One round of sprouts, one more round of sowing

Another snowy weekend in Edmonton.  Sigh.  I'm not letting it hold the garden back yet.

This week on Friday the Toma Verde's were the first to sprout!  This year I am determined to see them live, so I had made an advance purchase of 2 cantilever desk lamps and some grow bulbs.  I want to make sure the seedlings get the light they need to live rather than straining them selves to death as they did last year.  This year every sign so far seems to indicate the lighting is making an impact.

The second seeds to burst forth from the earth was the Sub Arctic Plenty's.  All seeds sown have germinated.

The third seeds to make it above ground are a couple (so far) of Lemon Boy tomatoes.  We had a little scare this afternoon where they seemed to droop a bit, but I think it was a reflection of taking them out of their domes and the shock of dealing with the dry air.

With all 3 of these seedlings moving out of the incubators and into 3 inch pots I decided to sow 3 more varieties of seeds.  Today I planted the following into the Jiffy Peat Pellets, and placed the incubators on the heat pad and radiator:

8x Totem F1 Hybrid tomato from William Dam Seeds
8x Yellow Pear Organic tomato from William Dam Seeds
8x Gusto Purple pepper from Vesey's

Pictures of the set up:

 Here (above) you can see the still-inculbating Hot Wax peppers and where some of the Lemon Boys were living until they were potted this morning. The freshly planted Yellow Pear seeds can be seen in the incubator on the radiator in the background.

 Above are visible the new sprouts, a mix of Toma Verde tomatillos and Sub Arctic Pleanty tomatoes.  The stainless steel desk lamps make easily adjustable grow lamps.  The lamp on the left has a Ottlite Gro Bulb CFL and the lamp on the right has a Philips Daylight CFL.

 What at this time appears to be a happy and healthy Sub Arctic Plenty sprout.

The entire first tray of sprouts can be seen in this lengthwise photo.   In this view is the new Lemon Boy, Sub Arctic Plenty, and the Toma Verdes.

New this year is the timer to control the CFL grow lights. I have it set so that no matter the weather there is an ample supply of light for 16 hours a day.

That's it for this week's instalment of Just Leafy!