Tomatoes need their space!

Here is a quick comparison of the growth of super sweet tomato seedlings when they transferred into individual pots versus not. These seedlings are about 1 month old. Can you see that the seedlings that have their own pots are larger and happy looking? Now that it is getting warmer and sunnier it probably a better environment for them to grow. They are, however, a lot smaller than the starter plants that I saw at the store the other day. The same difference in growth was observed for the peppers as well.

Busy busy Easter Sunday

Yesterday, I went to buy tarp to protect my carpet from any water spilling from the containers. I walked passed the starter plants and couldn't stop myself from picking up a couple...3 to be exact. I bought early girl 50, mammoth jalapeno, and ichiban japanese eggplant. I found the eggplant first and after that there was no stopping me. I also purchased marigold since I read that they are a good companion plant for tomatoes. The weather forecast for today was thunderstorm all day - they were wrong! It was hot hot hot! On the balcony it reached 90 degrees. I had plans to go to a movie...but I decided to change my schedule and take the opportunity to do some gardening and go the move later in the day.

I put my seedlings outside to enjoy direct sunlight. The seedlings in the newspaper pots are tomatoes and peppers. Then I have basil in the two brown containers. Marigold replanted into a white container. In the top left corner I sowed some leftover mesclun seeds into a recycled salad container. In the green pot I have rosemary that I repotted. My goal was to grow vegetables, and I wasn't interested in flowers but I'm loving the marigold and the color it brings to the sea of green leaves. I need to think about getting more flowers to beautify my balcony.

It turns out that there are LOTS of bugs on the balcony. I saw ladybugs and several bees. I know these are good insects...but I don't really likes bugs. Actually, I hate them.  I will have to change my attitude quickly and make friends with them since I will probably be out on the balcony quite a bit this year and they are essential to keep my garden happy. It is good to know that I will not be having problems with pollination! I'm glad I haven't seen any stink bugs in the city yet (knock on wood). Just a couple of miles out and they are really a HUGE problem.

Here are all the other plants I potted today. I think it was a little too hot for some of them (eggplant especially). The leaves started to get all wilty-looking. Well, it is 4pm, and it looks like that storm they predicted will be here soon so I better bring the plants inside. One day they will be able to withstand a thunderstorm, but I don't think today is the day.

Peas with homemade bamboo trellis

Early girl 50 tomato starter plant

Right: Mammoth Jalepeno; Left: ichiban japanese eggplant

Zucchini plants. Experiment to see the effect of container size

Amaryllis and veggie seedlings

My parents left me a bulb - I think it is an amaryllis. I've had it for 2 years and all it did was grow long leaves. This year, it has decided to bloom. And it is BEAUTIFUL! If you look closely, the petals are glittery and shiny.

  Now for the edibles. The zucchinis are doing really well, so I transplanted one into a bigger pot. I don't want to take up too many pots with zucchinis so I'm not sure what I will do with the leftover seedlings.

The tomato, peppers and basil aren't doing as well. They just aren't growing. It is getting a little warmer here, but probably still not warm enough. I thought maybe they were crowded in the newpaper pots so I thinned them out and for the stronger looking ones I repotted them in their own little newspaper pots. I also made a foiled line container so as to maximize the light from the window and my little desk lamp. Lets see how they do.

 I recently planted mesclun greens and sugar peas. The greens are sprouting like crazy and the sugar peas are starting to show its little head. I really want to get some arugula as well. This is on my weekend shopping list (as well as some starter plants...I still hope my seedlings will grow but just as a back up.)

Mesclun green seedlings

Sugar snap peas

The balcony

I moved here 2 years ago and I have not yet used the balcony. It is a good size (10x10), but I just haven't found ways to use it. I have thought about buying a grill, but I don't feel comfortable having anything flammable on a wooden balcony. It gets direct sunlight so it is ideal to grow vegetables I think. It might actually get too hot in the dead of summer. But we shall see.

 The first thing I plan to do before I start the veggie garden is to waterproof the whole balcony. We haven't had many sunny days so I have to wait for the weather to improve. While I wait for consecutive sunny days, I trimmed and re-potted the rosemary. I want it to grow vertically rather than horizontally. This is the first resident of the balcony garden.

Rosemary in new home

My seedlings are still very cute...I think though the growth should be faster. I suspect I need more light and maybe a heat mat. I'll put together a seed starting setup next year. But for now, I'm just going to continue to wait to see if these seedlings successfully grow up. I also planted lettuce and snap peas. I really want to go buy some arugula as well.

