Garden Update

It has been only 10 days since I planted seeds in my starter kit and already today I am transplanting the Swiss Chard to larger pots. To my amazement, the seeds started sprouting after only a couple days in the "mini greenhouse." Now, 10 days later the seedling are large enough to transfer to individual pots.

As you can see in the photo above, the four pellets on the right have surpassed all others in growth. These are the Swiss Chard seedlings which I will remove from the starter tray for continued growth in individual pots.

Here we see that four seedlings have sprouted in this particular pellet. In order to ensure the best chance at success, only the strongest seedling will be moved to the pot, the others will be cut away and discarded. Seems a bit harsh but such is the way of survival of the fittest.

I took four small pots of various sizes from the greenhouse outside and washed them out and filled with potting soil. I am using the various sized pots as a sort of experiment to determine how much of a difference pot size makes in the growth of these seedlings.

One by one, I trimmed each of the four Swiss Chard pellets so that only the one healthiest seedling remained. I then carefully cut away the protecting netting from the pellet and placed it in the middle of the pot and then gently covered it with soil.

After removing the four Swiss Chard seedlings, I placed the lid back on the starter tray and covered the other pellets. 

As you can see, the seedlings in the other pellets are definitely sprouting but are nowhere near ready to be transferred and so will remain in the starter tray a bit longer. Meanwhile, the Spinach and Swiss Chard seeds I planted in the individual mini pots have also started sprouting.

 

 

 

Spinach 

Swiss Chard 

Starting My Garden

Unlike LA, where sun is plentiful, and seasons are all but non existent, starting a garden will be a bit trickier here in rainy Astoria. Fall is in full swing and the weather continues to get wetter and colder. Despite the weather obstacles, I am intent on getting started on my garden.  I figured I would start small and indoors so I went to my local hardware store and purchased a Jiffy Greenhouse seed starter kit. 

This is basically like a mini green house where you can start your seeds. The best part is that you can pretty much use this anywhere and don't need direct sunlight (which is lacking here in Astoria)

I have never used a starter kit before as I've always just sewn the seeds directly into pots and put them outside. That's something that will definitely not work with the rain, wind and chilly nights here in Astoria. I took the kit apart and read the instructions to get started, as it turns out, you don't even need soil. There are 24 small flat pellets in the tray each containing peat which will be used to cover and grow the seeds. First, the instructions call for 3.5 cups of water to be gradually added to the tray.

After I added the full amount of water I waited a few minutes as the pellets began to expand. As you can see in the picture below, the pellets pop out and create a small dome that is covered in a very thin netting that holds the peat together.

While I waited for the pellets to fully expand, I selected my seeds. With 24 pellets in the tray, I decided to use 6 types of seeds (4 pellets per type of seed). I chose Basil, Parsley, Thyme, Oregano, Lavender and Swiss Chard.

 Per the instructions, once all the water had been soaked up by the pellets I carefully pulled back the top of the netting and inserted 2-3 seeds in each pellet.

Once I inserted seeds into all 24 pellets I carefully fluffed each of the pellets and made sure that all the seeds were covered with peat.

The initial water I used will be all the seeds need at the moment, so no additional water or soil need to be added. The last thing to do is place the lid back on the tray and place the seeds in a warm place away from direct sunlight.

I addition to the seed try I thought it would be a good idea to sew some seeds the good old fashioned way and use mini pots and soil.

For these, I only used 4 types of seeds: Basil, Parsley, Swiss Chard and Spinach. In LA I tried growing Swiss Chard and Spinach on multiple occasions but it's simply too warm and the seedlings always withered and died as soon as we had consecutive days in the 80s. I'm hoping the cool weather here in Astoria will provide me with a different result.

I am obviously also starting these seeds indoors. Once they begin to sprout and harden, I plan on transferring them to bigger pots and placing them in the greenhouse.