Click and Grow

[dcarch]

On 1/17/2019 at 9:23 PM, KennethT said:

I hope that's for a LOT of seedlings!

 

Last year's.

 

dcarch

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I replanted my peas again.  I'd say the Click and Grow couldn't grow peas, but I have an eight inch pea plant who begs to differ.  I suspect I am planting too deep or the soil is too moist, so this time I did not use the greenhouse lids.

 

Had they been in stock when I started I would simply have ordered the Click and Grow pea plant pods.  But they weren't.  Kelvedon Wonder will have to do.  Interestingly I noticed Burpee sells seeds for Peas-in-a-Pot, a ten inch variety.

 

[heidih]

There is a timing issue with indoor starts. I highly suggest Margaret's tutorial  https://awaytogarden.com/seed-starting-supplies/ 

[CanadianHomeChef]

Thai basil that was planted in a used lettuce pod. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

The pea plant fell over.  Sort of a metaphor for my day.

 

[KennethT]

Pea plants are climbers... They usually need some kind of trellis in the wild... indoors too...

[dcarch]

11 hours ago, KennethT said:

Pea plants are climbers... They usually need some kind of trellis in the wild... indoors too...

 

Cheap indoor long lasting, good looking stakes, for starting indoor climbers:

 

BBQ bamboo sticks come in 36" long, a few dollars for 100 sticks.

 

dcarch

Edited January 25, 2019 by dcarch (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

14 minutes ago, dcarch said:

 

Cheap indoor long lasting, good looking stakes, for starting in door climbers:

 

BBQ bamboo sticks come in 36" long, a few dollars for 100 sticks.

 

dcarch

 

Yes, I dug out my 10 inch ones.  These are dwarf peas.

 

[CanadianHomeChef]

Went to pollinate my tomato flowers today and 5 of the flowers fell off revealing a geeen tomato fruit beneath. Probably have a 1.5 dozen other yellow flowers blooming right now. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I had some of my basil on a pizza but the basil didn't taste like much.  Maybe it has to get bigger?

 

[rotuts]

did you taste it before you added it ?

 

how large were the leaves ?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

1 minute ago, rotuts said:

did you taste it before you added it ?

 

how large were the leaves ?

 

Yes.  The basil was not cooked.

 

The leaves were 3-4 cm.

 

[heidih]

There are different basil varieties with various esential oil strengths. Also my experience is that outdoor grown plants that are not coddled perhaps work harder in the flavor department. I had a volunteer Italian parsley in a bed riddled with ivy and nasturtium that was intense and the parsley in a large pampered pot from the garden center was barely flavored

[CanadianHomeChef]

Yeah I’ve read that basil concentrates its essential oils when it has to work under pressure (too much light, too warm, not enough water). 

 

I’ve tried the basil from my click and grow, and I agree that it’s not as strong as the supermarket variety. Will play around with it a bit more though, as basil so darn expensive in Canada. 

Edited January 27, 2019 by CanadianHomeChef (log)

[KennethT]

I don't know about that... I've grown genovese basil many times hydroponically indoors and it has always been extremely flavorful... I think it is more genetics dependent..

[heidih]

Well nature/nurture always a factor

[CanadianHomeChef]

Lots of flowers and fruits now. Have over a dozen fruits now. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

On ‎1‎/‎23‎/‎2019 at 1:17 PM, heidih said:

There is a timing issue with indoor starts. I highly suggest Margaret's tutorial  https://awaytogarden.com/seed-starting-supplies/ 

 

I didn't see any information about timing?

 

My current theory is that the sunny location of the Click and Grow (south facing glass doors) gets too warm from solar heat gain.  Today I started some seeds in moist paper towels and put them in the bedroom, typically the coldest spot in the apartment.  If these seeds sprout I will transfer them to the Click and Grow.

 

Fortunately Kelvedon Wonder is not an exotic variety and I have plenty of peas to play with.

 

[rotuts]

@JoNorvelleWalker

 

interesing

 

sprout the seeds in small pot w sterilized soil

 

you can get a small amount of this type of soil almost everywhere 

 

the key is its sterilized , and you will not get ' damping-off "

 

you can sue the pots over and over ,once you clean them w perhaps dilute bleach for

 

the next go around.

[heidih]

@JoNorvelleWalker   The timing issue Margaret discussed was not to start the seeds too earlly if they are headed for outdoor transplant.  If you have vigorous seedlings and then they stay inside ffor too long because your frost is not over then you get spindly wimpy transplants. Of course with the bizarre weather y'all are experiencing itt is hard to predict when that will be. Also top watering can get you damping off even in sterile pots. Benn and done that drama in the greenhouse.

Edited January 31, 2019 by heidih (log)

[KennethT]

Spindly wimpy plants has nothing to do with staying indoors, it's mainly due to a lack of light.  So, it's because of staying indoors with inadequate lighting.  This may have been true 20 years ago, but with today's lighting, not necessarily so.

 

Personally, I would never sprout seeds in soil, I don't care how "sterilized" it claims to be.  I either start in paper towels or a 1.5" cube of rockwool.  If possible, adjust the pH of the soaking liquid for either the paper towel or rockwool to about 5.5

[Martin Fisher]

IMHO, lots of money is wasted on starting plants WAY too early.

What's most important, is soil temperature!!!

Tomatoes, for example, aren't going to do anything serious until the soil temperature hits 60 at root depth, and they'll do even better when the temperature hits 65 degrees—above that, they'll take off like a rocket.

Having the seeds germinated and ready to go, as tiny seedlings, when the soil temperature hits 60 degrees is enough.

One year, I sat out some very tiny Matt's Wild Cherry seedlings on the 26th of June—that's considered very late around here, especially for such tiny seedlings.

This was back when I was stacking cages made from concrete reinforcing wire as supports for tomatoes and other stuff.

The plants reached 15 to 18 feet before they were killed by frost!

 

Leggy (or spindly) plants can be caused by not only insufficient light, but also too much heat as well as fertilizer issues.

Having said that, having leggy tomato plants isn't the end of the world—just pinch off the lower leaves and trench plant them—they'll develop roots along the trenched stem.

But, you've created much more work for yourself than is necessary if you've reached the point of having to worry about leggy plants.

 

Edited January 31, 2019 by DiggingDogFarm (log)

[Martin Fisher]

Here you go:

 

[KennethT]

I like the rooted stem for all tomato plants - I learned this when I got some starts from Laurel's Heirloom tomatoes - she recommended doing that and it created a nice big root system.

[CanadianHomeChef]

One of my larger tomatoes.