Everything is getting a little bit bigger

We have seen continued success in the seedlings department.  I am quite happy with the grow lights this year.  We have continued to experience a cold April this year.  It is currently 0C and it is April 21 today.  We also have not been getting many sunny days.  So the grow lights have been good to have around.

In the photo above the largest plants are the tomatillos.  The grow lights really helped prevent them from getting too leggy.  Last year all but one died as a result of being too leggy.  In the foreground the peat seed pellet is a Gusto Purple Pepper.  The tomato in the middle ground is a Lemon Boy.

Above is the latest seedlings to crop up.  This tray is a real mixed bag of everything from Yellow Pear tomatoes, Totem F1 tomatoes, Hot Wax peppers and Purple Gusto peppers.  The seeds with the worst germination rate this year are the Organic Yellow Pear.  I think I have about 3 of them out of all I planted.

The Sub Arctic tomatoes are the hands-down off to the races winners this year.  They are doing very well.  I had to stake them up to keep them from bending over into the sun, but otherwise seem to be very well suited to the cooler climate and obviously are vigorous growers.

Above is an overhead shot to show you what the growing set up looks like right now.  We are about to go out of town for a week and have a house sitter, so I have the lights on timers, and the only thing the house sitter needs to do is water the trays. I will not be expecting any seedlings that sprout while we are away to survive, or be transplanted into pots, so this is the extent of the tomato and pepper crop this year.  I might have a peek into the seed incubator when I get back and see if there is anything to salvage, but I am not going to get my hopes up.

Seed Count:

Sub Arctic - 5
Hot Wax - 7
Gusto Purple - 5
Toma Verde - 5
Lemon Boy - 5
Totem - 2
Yellow Pear - 2
Unknown - 2 (Ran out of plant i.d. tags)

All in all it seems like an interesting, diverse crop is shaping up this year.

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!