Friday, February 26, 2010

Seedling update

We now have 45 visible seedlings in various stages of growth.




Some are relatively big and are starting to grow their first set of true leaves!





And some are still little. If Dr. Seuss had seedlings I think they would look like this one.

And some have yet to emerge (just imagine a picture of dirt).




This is our current growing set up. Not at all fancy. It's consists a cheap folding table, two heating mats from the pharmacy, and a 4' florescent shop light held hung from bar clamps which are clamped to boards which are in turn clamped to the cheap folding table legs. The plastic tray covers come off once the plants are up to avoid stem rot due to excessive condensation and to avoid suffocating them. You don't have to get the special plant/aquarium grow lights either, just get ones with similar lumens and color temperature as the grow lights at the store (isn't it nice that they on the same aisle for easy in-store referencing?). The bulbs we got are 32 Watts, 2950 Lumens, and 4100K (color temperature measured in degrees Kelvin). The pack of two bulbs cost $7. The fixture cost $27. The heating mats each cost around $12 and this is our second year using them. Everything else we already had and everything we bought for this light and heat set up we will be able to use again and again.

I think gardening pays off over time. I think about the jokes of people growing a $30 tomato due to how much money they spent on setting up the garden and for all the plants. It's easy to spend a lot of money but you really don't have to-- especially if you start modestly and work up to larger scale projects. This is our first year with a grow light and I think it works better but every other year the windows worked too-- just with more etiolation (remember what that is?) but we still got a harvest.




A lot of money is saved by starting the plants by seed instead of buying transplants. Most of the expense of starting seeds goes into equipment that can be used in the years to come. The stuff we buy every year is not very expensive and with enough planning and work could be eliminated all together. We are not at the point of making our own potting soil but we do save many seeds from our garden so the expense of seeds is mostly just for trying new types and varieties.

Gardening grows on you (the pun is coincidental but welcome).

**as a completely unrelated side note** It's snowing right now and in my opinion one real perk of living in a working class neighborhood is that it's more likely that your neighbor drives a snow plow-- and that certainly has it's advantages ;)

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