Winter Melon Seedlings

I gave all of my previous Winter Melon Seedlings (total of 4) to my Mother.

This was one of the reasons why I use so many APS-6 units to germinate a new batch of Winter Melon seedlings.

Today, I transplanted the seedlings into 6 inch round containers.  Below is a picture of them lined up in a row.

Hardening Off Seedlings

To make room for the APS-6 seed starting units, I have had to start hardening off my Cherry Tomato and Winter Melon seedlings.  

 

I have 7 Cherry Tomato seedlings and 2 Winter Melon seedlings.  I plan to put them out in the sun for 3 hours the first couple of days.  I will put them out for the full day (~ 7 hrs of sunlight) afterwards.

I will take them inside at night.   I won't let them overnight outside until March.

Seedlings Under Grow Light

This is a picture of the seedlings under the grow light.  Both of the APS-6 units have been removed and all of the seedlings are in 6 inch round containers.  

Winter Melon Seedling Update

I transplanted the three Winter Melon seedlings into 6 inch diameter round containers.

As you can see from the picture to the right, one of seedlings is no longer a seedling but a plant.  These three germinated within two days of each other.  I have never seen a Winter Melon seedling grow so fast.

This plant has grown too tall to put under the grow light.  The heat from the lamp will burn the leaves, if the leaves are within an inch of the bottom of the light bulbs.  I had to move this plant to the side.  Unfortunately, the plant no longer gets any direct light.  

Tomorrow, I need to transplant the plant outside.  I hope it survives.  The worst of winter is over in Southern California.  Night time low temperatures will be above 45 degrees F from here on out.

The other two seedlings are right on track for transplanting outside in a few more weeks.   I'll start hardening them off next weekend by bringing them outside for a few hours during the day.

Germination Scorecard

After two weeks, I have 7 tomato seedlings, 3 winter melon seedlings and 0 pumpkin seedlings.  This is an overall germination rate of 42%, which is lower than the 50% rate that I was hoping for.

I transfered the seedlings from the APS-24 to the bigger APS-6 and dumped the left over ungerminated cells.

I was not going to get anymore seeds to germinate because Algae had formed on the APS-24 (see the dark green layer on the surface of the cells in the picture).  The Algae started appearing about 4 days ago and the last seedling emerged 2 days ago.

Interestingly, all of the germinations occurred on the upper 2/3rds of the APS-24 unit.   I got 10 seeds to germinate in the upper 16 cells of the unit for a germation rate of 63% and 0 seed to germinate in the lower 8 cells of the unit.  The upper 16 cells are furthest away from where the capillary mat meets the water source, so it could be that the bottom 10 cells got too wet and the Algae got into the soil before the seeds could germinate.  I will see in the next set of seed starts if this trend holds true. If it does, I will change the way I use the APS-24 unit.  

This is the breakdown of the tomato seedlings:

 
 
Sun Sugar (1)
 
 
 
Sun Cherry ES (1) 
 
Sun Gold (2)
 
 
 
Sugar Snack (1) 
 
 
Super Sweet 100 (2) 
 
 

This is the breakout of winter melon seedlings:

Long Melon (2)

Mother In Law (1)

Below are pictures of the seedlings after they had been transplanted into APS-6 units.