Growing right along....

 On the 23rd, I started a new set of Spring seedlings of Cabbage and Broccoli. I planted 4 each of Earliana, All Seasons and Early Jersey Wakefield cabbages and 4 each of Green Goliath, Major Hybrid and De Cicco Broccoli in my Hacknixs' seed starting tray. I started them with moistened seed starting mix and made sure not to plant the seed too deep. I then covered each seed set with more seed starting mix and then lightly sprayed the tray with a fine mist. I did turn on the heat mat but unplugged it each night so as not to overheat the medium. I continued to lightly mist the cells each morning while turning on the heat mat.

I went down this past Saturda to mist the tray and discovered that the Major Hybrid Broccoli and Earliana Cabbage had seedlings poking up from all four of their respective cells. At this point, I have to assume that the other plants are also growing which means I will immediately stop using the heat mat. I will also begin to water the tray from below to prevent any mold buildup on the surface and to assure that the plants have a steady supply of water. I will now lower the lights I have to as low as I can get them to the tray to prevent leggyness in the plants. Here are pictures of the tray and the first up plants.


Cabbage Seedlings

Broccoli Seedlings
I did notice after I took these pictures that there are other vegetables that are just starting to come up which I could not get a very good picture of unfortunately. But, they will come in the next couple of days I am sure. My goal is to get them out into the greenhouse before too long. Plants just seem to do so much better in there.
I also went out to the greenhouse Monday between the downpours we were having to check how things were going. And, they are going very well from the looks of it. Here are a couple of pictures for your perusual.

These are the lettuce and spinach plants I have been growing since late November and have taken several cuttings from so far.

And here is a rack of spinach, lettuce and a pot of carrots on the bottom shelf. I have another rack with more plants that are also getting ready for harvesting.
My next thing to do is to seed in probably 20 plants of spinach and an equal mix of lettuce and chard plants. I plan on using my vertical hydroponic system this year so as not to have to take up room in the garden plots. Some of the lettuce and chard seedlings I get from this next planting will be used in that
That's all I have for now. I am hoping for a nice, dry week to allow the garden plots to dry out. It feels like it has been a wet February and my ground kind of bears that out.  We can only hope that this month in my region will begin to hit a stride. I saw a forecast that was indicating a snow storm of some kind on the 7th so we shall see what transpires. Guess we'll take it one day at a time for now.
Please check back for the next updates on the progress of the garden and seedlings. Until next time, Happy Gardening Everyone!