Great strides in seed starting...

Making out quite well with seedlings these days.. I think this test is about to come to a close now though. The whole point was to see if I could improve upon last years 100% FAILURE rate and come up with some living, breathing, surviving seedlings that would be suitable to transplant into my spring garden, and I think I've done that. This is day #24 of the test.. check out these pics of the survivors:

Overall view of the setup on the 27th of January.. 

Jalapeno's

Basil

Habanero

 That Habanero there.. such a problem child! You can see the one in the photo, just barely.. but there is a tiny seed that just poked it's head up right behind and to the left of this one. There are some true leaves starting to form on this little guy, and I'm torn on if I want to repot it and try to keep it alive or not. Part of me says to leave it be and chuck it out the door, because it must be a weakling.. but the other part of me sas to pot the sucker up and give it a chance.

Roma Tomato

More Roma's, showing height compared to my hand.. :)

So there you have it. Those Roma's are monsters now. They grow 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch a day it seems. They're about 4-5" tall now. I think the challenge with these guys is to get everything else that needs to get a head start going first so the Roma's don't make me push the grow lights up too far and away from the rest of the plants. Tricky buggers..

Yesterday I started working on the garden plan.. I drew out some maps of the two beds I'll be working with again, and starting placing things in different spots.. I've left a few open for last minute changes as well, but it looks like I'll have plenty of room. Deviated a bit from prior musings in that I'll put a cherry tomato out there in the lower bed I think, and surround it with low growing things like onions and marigolds and such..

Speaking of marigolds, while at the feed store yesterday, I saw some seed packs that I just couldn't pass up.. ended up grabbing the marigolds I mentioned, for pest control.. I've heard they repel certain pests and bugs because of how they smell, but also pull in good things like bees. I also grabbed some sunflowers, big ones, and some Zinnias too, like those fantastic big guys I had inadvertently planted in a terrible spot last year in the front bed. This year, I will take my Zinnias more seriously and treat them better. They gave my house and flower vases here a lot more usefulness than they usually get.

Ah well, i'm off to revamp my garden calendar.. I've decided to use the info on the seed packets themselves for starting times, rather than use the generic info in the square foot gardening book.. meaning I'm scrapping all the work I did before in hopes of more accurate info from the seed people leading to better stuff as a result. I'm outta here!

Chuckin' out the poor and pottin' up the good stuff..

Did some house cleaning today. Removed the Roma seedlings that were still in the propagator, as they were looking downright sad today.. they were turning a pretty good purple color due to lack of nutrient's in the soil-less mix.. so, that part of the experiment is over with. Here's a pic of them just before I pulled them out of service:

Sad Roma seedlings that didn't make the cut..

Those guys are gona get flung over the deck when it stops raining out I think.. Now, we're just gonna concentrate on the good ones. Speaking of which, check out how well the good test subjects are doing:

The biggest of the bunch

Clearly there's some disparity in the sizes of these little guys. You can see in the photo just above that the biggest seedling is parked in the six pak right next to the smallest seedling and there's just a huge difference in size between the two of them. I guess that's the key with this project.. grow lots of them, because then you can pick out the biggest, strongest little guys from the bunch and not have all sorts of differences in the sizes between them when trying to keep 'em under lights indoors. 

In related news, the Basil seedlings also got moved into their own six pak yesterday:

Basil

And then this morning, I was looking at the Jalapeno seedlings and see that they're really not doing anything anymore. No improvement, but nothing bad either.. just stagnant as far as growth goes. So, I figured maybe they were just out of food and needed to be potted up to a larger area to grow.. even though I really don't see much in the way of second leaves on them. Just a little sprout of green in between the seed leaves is all. But hey, an experiment is an experiment, so into a six pak they went. Here they are:

That flashed out tag says 'Jalapeno'..

Closeup of the Jalapeno's. Still looks like just
seed leaves to me.. 

