These were planted just before X-mas. They are pretty tough because my wife says when they got dry she used a watering can to water them..




Roses blooming again.. 8)

[Worth1]

I have been taking mine outside and letting them harden up.
Nothing like a cool breeze to make a tomato nice and strong.
Many are going into larger pots tomorrow.

How high are the lights from the tomatoes?

Looking good.

Worth

[bryanccfshr]

They were much lower but I told her to move them up 2 inches when any seedlings touched. The were set exactly 2" above the pots when I left. I can't complain at least she's watering them and she did take the pictures of them for me, so she is enabling my obsession.

I want to set mine out on days like today but I am up at work until next Thursday.. I don't Want to push it with Pam . This is the first I have seen of them, I am going to ask her to get the fan on them because although some are nice and compact there are a few leggy ones.

When I get home I will separate/pot them up and after a short recovery let them sit outside daily while I am home. I will also plant some of those greens.

[Worth1]

I know what you mean, I am a nervous wreck when I am at work.
When I call my wife she knows I am really calling about my plants.
The guys at work even tease me about it.

But it is getting better and we bought some flower seeds for her this year to fool around with.
I hope it helps.

Worth

[feldon30]

I don't worry at all about the plants touching the bulbs. It won't burn them. I keep them REALLY close.

Looking good!

[bryanccfshr]

Thanks, I may ask my wife to lower the light a notch tommorow. THe good news is the cool weather is back.

[Worth1]

I’ll post this here as a small rant.
I went to HD yesterday to get some potting soil for my tomatoes to spend their infancy in and practically had to force the folks there to open up all of the spring gadgetry for planting.

I bought out all of there labels and more seed starting trays(for next year) to do this I almost had to rip the big cartons apart to get to the stuff.

I wasn’t the only one there doing this.
The lady that worked there said that they had no idea when the stuff came in.

I wish the folks that order this stuff would get with the program and get this stuff in sooner for us nuts in the south.


As most of you guys know I couldn’t care less about Christmas and its commercialism, besides that what better present could there be than seeds and growing gadgetry.


I would like to bring a front-end loader in there and shove all of the holiday junk outside and into the back.

After looking at it for 3 months I have had enough.

Now that the weather has warmed a little I think I will go put the seedlings outside in the sun.8)8)8)

Worth

[feldon30]

Last time I was at Lowe's I informed a couple of people that tomatoes and peppers need to be started around the 1st of January and broccoli and cauliflower can be started in November. They probably figure nobody in Houston gardens rather than having any clue about when the seed racks should be put out.

[bryanccfshr]

Great rant. I hate the fact that all the garden stuff gets displaced for "seasonal stuff" Winter is when I do most my heavy lifting, Building beds, installing irrigation etc. This commercial holiday mania shoves all the items I need in no mans land where I have to piecemeal stuff together.

OF course I do find great items on clearance during this time as well.

By new years day they should have all planting supplies on the floor. and the X-mas crap should either get thrown out or given away.

[duajones]

I got mine started Sunday the 6th, 12 days later than last year. And I had my first seedling peeking this morning, less than 72 hours after sowing. It was the mighty Cherokee Purple! I hope thats a sign of things to come. Setting up my lights this afternoon.

[bcday]

LOL, the seed racks are starting to pop up here. Maybe some of these stores think NY is in Texas. Agway and Lowe's have half of their seed racks set up next to the leftover Christmas stuff and they're working on making room for the other half.

At Wal-Mart I didn't see any seed racks out but there were unopened cartons labeled "Hummingbird Feeders" and other summer things stacked up next to a display of snowblowers and snow shovels. I asked a woman who was rearranging some shelves if there were any garden seeds in the cartons and she looked at me as if I had two heads. "February -- maybe" she said.

[Worth1]

New York IS in Texas!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York,_Texas
And Texas IS in New York
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas,_New_York

You know I bet they depend on computers to do there ordering and they have their wires crossed.

Worth

[goldpearl]

I have some baby tomato plants sprouting! I am starting long season tomatoes for a head start and some early varieties, too. Big Rainbow, Amana Orange, Cherokee Purple, Stupice and Esthers cherry so far. More to come.....

[Worth1]

Here they are, 16 days from seed planting.
I left the rest in the starting pellets because my new pots are showing up today.
So far I have 5- 72 count trays with seeds started in them.
That's just about it, all I have left to plant is Sungold,New Big Dwarf and Black Bear.

Attachment 3679

Worth

[bryanccfshr]

Looking good! You are going to have your hands full with that many tomato baby's. Joined a farmers market yet?