Grow-Along Week 3

Hiya folks!

We've got a lot growing on this week that we are excited to show you! First off, we'll be potting up the little tomatoes and peppers from the grow room soon as they are fast outgrowing their seed-starter flat. Many growers agree that tomatoes and peppers should be potted up as soon as they have their second set of true-leaves. However, we are operating on a slightly different method that many growers also swear by. We pot up based on root development. When our little seedlings are showing signs of their roots outgrowing their starter tray, we pot them up to 3" peat pots. Peat pots are, perhaps, not the most sustainable of options as peat is a limited natural resource, but we find them to be perfect for indoor seed starting as they are very forgiving when it comes to watering. Plastic pots tend to take a long time to dry out of if you get heavy handed with the watering can and peat pots are breathable and will dry out much more quickly if you happen to over-water. Peat pots are also compostable, and relatively inexpensive to purchase. Operating on the root-development theory, we expect to pot up our little plants one more time before they go in the ground in May.

Now, for potting up tomatoes, you want to pot the little plantlings deeper than they originally sat in their seed-starting trays. This is because tomatoes will develop roots from any point on the stem of the plant. We want a good, strong root system, so we will take each of our little plants and pot them up so that the soil comes just to the first set of leaves on the plants. We leave a little space in the peat-pot so that as the plant grows upwards, we can add yet a little more soil to the pot to give us even more roots.

Young Tomato Plants

Peppers are much the same as tomatoes, though it will take them a bit longer to grow roots from their stems. We'll take the same approach with the peppers as with the tomatoes, leaving a bit of extra space at the top of each pot for continued growth and the addition of more soil down the road. Another important factor in potting up is to use the same type of soil you had the seedlings in to start with. This is another reason we recommend using full-on potting soil instead of the peat or coconut fiber seed starting medium that comes with most germination kits. The little plants will have less difficulty in transitioning to their new pots as the soil nutrients, ph, etc are all identical to what they are already used to.

Young Pepper Plants

We also got outside in the garden for a little between rain showers today (or were they sleet?). We pulled up a bunch of dandelion roots from the veggie beds that Nate is going to dry for use in herbal remedies throughout the year. We also discovered several volunteer strawberry plants that we suspect are a result of birds leaving droppings behind after eating some local strawberries. We plan to pot them up and see what comes of them. :) On the note of volunteers, we discovered a few onions that we missed are coming up in last year's onion bed and we plan to let them grow until we're ready to plant this year's crops in that bed and then we'll either harvest them or move them to this year's onion bed. We also have a large plant coming up in what was last year's pepper bed that appears to be a Lamb's Ears plant, though we're not 100% sure on that yet. I'll be delighted if it is as I've been wanting to grow some for awhile now. Freebie volunteer plants are the best!

Lots of dandelion roots!

So, what do you think it is?

Not pictured are the baby strawberry plants we found and some plants we've received by mail from orders we've placed within the last few months. We're excited to be adding 3 varieties of currants to our garden this year to expand our fruit selection. We'll post some pictures of them when they are more exciting to look at. Right now they are still dormant and don't look like much more than sticks with roots.

Elaine Budner shared her growing in pictures this week:

Lots of daffodils!

 

Daffodils

Orchid bud

New leaf growth on orchid.

Growth on the orchid flower spike.

Oregano is sprouting!

Shamrocks are flowering!

Great growing, Mom! We think you have a wonderful talent for growing indoor plants, especially your orchids! :)

Stell Michelsen wrote in to share her progress too:

• Well, I got all excited that I could finally see the tote box that I was using to haul weeds to the compost heap that got snowed into the garden last fall, and I was going to take a picture. But then it snowed today. So I can't see it again. But my seeds came today! 
  I went with Natural Gardening Company because they carry packets of Emerite pole beans that have more than 20 seeds in them. I also got a whole bunch of yummy but boring veggie seeds - good ol' favorites like chioggia beets, scarlet Nantes carrots, rainbow chard, parsnips that aren't Harris Model, and fun stuff like that. Got a good market variety of basil, since I'm wanting nice plants for pesto, and a couple different cucumbers and zucchinis and kales, and a mini romaine lettuce that I can't remember the name of. They didn't have the snap peas I wanted, and no New Zealand spinach so I still have a little more ordering to do. Not that I'm in much of a hurry. 
  
  Stell Michelsen 

We're sorry to hear about the new snow, Stell!! We've still had off and on snow here, but it seems that the temperatures are finally starting an upswing for us. We hope spring heads your way soon!  Your seed varieties sound awesome and we can't wait to see things turning green for you up there in the North.

Until Next week, Happy Growing!!

P.S.- We'll probably be posting a supplementary Grow-Along Week 3 blog within the next day or so to show our little plantlets potted up to their next containers. Our potting soil was still semi-frozen from being outside so we couldn't pot them up in time for today's post! 

If you want to get in on the Grow-Along, feel free to jump in at any time by sending us your garden plans, projects, or pictures via email, Facebook, or in the comments!