Interestingly, when I started pulling them up with my trusty letter opener, out from the propagator, several of them had really huge amounts of super long rootlets.. so I'm wondering now if I should have moved them a few days ago. Those roots gotta be searching out for something they're not getting readily if they're getting that long. Hopefully, they'll do much better now. 

Speaking of peppers, the Habanero's are all still failing, on the surface anyway. I looked at the propagator again and see absolutely nothing sprouting. Today is the 15th day, and the last day, according to the packaging, that these guys are supposed to take to sprout. Irritated, I started to dig around in the propagator to find where the seeds were and what they were doing. First one, dead.. nothing going on at all. Second one, also waterlogged and shot. Found the third in the middle of the propagator and saw that a tiny rootlet had in fact jumped out and was reaching for soil.. so I covered it back up and let 'er go. I did not dig up the other three in there, so they're still a mystery, but if I can get one of these guys to start up, the Habanero's are the plants I have now that I'm most interested in keeping going if any.. I would like to keep a nice Hab in a pot next to my desk or something. After I found out these things are perennials and not annuals like the other pepper plants, I thought it might be fun to keep one of those around.. plus, it'll fire right back up and start fruiting again in the summer a lot faster than the others if I can keep it alive over the winter. 

Lastly, a pic of the light setup as it stands right now. I think I might be able to pull out the propagator pretty soon, because the six paks are much easier to keep watered than the tiny propagators, and I think these plants don't need quite as much water as they're getting from the self watering tray right now.. I pulled them off the watering tray just a few minutes ago and I'm gonna let 'em dry out a bit so I dot get 'em all fungus'd up or something. Check 'em out..

That's it.. I'll give an update in a few days or so. Heck, I just took a look at the gardening calendar I made up and it's telling me Broccoli get's seeded in the propagator in just 3 weeks from now. Yikes! A month and a week or two from now, it'll be time for the real deal of pepper plants.. this experiment might be over just in time to start the main event!

Update after transplant..

Just a quick post to show the status of the plants after the transplant yesterday..

Here's a shot of the Roma's after the overnight in the six pak, and as you can see they're apparently doing fine.. I was watching them occasionally after the transplant yesterday and I didn't even see them so much as droop over, so I guess that transplant action was pretty trauma free for them. Yay for me!

Roma seedlings

 Here's the remaining seedlings that are still in the propagator tray. These guys, are a little more ragged looking.. not terrible, but the're not the pristine little buggers they were yesterday. These little fellows didn't get the fertilizer treatment that their friends in in the six pak's did though, and I wonder if that is part of the reason. Since these were the smaller of the bunch, I just left them as they were figuring they'd continue to grow a bit more and I could try and pot them up later on.. but they look a bit sadder than before, as I said. We'll follow them along and see how they do, though..

That's all. Still no sign of life from the Habaneros yet.. keep ya' posted.

Seedling update..

Greetz..

Been a few days since the seedlings popped up and figured I should give an update, esp. since I've had some really nice results with the propagator and new growing light setup. So far, everything has popped up and is doing well, with the exception of the Habanero peppers. The Jalapeno's have all sprouted, with 100% germination with last years seeds (the same ones I FAILED to grow at all last year!)  and are doing *far* better than they ever were last year. In fact, do you remember this photo from last year?:

Last years Jalapeno attempt..

That was about as big as that little bugger ever got before it keeled over and died. Well, with all my newfangled technology, I've beaten mother nature soundly! My Jalapeno's are lookin' like this right now:

This years Jalapeno attempt..

Better than that, even, are my Roma tomato tests.. as of the 12th of this month, I had this result..

And they were lookin' so healthy today on the 14th, I decided to transplant 6 of 'em into their own six pak container so hey could continue on with the last leg of the experiment. Thus, I had this going on just moments ago:

Roma's, puttin' on their big boy pants!

