Progress inside and out.

It certainly has been a little while since I last posted. In large part, it is because my wife (and I) have been confronted with a medical issue that requires our attention. While the process has begun, it is by no means complete. All I can ask is for your patience and prayers for a good resolution. One day at a time I always say.

As far as my gardening endeavors, when I have had a moment, I attended to my plants. I tried to get plants to grow from seed in the greenhouse but they roundly failed. Our weather for the past few weeks has been very unseasonably warm to a tune of avg. highs 20 degrees over normal resulting in highs of 70-77 degrees. This resulted in greenhouse temps n the upper 90's most days. I was able to get seedlings growing but once they got to a certain point, the heat in the greenhouse stunted and eventually killed most of the plants. I tried everything short of air conditioning.

So, I decided to attempt to start plants in my basement. It took a few days but it came together from a hardware perspective. I had three different grow lamp systems from previous years, plenty of pots and containers. All I needed was starter soil mixes. I looked around the various stores and not surprisingly, no one had any. So, I did some research and found a very useful video on DIY mixes. The three ingredients were vermiculite, compost and peat moss. I had two of those already so I found a store that had a few remaining bags of compost. I was in business. I took the formula of 1 part peat and compost and 1/2 part of vermiculite and added them together and repeated the process until I had enough to start. The next step never occured to me. I needed to boil water and wet the mix thoroughly. This was to kill any gnat larvae which apparently resides in the Peat Moss. Never knew of this but that does explain why I had gnats in my greenhouse this fall.

After letting the mix dry out a little, and before filling my seed starter cells, I added a quantity adjusted amount of slow release fertilizer to the mix. This is to jump start the seedlings before transplanting them. I filled the cells and added seeds for various lettuces. I then had to figure out how to keep the seed trays warm given my basement is not heated. So, I did what I had to and was able to devise a system with a small heat pad underneath the tray and the cover for the seed tray on top. I then went one more step and wrapped the whole tray and the supporting tray with left over plastic painters tarp. Here are two pictures - one of the seeded cells and one of the complete system.

 

I am using a National Gardening Association Growlab that my wife bought me probablly 8-10 years ago. It's still going strong. After about 3 weeks of care, watering and time under the lights, the plants are doing quite remarkable compared to the ones in the greenhouse.

You'll notice that the second row is gone. That is because the plants there were doing better than the others. So, I transplanted them into bigger pots and put them under annother growlamp. This one has blue and red led bulbs arrayed in long adjustable arms. It's one that I have had but haven'rt really used. I don't know why in all honesty. The plants seem to respond very well to them. So much so that when my son asked what I wanted for Christmas, I sent him an Amazon link for a 4 armature unit. Here are snaps of the plants and the grow light.

   

I have full spectrum flourescent tube lights in my grow labs and the plants do well under them. But with the blue/red light lamp, I can get the lights right up to the plants and it has 5 intensity settings and a timer. The plants just seem a little healthier.

While starting these plants, I decided to direct start seeds in planters. I currently have 4 Bloomsdale Long Standing spinach plants and 1 Bibb Lettuce plant under the lights of the growlab. Given its age, it does faulter once in a while as the locks on the poles at each end don't operate as well as they used to. That results in the over head falling. I've had a few instances where that damaged a plant or two. So, I installed a set of pulleys my wife gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago and connected them to each side of the unit. I have not had even a close call since doing that. Problem solved as they say. Pics of the plants and the pulleys are below.

  

And, never to be deterred, I planted a bowl of carrots and a planter of lettuce. I set up a 2 ft high landing that is usually used for painting projects as my base. Then, I used a set of the pulleys and attached a Jump Start grow lamp. The system fell apart a couple of years and I instinctively kept the overhead lamp. I put eyehooks in the rafters and then set up the pulleys and attached them to the lamp as can be seen below.

 

I have a planter (round) of about 15 carrots and a planter (rectangular) with Romaine and Multi-colored Swiss Chard coming up as can be seen below.

   

There is more to be said but I am going to stop at this point. I will post when I can. It depends on how things turn out with the various forthcoming doctors visits we have. Hopefully we will get good news. So, until next time, Happy Gardening everyone!