It's been a minute, but, I'm back!
On Monday, September 29, 2014 I was landlocked, since my car was in the shop for a major repair. SEED SOWING DAY!!! My plan was to sow #onions (Tx. 1015Y, Red Creole, Red Grano), #collards (regular Georgia, Georgia Blue Stem), #lettuce (Paris Cos, Butter Crunch, Romaine), and #carrots (Nantes Stubby).
I started with a seed starting formula of Miracle Grow Potting Mix, with a sprinkling each of blood meal (nitrogen for the greens), Dolomitic lime, and the Mittleider Weekly Feed (WF). Once the flats were filled and leveled, I remembered something I've been seeing over and over in the back of my mind -- do NOT plant the seeds too deep!!!
So, I sprinkled the seeds on top of the mix, lightly covered them some fine sand (the kind we fill the sand bags with...), watered them in with the mist sprayer on my hose, and set them under the patio cover.
All the seeds were up by Wednesday evening, except the onions and carrots! The onions were up by Friday morning, and the carrots were up by Saturday morning, 10/3/14. I tried a new method for sowing the carrots, too. I pulled apart some two-ply toilet paper, and laid the single-ply sheets on top of the potting mix. Then, I sprinkled the tiny seeds onto the sheets. The white tissue helped me see where, and, how thickly, I was sowing, and it worked like a charm. I used the hose mister to moisten the top without disturbing the seeds too much. The last time I sowed onion and carrots seeds, it took almost 3 weeks for either of them to peep. I attribute this lightning fast germination to only one thing -- NOT planting those seeds deep. Lesson proven...
Since I live at Grand Central Station for squirrels, and have a stray kitty or two, I covered the seed flats with squares of tulle taped all the way around with painter's tape. The blue looks kinda kewl, LOL. The regimen has been a light misting each evening, to keep the soil evenly moist. So far, this has worked really well, and the seedlings are taking off with lightening speed. In fact, I've had to open two ends of the tulle to accommodate the height of the seedlings.
This morning, I started watering all the flats with the Mittleider Constant Comfort formula (which is just a diluted version of the Weekly Feed - 2 Tbsp. WF to 3 gallons of water). This weekend, I'll start moving them closer toward the sunlight, to toughen them up for transplanting in about two more weeks.
"Godspeed, and Good Harvest!"
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