I had much better success this time around with starting seedlings in my APS units.
Unlike my first attempt a few weeks ago (see this blog entry), I was able to germinate seeds in my APS-24 unit.
The trick was elevating the APS-24 by a couple of inches so that it was closer to the grow light. Since I am using the grow light also as a heating source, raising the height effectively increased the soil temperature around the seeds.
The picture above shows the seedlings in my APS units.
I repotted all of the seedlings into separate containers. The picture below shows some of the seedlings from my two rounds of seed starting. I have 38 seedlings in total!
There are 4 Charentais, 2 Thai Red Chili Peppers, 1 Thai Yellow Chili Peppers, 2 Sweet Baby Girl Cherry Tomatoes, 13 Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes and 16 Winter Melons (combination of Long and Round).
I have way more Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes than I plan to grow, so I am going to have to give most of them away.
Some of the seedlings are only a few days old, so I am keeping them under the grow lights for another week (see picture above).
The remainder, I am putting on the windowsills of south facing windows (see picture below). I want to wait another week or two before I start hardening them off.
Posts
Hi SoCal Gardener,
ReplyDeleteYou might remember I commented on a few blog posts in January. You gave me some advice on getting started planting my seeds, since I live in So Cal too. Well, I'm happy to say that I have many seedlings growing now. I even took your advice on starting some tomato clones (from tomato plants that had survived the Winter). I hope these grow ... that would be great!
For some strange reason, very few of my pepper seedlings have sprouted. I planted a variety of sweet and mild peppers. I planted them in store bought seed mix. The trays are on heat mats and the avg. temp of the soil is between 75 - 80 deg. F. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong ... other than the peppers I had a very high success rate. Any ideas? I am thinking of starting again ... as you did with your tomatos ... I have no shortage of seeds ;-)
Happy gardening,
Chris
I had a very difficult time myself growing Thai Chili Peppers. Out of 8 seeds, I only got 3 seedlings on my second attempt (I got 0 from my first attempt).
ReplyDeleteSome seeds just don't germinate well. If you have good success with your other seeds, then I would blame the seeds and not yourself
Yes, I'm going to try again. I think I'll keep all pepper seeds in their own tray so I can try and keep them warmer. I have a big desire to grow a variety of sweet peppers. So, hopefully, I'll get more to sprout soon.
ReplyDeleteIf I recall you have had good luck growing Okinawan sweet potatos. When do you start your plants? I'm trying to figure out when to start sweet potatos. I've never grown them and I am trying to learn how to go about it.
Happy gardening,
Chris
The weather needs to be warmer in order to grow Sweet Potatoes.
ReplyDeleteSee this blog entry for some of the difficulties I am encountering growing Sweet Potatoes in the winter.
I would wait for March before trying.
Hi SoCal Gardener,
ReplyDeleteI have five Red Thai Chili Pepper plants that I started in the house. Poor things were neglected as I was so busy with moving other seedlings to another garden where I was working all summer. Finally replanted pepper seedlings and took them to the hoop house. We had three days of high 80s/low 90s with 60 degree nights. Voila - I have buds on two of the plants. How long did it take yours to go from buds to fruit?
Jennifer in Puyallup