The more I garden...the more I know I have a lot still to learn. I am currently in the process of starting Cabbage, Cauliflower and Broccoli plants in my basement. I have a pretty nice set up thanks to my wife. The seedlings are doing okay so far but admittedly - not good enough. Failure, as I have said, is a part of the gardening experience.
My seedlings are of various sizes and some are what I would call spindly. The spindly plants most likely will never be vibrant enough to give a good crop. Once this condition occurs, the plant is weakened too much to plant into the garden. There are many reasons for this but the overall consensus is that the flourescent bulbs I am using are not bright enough. After doing research this morning, it is doubtful that they give off enough spectrum and intensity of light for the plants to grow healthy. I can accept that.
With the Brassica family of plants, there is a long period of time between when you start them and harden them off. They need to be started 12 weeks before the last frost date. That means, given our April 15 date of the average last frost, I started them January 15th. This results in them being under lights about 2 months and then hardened off for transplanting. That's where the problem lies. The lights I have are not strong enough to result in vibrant growth over that time frame.
Lesson learned! Unless I make a pretty substantial investment in lights, my efforts will result in less than stellar plants and subsequently meager production time and time again. This investment is not a viable one as the cost of greenhouse grown plants are not that costly that I could do it cheap enough to recoup the costs by converting and growing my own.
I can still start my own tomatoes, peppers and such because they require less start up time and I can move them to my small greenhouse when the weather warms later in Spring. Nothing can really replace the sun as far as the perfect light.
So, there you have it - short and sweet. I have come to the conclusion that I must buy my Brassica plants from now on. There are several very good sources for these locally here in Baltimore so availabilty and variety wont be an issue. And, I no longer have to keep wondering why my plants produced poorly.
So, there you have it. Failure teaches everyone a lesson. Until next time, Happy Gardening!
