I promised myself, first weekend of February for the earliest varieties.
Well, when one is looking at the window, and snow is plastering the ground for the past 8 hours, what does one do? I know, pretend it is the first weekend of Feb, and plant the first tomato seeds!
For now, just the early and very early varieties:
Fruhe Liebe
Jaune Flamme
Early Wonder Pink
Noir De Crimee
Lambada
Kalinka
Taxi
Burtzyn
Stupice
Pipo
Kimberly
Same mix, same temperature as before, under the dome in the dark room with some help from the heat mat - let the new life begin!!!
First and second batch of peppers for 2010 are transplanted!
1-2 of each variety for my garden, the rest are giveaways. All seem to be healthy, green and strong stems.
The potting mix, while a bit on the pricey side, I think well worth it...
Espoma Organic Potting Mix
Has the same properties as their Seed Starting Mix, but added more Perlite for water retention. It's been about a week, and seedlings doing great. I still add the worm castings to the mix. And in this photos, non of the seedlings received any additional fertilizer at this point, yet thick stems, beautiful foliage, what's there not to like?
Last peppers are planted today, Corno di Toro and Corno di Capra, generously shared by a fellow gardener, and I'm looking forward to growing out these Italian varieties this season! As for now - under the grow lights, in the basement these stay...
Time to catch up on the blog.
Seed Germination! Did a test on some of the seeds saved for 2010. And happy to observe, that germination rate of my fermented, untreated seeds is 100%.
In this batch, I've tested:
Brandywine Sudduth's strain
Bull's Heart
Campari F2
Kumato F2
Lubasha
As for germination seeds for the actual crop - after numerous trials, using many different soil media, various temperatures and methods - I now have absolutely favorite seed starting mix:
Espoma Organic Seed Starting Mix
Very fine, soft and fluffy, holds the moisture very very well, and yet with no "white residue" to yet developed on any of the seedlings tested. It is not hydrophobic at all! And loaded with beneficial endo and ecto Mycorrhizae!
The only thing I add to the mix, is organic worm castings, at the ratio suggested on the package (3 parts mix to one part castings), which also happen to have 1-0-0 NPK.
This combination works very very well and every time in my tests.
Temperatures: 81F-83F range inside the heated dome seems to do the best in my germination tests, works equally well for tomatoes, peppers and eggplants.
It's that time of the year to plan a garden for the upcoming season! And a dilemma, what varieties to plan this year? There is the seed list, and there is the space available...
Expansion is evident, 6 additional beds will be added to the garden as soon at it gets a little warmer. And for now - this is what it looks like for 2010 in terms of "Reserved for Tomatoes"
And that makes for 51 spaces where tomatoes will be planted, plus 6 containers. Is it final - really don't think so!
