Seedlings

It's tough to be unemployed and have grand garden plans. Early last week I ran out of potting soil, and with no extra money to buy more, my poor tomatoes have been languishing in their tiny Ice Cube Tray home. But yesterday I finally had some luck! A local couple contacted me about my pepper plants that are up for sale on Craigslist! They only purchased 6 (I tossed in two extra for them though!) but it was enough to free up more room under my grow lamp for the next round of seeds to be sown, and I now have purchasing power for soil! (And maybe a few cowpots for the pepper plants that desperately need a bigger pot!) I'm looking forward to this evening, when I get to transfer the rest of the tomatoes into their new paper pots. Yay!

While my tomatoes came up at an alarming rate, I fear they aren't as sturdy as the pepper plants. Then again, maybe time will tell and in two weeks I'll compare pictures and the tomatoes will be bushy and sturdy like the peppers! One can only hope!! (And cross their fingers that the snow melts and the greenhouse can finally go up!)

March 3, 2014 Pepper Plants recently put in Paper Pots

March 23, 2014 Pepper Plants and a few Tomatoes as well!

April 1, 2014 Pepper Plants and Tomatoes

This year has definitely been my most successful. I have been diligently bottom watering the plants, and have the fan blowing on them most of the day. I worry though that the fan cools the soil off too much, which would explain the slow growth of my hot pepper plants (they are still growing, but very slowly!!) so when I water them I turn the fan off for a few hours - hoping they will retain their heat for a while before I turn the fan back on again! Next year I hope to buy a heating pad for the pepper plants at least to keep their soil temperature up, and maybe save some on heating costs by not keeping the bedroom swampy!

Do you have tips or tricks to grow your seedlings? I'd love to hear them, I'm slowly gathering information to grow the best seedlings I can, and maybe in a decade or so I'll really be what my first customers called me yesterday - the Pepper Lady!