I separated the verbascum, stocks, and dusty miller seedlings into their own cells.
The stratified Echinacea and Rudbeckia seedlings germinated rapidly. Based on my starts in January, the Echinacea didn't need stratifying. It didn't hurt, either.
This old LED distorts the image color. The newer ones don't do that.
The potato starts came from Fedco. I bought early, mid season, and late varieties. Envol, Red Norland, Kennebeck, and Elba.
I thought the brown discoloration inside one was concerning, so I wrapped it up and threw it into the trash.
The others looked OK. Before cutting the others, I sterilized the knife by washing in hot water and soap, and then en with denatured alcohol. I also changed to a new cutting board.
There were some small, sprouting Kennebec potatoes in the garage. I planted the best looking ones 2 days ago.
Last year I planted too many potatoes. It was a challenge digging them, especially with the heat and wildfire smoke. I'm planting about half as many this year.
Here are most of the eggplant seedlings. Many of the old plastic pots are degrading, brittle, cracking and broken. I bought these new ones. I hope they will last longer. Thicker plastic. After use and hand wash, they go through a dishwasher cycle to sterilize. I haven't tried that yet for these new ones.
I started these seeds in January. They were slow at first because the sunroom wasn't warm enough. They should grow faster now.
The varieties were from old seed packets.
Black Beauty (heirloom)
Black Shine (Japanese hybrid)
Nagasaki (Japanese heirloom)
I started the tomato seeds about March 15, I think. I have been up-potting them into individual cells of the silicone 6-packs over the past 2 weeks. This is about 2/3 of the plants. The
The green packs were up-potted a week ago, the blue packs were up-potted yesterday. Growth has been much faster since repotting (green packs) compared to the ones I just did (blue). The delay is OK, it's still very early.
Some went into taller containers, if the stem had stretched taller. That was mostly the romas that were in the window instead of under LEDs.
As for varieties, Most are dwarf types or determinates.
From my saved seeds:
Dwarf Extreme Bush (heirloom) (red, small)
Livingston Dwarf Stone (heirloom) (red, medium)
Dwarf BrandyFred (open pollinated, dwarf tomato project) (brown/purple, very large fruit)
Dwarf Golden Champion (heirloom) (golden, large fruit)
Dward Tanunda Red. (open pollinated, dwarf tomato project) (red, very large fruit)
Dwarf Champion Improved. (heirloom) (pink, medium fruit)
Roma VF (heirloom) (sauce tomato)
Reisentraube. (heirloom, not dwarf but seems fairly compact) I thought the Reisentraube looked too vigorous, compared to last year. In case it was mis-labeled, I re-sowed those seeds last week.
From newly purchased seeds:
Sakura (Cherry hybrid, red)
Puck (open pollinated, very small plant)
Supremo (determinant, red sauce type hybrid)
Dwarf Moliagul Moon (open pollinated, dwarf tomato project) (light yellow)
Dwarf Eagle Smiley. (open pollinated, dwarf tomato project) (red, cherry)
Honeybee (hybrid, semideterminant, from an old seed pack) (yellow cherry)
Some of the overwintered pepper plants are looking very nice. Aphids continue to be an issue, I spray them off at least twicexdaily with water, containing 1/4 tsp miracle gro in 2 quarts of water. That knocks of the aphids, and seems to boost growth both health and rate. Thecheating mats are off now. The sunroom is warmer too.
Jalapeño. One blossom has opened, and there are lots of buds. I should probably remove the flower buds.
The Tabasco pepper plants are both growing great!
I use a water spray, containing 1/4 tsp miracle gro in 2 quarts of water, to dislodge aphids and provide more nutrition to the plants. That seems to help growth, and the leaves are darker green.
One Thai pepper plant died. The other is on the top sunroom shelf, close to the sky window, because it doesn't fit under the LEDs.
The Cayenne is struggling. The buds seem to grow, then stall. It's alive, so I continue to take care of it. It is also on the top shelf.
