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  • From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Seed starting methods
  • Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2006 18:36:57 EST



> If you have the perfect greenhouse set-up, please
> don't tell me.
>

How about an imperfect greenhouse setup?

I planted tomato seeds yesterday hallucinating over being able to plant very
early tomatoes in the former hog log in hot beds.

The greenhouse is PVC hoop covered with 6 mil polyethylene that, of course,
has to be replaced each year. The idea is to trap heat when it's available
and
suvive when it's not. On a recent day when it as 52 degrees sunny ouside, it
was 92 in the greenhouse. I discovered that tomato and even pepper seeds
don't need continuous heat to sprout so long as mold or rot doesn't set in on
long cold periods. The sprouting takes longer but works fine. If the
outside
temp is going to fall below about 28, I take all the fats off the benches and
put them in the middle of the greenhouse (it's 14' x 28'). If the temp is
going to get down to 25, I put a plastic painter's drop cloth over the flats,
and
if it is going to get below 25, I light a kerosene lamp under the tarp. Last
year I had to use the lamp four times and so far this year, never.

I put a 1/2" piece of hardware cloth (rat wire) on the flat and make a
depression with a chop stick on every other square on every other row. That
gives
me something like 190 holes on the standard sized flat 1" apart in all
directions. Into those holes I sow onions, kale, leeks, caggage (et al),
lettuce,
tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, turnips, beets, flowers, and herbs. Sometimes
sweetcorn and peanuts. When the seedlings emerge and have true leaves, I
transplant them to 4 oz or 6 oz cups, Beets and turnips are transplanted
directly to
beds out of the flats when they are about 1" tall.

I found planting them first in flats lets me choose the best seedlings for
the cups and pots and I get better results, thinks I. Also by seeding things
like lettuce and kale in the flats, I am not encumbering the growing beds for
the first 30 or more days of the growth cycle (counting germination time) so
that more successive plantings can be done on the same ground.



  • Re: [Homestead] Seed starting methods, Clansgian, 01/31/2006

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