Starting seeds for spring for gardening or perennials

[stevelau1911]

Garlic chives will actually outgrow your lawn. I had a few clumps of them growing around my stream so I went ahead to divide them into a few hundred divsions to line the entire stream. This was only 2-3 weeks ago, but some of the single bulbs I planted out have already multiplied into 2-4 plants. Each bulb will multiply into a 2-3 inch clump on average within a season regardless of conditions however they don't multiply fast unless the clumps are moved around.

I plant them and don't give them any care at all because they still thrive in pure clay soil competing with the weeds and grass.

[stevelau1911]

I've tried the cheaper LED panels and not been impressed.

Foxd, I'm going to guess that you got something like this eh? This actually happens to be the higher end model of the cheap led panels.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-x-RED-BLUE-24 ... 4ac29fab76

Those little thin panels without fans or ballasts appear to be almost completely useless for growing seedlings and keeping them from stretching out as they typically produce no more than 2000 lumens of light along with the 24 watts of power it consumes. Maybe having them on 24/7 basically with the panels touching the seedlings might keep them healthy, but through trial and error, it seems like a couple thousand lumens is simply too weak. I did try a 90 watt ufo light a few years ago which was too weak for what I needed.

I think to give a fair assessment of them, something like this which uses 400 watts might be more appropiate however it still only has 16000 lumens of light which is only 44% of the brightness produced by my cheap 400 watt metal halide. I've seen some youtube videos where they claim that leds can have some better results, but I really don't think it's worth it to pay $200+ for a vegetable seedling light.
http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/70403 ... y.html?s=p

[stevelau1911]

I put all my seedlings out in full sun to see how they would do, and it looks like there's no shock at all showing that the 400 watt metal halide at a distance of 8-20 inches from the bulb appears to be close if not as powerful as the full sun at this time of the year.

The luffas are at 2-4 true leaves now.




I know zucchini only takes about a month to get harvests, but I wanted to try them out as well to see how they do when they are started this early.



They got put back indoors for at least 1 more night. It's supposed to get down to 44F tonight which might not be that good on these seedlings since they haven't become that hardened off yet to the temperature swings of outdoor conditions. It's good to know that they can handle the full sun now. These seedlings also only have about 2 more weeks in these little pots before they get root-bound at their current growth rate so I'll be planting them in the ground soon.

[stevelau1911]

I didn't take pictures today, but after a few days of 70s, my tallest luffa seedling is passing 8 inches in height as all of them seem to be starting to vine, and throw out tendrils. If they are already at this point, I am expecting that they will be well onto the trellis by June, and maybe even get close to producing fruits.

I'm currently trying to heat up the soil by mixing in manure/ compost, and placing clear plastic over that on the areas I intend to plant them, but they aren't heating up fast enough for me as the soil temperature is still lagging well behind the air temperatures. This means that they may shut down their growth if I try to put them in the ground now.

Since I've ended up spending way too much time trying to aerate my gardens with regular hand shovels, I've considered getting something to really speed things up so aeration can be easy.


Has anyone ever tried using the aeration broad forks?
http://meadowcreature.com/broadforks/

[canadianplant]

I hope they do good steve, they seem to be growing fast!

I would use black bags, as this will absorb and hold heat longer then clear. its recommended to use black mulch in colder climates when growing cantelope, and id assume the same will work for your luffa.

Also, I dont "aerate" my gardens - my ground covers do a good job of that. So does using plants like radish as a filler plant. Pulling these indeed can help aerate your beds, so can leaving them to rot over winter. Many plant roots do an excellent job of aerating due to massive root systems. Strawberry plants can have 5 foot deep root mats, clover can have the same as well. Asperagus can have almost 15 foot deep roots in good soil! This is the main reason why i dont pull my dandelions. The super long tap roots are slowly "tilling" the soil for me. On top of that, I encourage soil life by using compost tea. Much less work then hoeing the beds!

[stevelau1911]

The tallest one is 9 inches now so it is accelerating with the warmer temperatures. I'll have to get them in the ground soon as I don't want roots to wrap around their pots too much which can inhibit growth when they are bigger. The soil under the clear plastic is now in the mid 60s, around 15F-20F warmer than the surrounding soil so the horse manure must be generating some heat. I turn it every few days and keep it moist like a compost pile, except I'm not adding too much other stuff because I don't want there to be hot spots in there.

I'll likely get the plants in the ground on Friday or Saturday. I planted my 2 zucchinis today, and up-potted the watermelon seedlings in drinking cups to 1 gallon pots as they were starting to get too big causing the pots to tip over easily with wind.


This article actually states that clear plastic heats the soil better than black plastic because it has a similar effect of a greenhouse where the sun's rays penetrate through the plastic and heat up the soil while the plastic itself can trap a lot of that heat in.
http://growingtaste.com/mulches.shtml

[canadianplant]

I may hold off on planting steve. there is a Huge dip in the jet stream heading here caused by a big low. It was 20C here yesterday, 8C today, tomorrow is a high of 0C, and 20cm of snow...... I think the dip is headed your way, and they have been having trouble getting a good handle on where its going...

