End of Round One

Now the jalapenos are in pots -- 96 out of 114 seeds for an 84% germination rate. Not sure why so many failed to germinate, but the plants that did come up were nice and healthy looking. So I'm off to make labels to keep them from getting mixed up ... or maybe, to keep me from getting confused ... whatever.

Add Endum

Finished potting the wax peppers - total was 163 out of 187 seeds. Had perhaps a half dozen culls; make the germination rate about 91%. Good, but not optimal.

On Being A Pot Person

Well, occasionally I have to stick some kind of title in that will get noticed by the web crawlers and draw attention to this site. I would have used "pothead", but that might have drawn WAY too much attention...

Thursday I started potting the Rutgers seedlings. Out of the 103 seeds planted, I potted 99 plants. I discarded 3 as being too small yet to transplant, so that is close enough to 100% germination for me. Yesterday I went to work on the wax peppers; at this point I have 137 pots and there are still 24 nice healthy ones left to transplant with about 6 or so still struggling; say 167 out of 187 seeds and I actually discarded at least a dozen for one reason or another. Ran out of dirt so I had to quit until tomorrow. Then it will be on to the jalapenos.

Not only am I out of dirt, I am out of room and this is going to be a problem. There are at least 100 jalapenos, likely more, and the Abe Lincoln tomatoes, Delicious tomatoes, and the sweet basil are popping through. The Yummy peppers are still not appearing. I figure maybe another 200 pots to go, but I really did want to do some flowers this years as well. This could be a SERIOUS problem.

Chard is up in the greenhouse along with the romaine lettuce. Can't put the tomato and pepper seedlings out there, though -- too cold. Keim Lumber is delivering my material for the new asparagus beds either tomorrow or Tuesday.

Got to musing about the Peter Principle. Once a person has risen to his level of incompetence, what are his options? A new career, starting at the bottom? Longevity seems to be a factor in our family; Dad lived to 91, Mom is 91, Uncle Joe is fixing to be 95 next month -- is it unreasonable for me to have a mid-life crisis at 68? When you have forgotten more than you currently know, is that a sign that reprogramming is in order? I think I'll sleep on that one. If it doesn't keep me awake half the night thinking about it.

Update

It's almost time to pot the seedlings.

Rutgers

Wax

Jalapeno

Also the seeds for Totally Tomatoes arrived, so last Thursday (9th) I got those going : 25 Abraham Lincoln tomatoes, 36 Delicious tomatoes, and 17 Yummy peppers. Since I had some left-over cherry tomato seeds, I interred those as well : 30 Supersweet 100s. That batch is still sleeping, but they should start popping soon.

Romaine lettuce is up in the greenhouse like a carpet, but still no sign of the onions, cabbage, broccoli, and chard. Tonight I decided to get some sweet basil going... maybe I should just go to bed.

Good night.

Sowing Seeds of ...

Yup, time to get down and dirty again. Garden season is coming back.

Last Monday (Feb the 29th) I put some wax pepper seeds (187) in the dirt. Tuesday it was the Rutgers tomatoes (103). Wednesday, the jalapeno peppers (114). This morning some tomato plants were looking at me. There is some action in the wax pepper tray; I have a feeling some of those will show by morning.

Not a very sophisticated setup -- the planter trays are simply the rotisserie chicken containers from Sam's Club. The bottoms hold enough potting soil to get the seeds started, and the bubble-top covers are clear to let me see what is happening and keep the humidity inside high. The seeds are soaked in hydrogen peroxide for 8-10 hours and then laid out in rows (so I can get some idea on germination rates) and covered with a fine layer of soil, water added carefully to get everything wet, and an incandescent bulb set over them 24/7 to provide some warmth.

Looks like the winter lazy days are over.