Pretty happy with how all the hot peppers are looking (ignore the little one in the very middle, it germinated way later than the others). The basil (2nd row from the right in the middle) and chives (top right corner) are having a hard time for some reason. Not sure what's going on there.
It's pissing down snow right now... but the latest round of seeds I planted are coming in quite nicely... everything from cukes to peas to beets to broccoli... and the tomatoes are growing pretty fast as well. Lots of watering being done... almost time to rig up some sort of automation for it.
Well hells bells. I indeed over fertilized and killed off a good 2/3 of my peppers. I am also having some trouble with my tomatoes, they seem stunted/yellowed. I am about to head to Lowes to get a new drill and some lights for a proper seedling setup. My LED grow light seems like it performed better when I first purchased it, or maybe I was over enthusiastic about my results. In any event, I have had plenty to keep me busy. We've had a glorious spring with really nice weather for weeks and weeks. Some of the seeds I started indoors months ago are already blooming. Spoiler: Flowers
Great flowers, bewildered! As to yellow tomato leaves, maybe audit your watering practices? Could be too much or too little, either can lead to yellow leaves. It's that or insufficient light, you are on the right track. The nights here keep dropping into the 40s, shocking anything I plant. I am waiting one more week for better temps, then planting more stuff out into the garden. Jealous of your great spring!
That is what I was thinking too, about the yellowing leaves. Everything I'm reading indicates it is a water issue. I tried to increase my watering and the leaves look even more yellow to me now. However, some seedlings that are in the same tray but started later and had more chance to grow in the sunshine have more green leaves with the same watering practices. I went to Home Depot today and purchased the same lights that you did @Improper. Lowe's had a light similar to what you purchased but they were all sold out and they were not restocking. They were also more expensive than your lights with less Lumen output, I feel like I got an extremely reasonable deal for these lights. I think I'm going to move those small tomato plants inside under those lights to see if I can get them to put on some growth. I will also start some new seeds too. I bought seeds for pole beans and okra today so I will have stuff growing on the string trellis one way or another. It's all a learning experience, and I am sure that as the years go by I'll get better at this. I think that my light setup will help me do things properly now though. I thought that the red and blue LED light that I purchased was going to be strong enough to raise some seedlings but it really is not enough.
What we got so far as it is still way to early to do anything in CT. Just planted a broccoli plant cause they like the cooler weather and the other 3 sticks are up from the basement. They are a Ghost pepper and two Jalapeno plants that spent all winter in the basement. I am pretty sure one of the Jalapenos is dead but the other one still feels like it might be alive. I know the Ghost made it because:
I went through the same learning process. The science seemed to be on our "red and blue" lights side, but then the more reading I did (after they weren't working so well) seems to show that different plants have different wavelength requirements, and only a few plants, at only certain stages in their life cycle, will benefit from those RB LEDs. I ended up ripping those red/blue lights right out, hopped on Amazon and got a mixture of 6.5k and 5k LED lights in 4' strips for crazy cheap, and I now have a small sun in my laundry room that burns from 8am to 8pm. That being said, they're working really well right now... lots of herbs are a nice deep green, and the tomato plants are growing like crazy. I figure i have another 2-3 weeks before the weather will be good enough to even think about putting anything outside, so in that time I have to build my raised wicking beds. I figure I'll start in on that next weekend. The wooden frames shouldn't be hard to knock out... it's just the gravel and soil that I'm not looking forward to putting in place.
You might have done it already, but there's lots of pages in this thread. Mind linking the product you ended up purchasing? @Improper, thanks for the tip on those $15 shop lights. For once, a project as easy as it's supposed to be. The most time consuming part was getting them out of all the packaging. Gotta love jiffy starters that Mom keeps finding randomly. I have portulaca and impatiens starting in this jumbo one. I put together a basket yesterday afternoon with the Scentsational petunias I started from seed, some creeping jenny from the giant basket I made from cuttings, and some sorta grassy thing that was in something my mom gave me to part out. The petunias will be popping any day now. It buys me time to go find more coconut grass because I didn't realize it but the bottom wore out on part of this one.
"It's all a learning experience, and I'm sure as the years go by I'll get better at this." Geez, this, this, this! This is my third year growing these heirloom tomatoes and I am still fumbling all over the place and capturing small scores here and there. Here's a goof from earlier this winter, that may pertain to the "yellowing leaves" issues some of you guys are having. So, I don't use those peat pot/net things. I just don't like those nets that never seem to break down, and the fact that there aren't many nutrients in that peat. That said, I understand the appeal; affordable, easy, hassle-free, etc. Just not my thing, and it almost burned me this year. When I transplanted my seedlings from the small cells into individual small pots this year, I must've run out of the soil I mix up and ran out and bought a bag of whatever-brand from the big-box store. Nothing wrong with the soil, but it was bone-dry. Like flour, fly away in a breeze dry. I thought nothing of it. Transplanted my seedlings into the soil and just watered heavily. Ouch. It sounds strange, but the incredibly dry peat and soil was REPELLING the water. The water would pool up on top of the soil and just run out the bottom minutes later. Add in the fact that I transferred from cardboard trays to plastic cups (the cardboard tends to soak up some water, while also wicking the water in the soil away), I was watering constantly. OVER-WATERING, yet never sopping the soil. Just flushing all the good stuff away. It took me weeks to recognize this mistake and I lost dozens of plants. The lesson? Before transplanting, soak your potting soil in a contained 5-gallon bucket. You'll be amazed at how much water that soil will hold. Over-watering can be just as damaging as under-watering. Don't do what I did!
That’s exactly why I bought a cheap kids beach bucket set. I moisturize all the soil before I use it. Basically I make dry-ish mud pies. I also learned the difference between seeding, potting, and top soil. And I soak all my peat pods in water for a day before use. I also plant multiple seeds in them and then break them apart and pull them out of the netting before I repot them. Worked great for my tomato plants so far... pulled about 4 plants per pod apart and then repotted them in high-loam potting soil and they’re growing like crazy. Weather is finally breaking so next weekend I’m building the raised wicking bed. It’ll be 6’x12’x2’ roughly. Bought the pond liner today.
Alright, I'm real interested in these raised beds. That is a path I haven't ventured down, but can see myself taking in a few years. I look forward to a full-report; wood variety?, pond-liner?, soil?, mulch?, etc.
The peppers I didn't kill are doing well so far. Dug a trench to plant the tomatoes. I think there was an adjustment period with the increased watering, because they looked yellower before they greened up nicely. Of course, the dog decided to play in the soft dirt off to the side last night so I lost a tomato seedling underneath the pile, but I have about 30 plants backlogged right now so it'll be ok. The only tomato fruit I have growing so far is from a volunteer from the compost bin. Womp womp. I am having a really bad time with garden slugs. They ate all my purple salvia seedlings (seeds I collected myself last season and have no more of), plus other blue salvia, plus zinnias I have resown multiple times out in the patch. The cornmeal worked more as a decoy I think, and it's OK but I have to reapply to such a large area too frequently due to how wet it is here. I have been killing slugs at every turn this weekend. One even got into a few seedlings in my set up in the shed. I think the pots my mom gave me was housing a whole family of them. I killed 9 in one fell swoop when I noted all my blue salvia were snipped. Freaking infuriating. I think I am going to change tactics and attempt beer traps and diatomaceous earth. You can make a good diatomaceous earth puffer with a soda bottle with holes drilled into the cap.
If el hubs doesn't end up taking that job in WA I am going to ratchet up the suggestions about ducks to about 9000. I REALLY want ducks.