Remember this 'neat little experiment' with margerine tubs and window sill culture?
Well, I won't do this again. I thought it might be a great idea--I could stack these in my lily fridge for the chill, nice, neat and compact. And we were talking about a theory that crowded seed sprouts seem to like the situation and grow better. Well, initially, this seemed to bear credance to the theory. Germination was excellant and the sprouts all took off like gangbusters and everything was 'lookin' good. But somewhere in the second half of the season things took a turn for the worse. As they became increasingly larger, moisturer control and feeding became a real problem. Watering became an every other day event and when to feed became a guessing game. And while my other seedlings in larger pots and baggies were growing even more, these were falling behind. This fall, these were the first to go dormant.
Out of curiousity, I removed a clump from one of the tubs and what I discovered amazed me. All of the tiny bulbs all around the outside were much smaller with smaller roots. Those toward the center became increasingly larger and those in the center were the largest of all with the best roots. What I believe happened here is that the plastic tubs allowed too much light tranmission thru the plastic tub walls stunting the roots or else they're sensitive to ortho thalates (ingredient to make plastic flexible). Maybe both played a role. I plan to set these out in clumps next spring and will have pics then.
Some other pictures over Thanksgiving weekend here. I had to settle for half inch hardware clothe, nobody had quarter inch--only in plastic. A couple more inches of chips will be added once the ground freezes. I think the half inch will be OK. Voles are the problem.