True leaf looking more true leaf-y, but these seedlings are really tiny...

True leaves and rosemary

I've been waiting for the true leaves, but I didn't really know what true leaves are. Just that you are supposed to transfer the seedlings and then start feeding them fertilizer. So I did a little search and found out that the first pair of leaves are actually a part of the seed (cotyledons) and provide nutrient for the plants without photosynthesizing. The true leaves eventually take over sustaining the plant through photosynthesis. I think this is correct, and this information sounds oddly familiar ie: high school horticulture class and college plant physiology. It is so strange, because I really didn't have any interest in plants when I was in school eons ago but now I would be interested in taking these classes again.

Now for a look-see at the seedlings. The zucchinis are doing really well. I left them outside for an hour today and cut 1 seedlings so now each pot has 2 seedlings. Eventually I will wittle them down to 1.

The tomato and pepper seedlings are still tiny. I really think they need a warmer environment...I'm just going just keep waiting...but if you squint, you can see the beginnings of true leaf formation. I'm not sure if I need to thin our the tomatoes seedlings. I feel like they are trying really hard to grow so I cannot chose which one to keep. The basil is also starting to show signs of new leaves.

peppers

Tomatoes

Basil

  I mentioned before that this gardening project is really ambitious for me. Other than being a beginner vegetable gardener, generally speaking I'm not very good with plants. I've managed to kill some plants that people have told me are resilient. Really I only have been able to keep pothos alive. More recently I have added zz plant, jade plant, and dwarf umbrella plant. I have some herbs growing in the kitchen such as these rosemary plant. My mom pointed out to me that they look ready to be repotted. So this is on my to do list.

Rosemary that needs some TLC

Grow little basil and tomatoes grow!

The basil seedlings were started the earliest 3/8 and it looks pretty much the same as the earlier photos. Maybe a little bit bigger, but no real growth. I replanted the pepper and tomotoes on 3/24. The seedlings are now coming out but unlike the zucchinis they aren't growing as fast. But I guess it has only been 2 weeks so I need to be patient. It has been really cold in Baltimore, and I'm worried my seedlings are too cold. I have a CFL light on it, but no heating pad. I'm going to just wait to see what happens.I'm patiently and anxiously waiting for the true leaves to come out. Let's hope it comes soon.

Super sweet 100

Homestead tomato

Pepper plant...do you see the seedling on the top left...?

 

 

It is a little heart! so cute:)

Transplanting zucchinis

We had a really warm day today, it was absolutely beautiful (though I was in the office all day). I wanted show how my tomato seedlings were doing, but the zucchinis are taking off and I felt I needed to tend to them first (my mom did all the work). The roots on these seedlings were amazing! They look like they are doing really well.Hopefully they will continue to be happy.

See the roots?

They ripped through the paper pot!

In their new home.

Starting seeds, take 2

I started the zucchinis on 3/19. They are doing quite well...and as of today (4/3) I am starting to see the "true" leaves coming out. I should really start thinking about transferring them to a bigger pot.

Looks like a green Donald Duck

You can see it peaking through

zucchinis gone wild!

Compared to all the other seedlings, these guys are really strong looking. I feel bad thinning any of them out...however, survival of the fittest. I must choose the strongest in each pot. Maybe I will wait a couple of days.

Seedlings and the first mistake(s)

   I got some seeds to start seedlings indoors. I went with the pictures on the little packages, but probably should have done some research to see which ones would be good for the weather in this region. The seeds I got were: (Ferry~Morse) peas, homestead tomato, (Burpee) genovese basil, sweet basil, sweet chinese giant peppers, supersweet 100 hybrid and zucchini.
     The first set of seeds were started on March 8th. I made little newpaper pots, got some seed starting soil. First lessen learned, you should mix water into the soil before adding to the pot because the seeds soil is real fluffy and repels water. Anyhow, I started the basil (Genovese), peppers and hybrid 100s. It was placed in a windowsill...and 10 days later this is what I saw:

Pepper seedlings

Basil..so cute

Basil, zoomed out

The basil looked OK, but the peppers look....alfalfa-y and all wrong. I did a little google search and it seems that I didn't have enough light. So I decided to scratch the peppers and start over again. Oh, and the tomatoes never came out - maybe too cold?