More plantin'

Today I got about 12 more tomatoes in the ground, did some weeding, and set down more tarp.  Not quite used all the tarp yet though .   I got 2 more tarp rolls and a big box of staples, and still need to get 1 down.   Only a few tomatoes died since last time. Sadly I hoed down a little one on a row end by mistake!!

Still got to plant 6 tomatoes and 2 pumpkins.

Finished transplanting to pots

Last night I finished transplanting remaining 2nd round seedlings into pots.  I ran out of new 4 in. pots but realized I had a lot left over from the first round - all the ones that "dropped off". But I was worried that those were contaminated with fungus.  So - I baked 'em!  in the oven at 190˚ F for ~25 minutes. Hopefully that will have zapped lingering fungus.  Then, I transplanted as the other day, with the seed starter mix wetted with Actinovate-fortified water.   Nice.    All the seedlings are looking nice and green and good sized so far.  Very different than the first go around.

In short, the first round of sowing had these problems: 1. Didn't use enough light (need closer and longer program on the timer, 15 hrs+).  2. Probably, was too wet and that started dropping off a little.  3.  Should have used Actinovate at the start.  4.  Transplanted into "potting soil" which is probably loaded with fungus.

Second sowing:  1.  Kept light closer and 15 hours on timer per day.  2.  Not too wet.  3.  Actinovate was used from the start.  4.   Transplanted into additional seed starter mix moistend with actinovate.   :)

Transplanting round 2: notes

It's May 21.   Tonight I transplanted about 10 of the round 2 seedlings into 4 inch pots plus some 5 in left over from last year.  I am simply using more of the M.G. seed starting mix as transplanting soil.  To prepare it , I put about 1/3 of a bag in a bowl and moistened it with a bit under a pint of water, in which I had mixed 1/4 tsp of Actinovate.   Plus, I pre- bleached my holding trays for the transplant pots.  I am trying to be really aggressive about controlling damping off.  

Since I really need to get everything in the garden next weekend (5/30/15) I will try to transplant everything this weekend so they have at least a week to harden off.

Community garden progress

On Sat. May 16 I planted another round of tomatoes to bring the garden total to about 29.  A couple from last weekend had died - little ones that probably had some unseen damping off when i planted them.   I replaced them with new ones.  Also, I planted 2 basil plants, 6 garlic cloves and about 40 onion sets.  We got rain today so the soil is in pretty good shape.

I will need more crampons and weed mat.   Maybe some straw mulch to cover up non-mat spots.   I gave up on cutting slits in the weed mat for the tomatoes - too much work, too many crampons, too much damage to the mats.  So I am now just putting the tomatoes between mats.  But I am keeping the mats closer together than last year.

I still don't have the whole garden covered but I have a couple of weeks before it will get to be a problem with weeds.

I really want to get the new tomatoes all in ground on weekend of May 30.

Germination round 2 progress

On 5/8/15 I planted 34 wells of seeds.  Some had 2 seeds per well but not all.  I kept the tray on heat pad; soil was moist but not too wet. Using Miracle gro Seed Starting Potting Mix.   This is totally different from regular "potting mix" which is half made of wood chips and twigs.  It is definitely decent for seed starting and is part sphagnum, very loose and fluffy.
5/11: 5/34 germinated so far..  I removed some of the condensation from inside the tray.
5/12:  15/34  germinated so far.   Removed consensation; turned on grow light, closely positioned.   ~15 hours/day.
5/13: 17/34 germinated .   Now the top layer of soil was getting dry for some wells so, I removed the lid, turned off heat pad and added a little water to the dry wells.
5/14: 19/34
5/15: 23/34
5/17: 28/34.  Many of these are pairs of sprouts since I planted 2 seeds in some wells.

5/21: 28/34; secondary leaves out on about half: looking pretty good !

Started planting in community garden today

I got about 20 tomato plants in the garden today;  CP, BC, 1 RT, HC, CG, 1GZ; etc.
I am trying to tarp the whole garden.  So I put down six (3x25') tarps.  I still have one 3x50' unused tarp left.  The plot size is 12 x 50'.

