I’d like to reiterate that I’m growing seeds of different varieties of the same food, such as onions and peppers and tomatoes and cucumbers, to see which grows best here so it’s an experiment rather than growing enough food I could live on it. That comes later. It’s also an experiment to make sure I can grow food since I haven’t before I started in easy summer last year.
I’m finding different varieties of peppers, I have six kinds, are all difficult to grow in that their seeds are temperamental as to whether they want to grow or not. I have peppers up and not all seeds have sprouted, either, and won’t at this late stage, but they are still very small seedlings when seedlings of other plants have grown out of their original small paper cups.
I have five kinds of tomatoes and they are all 5-6 inches tall with good thick stalks for their size.
It’s important with a grow lamp for the lamp to be very close to the cups, at the top of the cups, when seeds are first planted in the little cups. As the seedlings grow, keep the lamp near the top of the plants. If you raise it too high, the stalks reach for it and then have thin, spindly stalks which is the mistake I made last year.
I have four kinds of onions and the Parade Bunching Type are 7 inches tall with the others being 5-6 inches tall. I had to thin all of them and put in larger pots and I only kept three or four of each. Again, this is an experiment as there aren’t enough onions there for me to consider those my total onion food.
I am counting on the Egyptian Walking Onions to be my major source of onions because they produce more on their own every year. I have done nothing for them during the winter, didn’t cover them, and they are in a wood planter on top of the dirt garden. I looked at them this morning, and they are still green but bent over. If they live up to their press, they will start growing in their cycle of reproducing in spring. Can’t eat any this year as their cycle will produce more onions walking in the planter and by next year, there will be enough to eat and still have enough going through the cycle to produce more.
Outside, carrots, turnips, strawberries, and the blackberry sticks are green and fine. I have some sweet potatoes in a 10 gallon grow bag and I need to dump that and get those potatoes out (if there are any in there as that was a first attempt). I’ll do that in a few days.
I'm gonna have 5 kids between the ages of 2 and 13 in the house for a few hours.
I've got to go find all the firearms and put them up.
/johnny
Are you going to re-use the dirt from the sweet potatoes?
/johnny