I was using that letter opener thingy you see there just barely on the right side of this pic to pop the seedlings from the propagator unit in the back, and planted their roots as deep as I could get them into the six pak container. I and buried the stems up as much as I could with this potting mix I had that came with some severely low amount of nutrients.. so low that it was as if there was nothing in there at all. I have decided to go with a diluted fish emulsion for fertilizer, which I subsequently soaked these little guys in just after they were set into their pots. As a side note, these came out of the propagator MUCH easier than I thought they would..  thought for sure I would have lost a leaf or two pulling them out for transplanting, but nary a one was lost. It all went quite well, actually. Now, to see if they live!

Surprisingly, when I had the little guys all in their 6 pak container, I was sorta wondering what I was going to do with 'em as far as watering and light needs and such, figuring I'd have to water them by hand now that they were out of the propagator, but lo and behold, the six pak's fit *perfectly* on the capillary mat that they were on already.. how perfect is this?!

Closeup of the Roma's in their new home, on the
capillary mat, next to their baby brothers still in the propagator..

Decided to boost the other seedling tray up off the mat with some chopsticks
to dry out the peat a bit.. seemed a little too moist to me at the time.

Tune in in a few days to see what became of these little guys after the transplant. Will they live, or wil they die? And hey, if they live.. *then* what do I do with 'em.. that's really all I had planned to do with this experiment, as I was just trying to see how this new equipment was going to work out. Do I have the heart to just toss these guys out into the snow when this test is over? Sheesh.. so cruel! It's far to early to be raising seedlings though. Might keep the basil, but that would be about it.. 

Oh, nearly forgot about the Habaneros! Damn things haven't come out of the ground at *all* so far. Not even a peep. It's been 11 days.. the package gives 1-15 days to germinate. I guess we still got some time.. As always, I'll keep ya posted. 

Later!

Propagator and grow light..

OK, I got a new card reader, so now I've got some more pics to share. Good thing, too.. some testing in action and wanted to document it all. As you know, I got a self watering seed propagator late last year that I didn't get to use for last years garden, but I'm set up with it now.

The Super Seven propagator, set up and running a few days ago..

As a test, I put some Roma Tomato seeds, some basil and two peppers, Habanero and Jalapeno's into their own propagating container. I put 'em on the self watering tray thingy with the wicking mat and left 'em be.

Roma's in this one.. self-watering mat seen underneath

Supposedly, the Roma's and Basil would be the first to sprout in 7-10 days, which will be in 2-5 days from when I type this.. surprisingly, however, the Basil and Roma's both popped in just 4 days. Yikes!

Look a little spindly to me..

..perhaps the day that went by when these weren't under lights was too much for 'em? 

I also got that lamp setup for Christmas.. I know it's too early in the season for seed starting, but I can't help myself.. I wanna play with these toys. Check it:

The whole propagator and lamp rig as it now sits..

I also wanna know that it can successfully be done and that come March, I won't try seeds again and FAIL, and have had no practice in doing these things up beforehand. So, I did this test.. I'll end up tossing these plants in the next few weeks or so, and starting again in a couple months or so.. but it'll be good for a test run to see how it goes, I figure.

Seeds and pics..

Still no camera card reader.. .. where did that damn thing go? As a result, no pics to show ya'.. 

On the 3rd of this month, I lost control of myself and pulled out the Super 7 seedling propagator thingy I got last fall and set it up with some Roma tomato, Jalapeno, Habanero and Sweet Basil seeds in it.. I know, it's too early.. but I just wanna see if the damn things works as advertised... if I fail now, I at least have a chance to rectify the problem before it becomes a problem when it's time to *really* start the seeds I'm gonna need for this coming gardening season. If I succeed, and these things stat to take off, I'll just have to put 'em under the Mr. Light Grow Light Pro that Gramma got me for christmas. Whoooee! Who's better than me?! Here's a pic of the ad version of this thing..