Re-sowing

Going to re-sow a bunch of seeds to replace the damping off problems.  I am using Miracle grow seed starting mix, in a tray that I sterilized by spraying w/bleach.   This time I will go easy on the water and give plenty of light very early on.

Will not use any "potting soil" or "potting mix" from Scotts ever again.

Damping off sucks

Yep, it does.  About 8 more collapsed today - including one FL I thought was "too big to fail".    Down to about 40-odd survivors.  Basically, I'm convinced that they have mostly stalled out due to the fact that the potting soil was totally lame-o.     At this rate I just hope that I have about 30 surviving plants.  For example, there's only 1 or 2 left of my IRxCP F1s.

And it may be too late to sow any more seeds.  But since many of the seedlings were small anyway, I figure what the hell, maybe I should just sow some directly in the garden this weekend.    The thing is that they'll need good watering so I have to remember to get down there and water them every couple of days.    Hmmph.  

Seedlings small...anxiety

It's May 5 and I'm concerned my seedlings will not survive transplanting to the garden next weekend.  Also I'm about 2 weeks behind last years schedule.  This is mainly due to just other stuff I've had to do, but there was not way the seedlings were ready either.  Most seedlings are still about 3 inches high with just a few secondary leaves.  Also the water may not be hooked up yet in the big garden.   I'll need to water everything well when I do plant of course, else it will be in vain...

Damping off ... attrition

So several more seedlings died today all due to damping off, the hallmark of which is a pinched appearance of the stem where it meets the root.   This apparently is the result of a combination of not enough light + too much water, then fungus.

Although I used a sterile planting mix for germination, there probably was some stalling as I only have one grow light and this might not have been enough for both trays of seedlings.  I might have had too much water but, I did not really get much damping off until I started hardening them this week.  What I did see was the stalled growth with some of them - I am betting it means this made them more susceptible to the damping off when I brought them outside.  Then the exposure triggered the damping off.

So I am down to ~60 seedlings from ~80, and I'll probably lose a few more.  But many of them are more robust - thicker stems, more secondary leaves which are bigger etc. and I bet they will thrive.

I transplanted them into Scotts "potting soil", not "potting mix". although I still don't think this is optimal. Still sort of bark-chip laden but workable.  Probably, not ideal for what I am doing.  I need to get a more proper 25 bag of better soil for this purpose next year.

I bought 4 mortage lifter plants by mail order and 2 Cherokee Purples at Home Depot just in case.

Survival log today: ~20 dead from damping off. OK means I think they will make it.
ML:  6 OK (2 , + 4 from mail order) ;  4 poor condition.
CG: 3 OK, 2 poor.
CP:  6 OK (4, + 2 from store); 5 poor or small.
OS: 2 are marginal and 2 are poor.
FL: 6 OK.
RT: 1 good, 2 poor.
BC: 2 OK.
SS; 6 all small.
KB: 2 poor/small.
GZ: 3 OK but not big.
HC: 6, all small but this may be normal for these.  Tiny seeds.
IR: 2 OK; 3 poor/small
IRxCP: 4 OK.  

Total in OK shape:   ~39.

I also had about 8-10 basil seedlings and about 3 of those have died from damping off just like the tomatoes.  Hm.

Three tomato seedlings that suffered from damping off

Struggling seedlings

Well, it's May 1 and I wish my seedlings were growing more...Many of them stalled out when they were about 2 inches high and just putting out secondary leaves.   There was a lot of (I think) premature yellowing on some of the cotlyedons.  What I've read suggests too much water - although I didn't get much wet wilt at all, so it was a subtle thing this time around.  I was trying to keep em' moist but not soggy.

Flamme mostly doing good.  Some CPs, some BCs, and my IRxCPs doing best.   SS, KB, MLs not as much - kind of stalled.

Around 4/28 I started all-day hardening , bringing them in at night since temps are dropping to 50s at night but days are sunnier and less stormy.

Garden was plowed a few days ago.