Thursday, March 25, 2010

watching seeds germinate (true garden journal begins)

Turn on grow light when I wake up. water when I get home. keep stove stocked. turn off light at 8 or so. That's been my routine. I'm keeping the stove stocked (at a calm, warm, temperature with small brick-sized logs that have been lying around) to make sure the little seedlings germinate.

My lettuces broke soil yesterday, and the daisies are just starting to do it as well. Nothing else has germinated. I'm worried I kept the house too cold for the first few days - not really stoking up a fire. it was probably just under 60*, which I realize now was a mistake, but I was worried about my wood lasting - though I'm less worried now. I've been watering with water that's about 70* to keep the soil temperatures up. Germination temperatures for daisies are in the 60*s, so if they germinated, everything should be fine. There are more than 1 seed in each pot, so even if I get a 50* germination rate due to lowered temperatures, I should, in theory behind. Either way - it's too soon to worry. Nothing's been in soil for more than a week.

My landlord is going to water the seedlings for me, though I'm worried that it's going to be a cold weekend, so I'm going to try to send my tender nightshades to someone with heating for plant sitting, and put the other seedlings by the south window for the weekend for light and heat. Maybe I'll trade my extra seeds and pots to start them in for seedling-sitting.

I check everything in my Fedco catalogue for now - they have good master charts for germination (side bar also has seed starting charts for flowers and herbs).

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