Seedlings: 1 Week

My collard greens and lettuce seedlings have sprouted and are about 1 week old now. The light I have them under seems to be doing well. I plan on having them in the ground by mid February. Some of them are a bit crowded, but I am thinning them out later until 3 seedlings are left in each cell. When it's time to transplant them to the ground I will try to separate them without damaging the roots.


Here they are again from a side angle. The Parris Island Cos (Romaine) lettuce is on the left and the collards are on the right. Apparently I got a little heavy handed with the collard seeds, but I have plenty of them. I have two more trays like this which will result in more collards than my family can eat if all goes well.



This is my nosy garden cat trying to figure out what I am up to. The mother cat took up residence at my house just in time to give birth to four kittens which now run rampant through the yard. This is the only one that is tame (and brave!) I call him Smarty Pants- even though I am not sure if he is a boy or a girl yet.

Garden Tiller Woes

This morning I went outside with every intention of getting my garden bed ready for plants. The tiller I have been using has seen better days, but it has always gotten the job done. It is one of the heavy duty ones that tills a 20" wide area of dirt and has tines that are over a foot across. One pass can break up the dirt almost a foot deep.

I finally got the thing cranked and put it in gear and... nothing. It just sat there purring like a 300lb cat. The tines won't spin and it won't move forward or backwards. I think the gears are gone, but I am not sure. I have to wait for my brother (who can fix anything) to come over and check it out. My other alternatives are to hoe the entire plot by hand (40x40 ft) or to rent a tiller for $50. I'm not enthusiastic about either.

What would really be nice is if I could afford to treat myself to a new tiller. The one I would really like is a Mantis Tiller because it is light weight and perfect for my size of garden. Lowe's also has a few for around $200, but I will have to wait and see how things pan out with the repair.

In other news, my seedlings are doing very well. It's only been a week since I started them inside and they have already sprouted and are about 1 1/2" tall. I will post some pictures later today.

Grow Lights

In the past couple of years I have always just put my seedlings in a window sill, which has general worked fine. The difference was that I was mostly starting spring crops and could place them outside during the day to get plenty of sunshine.
Now that I have decided to try my hand at cold weather crops I really can't rely on the sun. I was scared to put them out because I would inevitably forget them and they would freeze at night. I also have been sleeping late and missing out on morning sun.

I decided to purchase some grow lights to get the plants off to a good start. There are only 3 trays of about 10 small pots of collards, lettuce, broccoli, and cabbage. I put them under a double set of 24" grow lights which are about 8 inches above the trays. The lights are florescent with some sort of phosphors that create balanced full spectrum light and made by Lights of America. I have heard they aren't the best brand, but my garden is small scale and so is my budget.

I have heard that I could have just used the new energy efficient compact florescent bulbs in a regular directional lamp and achieved the same result. Has anyone else used these for starting plants indoors? I would love to hear your experiences with using grow lights and whether it affected the hardiness of your seedlings.

Paper Towel Germination

I mentioned in my first post about how I started some of my seeds using the paper towel germination method so I thought I would share some pictures of how it works. Normally, this is used to test germination rates for seeds, but I have used it in the past for hard-to-germinate plants.

About 3 days ago I wet a paper towel and sprinkled some seeds on it. I folded the towel and placed it inside a zip lock bag. I opened it once a day to let some air in, but I am not sure if this is necessary. Today I checked and the collard green seeds had sprouted so it was time to put them in some dirt. Here is what they looked like and the peat cups I was going to transplant them into. I splurged this year on some Miracle-Gro seed starting mix.


In this close up shot you can see the little roots sticking out. They kind of resemble little sperm!


When it's time to put them in the dirt, you have to be careful. The roots naturally grow through the paper towel and you can damage them if you try to pull them free. You will be able to shake some of them free- you can place those directly into your soil... just make a little indentation with your finger. Don't worry too much about propping them right side up- at this point they will naturally grow so that their leaves emerge and their roots grow down.

As for the ones that are stuck in the paper towel, you can plant these too. Just tear a section of paper towel out that contains 3-5 sprouts. You won't be able to avoid breaking some roots, but it's no problem. That's why you are putting several in each pot (or hole in the ground if you are sowing directly into your garden.) When you have your little scrap of seed paper just lay it in the dirt and cover lightly with soil. The paper towel is very biodegradable and will disintegrate quickly. Below you can see four pots. The two on top have loose sprouts in the soil and the two on the bottom have scraps of towel containing the sprouts. Don't forget to spritz them with a bit of water and keep them warm and moist.

Seed Catalogs

Here in Georgia we have been having a cold and wet week with occasional sleet and snow flurries. The weather has put a damper on any garden preparations I had planned for the weekend. Since I don't have garden progress to report I thought I would take a second to compile a list of links to free seed catalogs.

It's the perfect time of year to order your seeds for the upcoming season. If you don't plan to buy seeds through the catalogs or even if you plan to start all of your plants from seedlings you can still benefit from these catalogs. They offer many garden products and great advice on different varieties of your favorite vegetables and flowers. I enjoy browsing the catalog on rainy days to get some ideas for what I want to grow for the year.

Visit the following links and fill out the form to receive your free catalog.

Burpee - A trusted name in gardening with a great selection.
Park Seed Co. - Choose from a seed catalog, spring planting guide, or annual plant catalog.
Seeds of Change - Certified organic seeds.
Johnny's - Wide variety of seeds for home gardeners.
Baker Creek - Rare and heirloom varieties of seeds.

Starting My 2008 Garden

I started my first seeds for the garden indoors this year. I have some collard greens and romaine lettuce seeds in peat pots and covered with clear plastic. I also started a few collards using the wet paper towel method.

The paper towel method is basically where you dampen a paper towel and then sprinkle some seeds onto the damp towel. You fold it and place the entire thing inside of a sealed ziplock bag. In a few days the seeds will germinate and small roots will pop out. At this point you can transplant them into some soil. The benefit is that you can see which seeds germinate and use those to start seedlings, but you can also damage the young root if you aren't careful. Below is a somewhat hard to see image of the sealed bag with paper towel and seeds.


To start seeds directly in peat pots I use a seed starting mixture (although some potting soil would probably work) and place them in something I can cover with plastic. This traps in the moisture and keeps the humidity at optimum level for germination. You can also buy the seedling trays with plastic dome lids for under $10, but I placed these in a small plastic tub and covered them with plastic. Below you can see one of my trays with the plastic on and off.


It's only mid January, but I wanted to try to get a few cold weather crops in this year before it's time to plant my spring vegetables. In Georgia we have a long growing season so I will have plenty of time for my squash and tomatoes later in the spring.