So my plan is to stick the Suer 7 under these lights till I get 'em up to repotting size.. then, I'll set them up in 6 packs when I re-pot them.. I should be able to get done what I need to.. and hopefully a bit more so I can spread the love to my friends. We'll see how that goes.. I'm not sure I can grow anything but lettuce from seeds so far. :)

Here's some pics from the New Years Eve "Ghetto Hot Tub" we made in the garage..

The tub, e-HLT, pump and chiller in the tub..

The white basket is to keep the heat
 from the recirculating boiling water in the e-HLT from
melting the floor of the tub..

Here's a pic of the thing in action, with some people in it's 110 degree awesomeness!

Rumor has it that's Will, Jeremiah and perhaps others in there.. 

And, just for fun, a picture of some weirdo doing the Robot Dance..

Heh..

During the course of this party, we only dented half of one of the kegs I brewed up for it.. too much other beer floating around to kill 'em both, apparently. Lame-O's! Maybe next year..

Where's my card reader? Dutch oven baking..

Man, the card reader got lost somewhere along the way a couple weeks ago, as I think I've remarked before.. and it's just downright sad that I can't post pictures now. Unless I take 'em with the iSight cam in the Mac, I'm out of luck. Take this as the best I can do:

That is the best tasting loaf of bread I've ever made, and this picture won't do it justice! I finally got around to trying a trick from the web that I've been pondering for a while now, but have just been putting off. I sure wish I had tried this earlier! It requires the use of a Dutch Oven (DO), which we just happen to have, thanks to our pal Crystal, who scored one for us a while back. There's nothing different between the bread dough itself, it's just the method of baking that's the key. All you do is preheat the DO in the oven while your dough proofs, and when it's time, lower the dough into the DO using the parchment paper as a type of sling, then stick the cover back on the DO and bake it up.. I baked at 450 because the phenolic knob of our DO is only rated to 450, and I wish I could have done 500 degrees, but I'll have to wait to try that when I get a metal knob. Anyway, I baked the standard sourdough loaf at 450 for 20 minutes, and then popped the DO cover off and baked the loaf for another 10 minutes.. when I first pulled the lid off after the 20 minute mark, the loaf was seriously pale colored and had risen quite a lot. I was very excited about that.. after the ten additional minutes of baking, I checked the loaf again and found it was still too pale, so continued for another few minutes, checking it as we went along.. I think I baked this thing for a total of 34-35 minutes, which is about 10 minutes or so longer than my standard loaf in the oven solo goes for.

The thing that's going on here is multifaceted.. the DO keeps the moisture in the kettle and there's no need for spritzing with water in this method. I also got a really nice 'curl' to the slashes that I've never gotten before, which you can just barely see in the terrible photo above. The loaf seemed to rise a bit more than usual, and the crumb was definitely more open, but also more even inside than ever before. Additionally, and most encouraging to me, was that my sourdough actually was slightly SOUR, which totally blew me away. I was really excited to get that flavor, finally, and we've already eaten most of this loaf in just a few days now. The next best thing about this method is, my crust is about half as thick, and way crispier and more pleasing to eat. Whereas before I had a really thick, dark crust that was a bit chewy, this one is light, crispy, and very full of flavor.. reminiscent of Amy's bread loaves. *very* encouraging stuff here.

It makes sense to me to preheat the DO for this method, since you're trying to get the loaf to really 'pop' and then bake, but there are people online who claim there's just really no difference between using a pre-heated DO and a non-preheated DO.. they put the dough in the DO and let it do it's final proof inside there, and then stick that whole thing in the oven to bake.. I can't imagine how that works nearly as well since the DO is now shielding and absorbing the initial temp jump from the oven and you'd think this would totally inhibit the oven spring effect, but a lot of people are saying no, it doesn't. I'll be trying this for sure.. but now, the chance of getting a loaf of bread of less quality than this one just breaks my heart. But I'll try it.. in the name of science. ;)