[stevelau1911]

Wow, winter is not over for you eh.

It is past the last frost date here, and the soil temperature is getting up over 50F now so I'll watch the weather forecast for a few days, but if I see a minor cool down without any threat of a frost, I'm putting these guys in the ground.

Here's the soil temperature map now.

[stevelau1911]

I did go ahead and plant 6 out of the 8 luffa seedlings today as I noticed that there was a slow down in growth as the pots were no longer big enough to support them. When I planted them, I did notice roots wrapping around the side a bit, keeping the root balls together. I did add chicken manure, epsom salts, and myccorhizae in with the plantings that are amended with horse manure.

Here are some photos of the luffas before planting them. I know there may still be a chance of a frost despite being past our last frost date of April 30th, but if that happens, I will spray them with freeze pruf, and cover them with frost cloths.




This is how I solarize my soil.



The zucchinis were planted yesterday, but they seem to have made quite a bit of progress already in soil that is unsolarized.



I'm giving the watermelons 1 gallon pots to grow out a bit before planting them.



Strawberry plants just starting to make some true leaves. Hopefully they can get nice and big in another month.

[stevelau1911]

So far, I have had my luffas in the ground for 3 days, and even though there is not much height gain, they do look a lot healthier and stronger now than ever before. Here's the 6 that went in the ground.








This year, they are definitely ahead of what I had on June 9th of last year. Here's what they looked like, so by June 9th this year, these guys should be well up on the trellis already.



This year, the tallest one may be close to the development of these guys on June 30th. It's only about 4 inches shorter at this point on May 5th so I can expect harvests much sooner than last year given that the weather is favorable.


The zucchinis are doing great in the ground, and they should be producing in about 3 weeks.


The watermelon seedlings definitely appreciate the increased pot size.




Here were some luffa and watermelon seeds that were started at the same time I started the ones indoors in early April which took nearly an entire month to germinate so it looks like starting them indoors does get you much more progress than if you directly sowed them in the soil.

[stevelau1911]

After 5 more days in the ground, these angled luffa seedlings don't look much taller, but the leaves do appear to be getting bigger and tougher as they harden out completely to outdoor conditions. They kind of stopped growing altogether for a few days, but now that they are used to being in the soil they look like they can take off.

We do have a forecast for 34F on Sunday & Monday night so these guys will need some protection because I did quite a bit of work to get them an early start. They were grown 1ft away from the fence to avoid competing with the potato vines.














Here are a few potato vines. It was very cloudy and rainy all day so I couldn't really get the camera to focus in on them, but this is the average size of the vines now so they are getting bigger. The potatoes themselves are typically around 2 inches in diameter depending on how big they started out. They can get over a foot long, but I haven't done too much digging as I want them to get nice and big before havesting.

[JWH]

Steve what do you do with your luffas?
I've only seen them dried out and used as kitchen & bath scrubbers.

I should've started pumpkins & squash a couple weeks earlier than I did. This is what mine are looking like right now, going to plant them out tomorrow.

[stevelau1911]

They are used for stir fry or soups. I do have enough to make sponges, but these are the angled type which is more geared culinary purposes.

This strain of luffa can also produce fruits continually from August through November depending on how long the season lasts so with good conditions, the stems can exceed 1 inch in diameter, and 1 plant can produce hundreds of edible fruits. I think each individual plant has potential to cover 300-400 square feet with lots of vines.

The one problem I see with these plants is that they are very heavy feeders so they require so much fertilizer when they are fruiting, and almost continual watering as the roots will suck the entire garden dry with full sun.

I only grew 2 plants last year as the trellis was still kind of small, and they still produced over 400 fruits total regardless of being directly sowed outdoors and planted very late. Seeing the progression of last year's progress in my blog, they really accelerate in growth by around August.
http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/2 ... -from.html

[stevelau1911]

The frost last week of 32F really halted the growth on these luffas, but it has warmed back up recently so these guys are starting to turn a darker green, and the vines are starting to make progress. I think overall, the progress is about 1 month ahead of what was seen last year, but its growth and fruiting time still depends on the weather.

One reason why these were planted 1-2ft away from the trellis itself is that on a very windy day, the trellis could wobble a little bit which can damage the stem on the plants if they are planted right up against the fence.

[stevelau1911]

When it was warm earlier last week, the luffa vines grow a few inches however we ended up having frosts for the last 3 nights. Despite efforts to water them down and cover them up, they still ended up sustaining damage. I really hope last night was the last frost because if we get into the 90s later this week, these guys will be up on the trellis in another week.

Here they are with some frost damage. I'm glad it wasn't too bad. The clear plastic for solarization was removed right after these pictures were taken so it would be easier to water them.