Once the roots of the plants under the lights began to show, it was time to transplant the seedlings to pots. It seemed like a simple enough process...
I had to decide whether to continue using a soilless medium or potting soil. This is my first time using soilless mixtures and with soilless mixes at some point you have to add some nutrients - this was a little intimidating to me. I chose to continue with coconut coir as there were apparently less issues mildew and mold. In my excitement I knocked over a tray of seedlings and lost 50 plants - good thing I had plenty of time to start them again! Unfortunately I also used too much plant food and burned most of the remaining plants too. Luckily most plants recovered when I thoroughly rinsed each and every single one of them very gingerly. I am very careful with feeding the plants now... even more than before. I have doubled the dilution to make sure that I dont over do it. I figure it is easier to give less and add more later than give too much and risk loosing the plant - or spend hours soaking and rinsing again.
IMPORTANT NOTE: do not transplant sunflowers, either sow directly or start in a large compostable pot to plant. The stem becomes weak and limp if you do. I was so sad to learn this the hard way. However the sunflowers did keep growing, albeit a little twisty and bloomed when they were very small.
Although it was exciting to have so many seeds start and watch them grow, they quickly became too large to fit under the lights. We had such nice weather early this year (end of March begining of April) that I started putting the plants outside to harden them off. (More info on hardening off: link 1 and 2.) Conveniently I found a heavy duty wooden framed box at the side of the road one day (and broke my car shoving it in the backseat). This box in conjunction with a glass window I found on freecycle, made a perfect mini green house for the plants. On warm sunny days I would pull away the extra plastic I used to line the box, in order to vent the mini green house. Eventually taking the glass completely off during the day. Over night and on cold days I kept the plastic wrapped around the glass to keep in as much warmth as could be solar generated. The fist few weeks and on very cold nights we would bring the box into the garage to protect the plants from cold damage.
At the begining of May I made a variety of cold frames (additional link) and mini greenhouses to get the plants into the ground.
Preparing the sun flower bed and lean to green house (using sliding glass doors I bought from the Restore)
Giving the sunflowers a jump start. I have since learned location is everything. These are on a fence line, convenient location, where they receive morning and noon sun... they are growing tall and doing well, however, compared to the sunflowers I have growing in full sun their stems are very thin (compared when both sets of plants were about 2 feet tall).
The materials were are all reclaimed: wood from art show stands and an old bunk bed, glass from Freecycle. After staring at the pieces for a little bit I came up with a simple lean-to style of greenhouse. Cold nights I covered the open area with a plastic sheeting (also reclaimed from a garden centre)
Black Cover: a cold frame which contains carrots. The carrots need a lot of warmth to germinate, to speed up the process I purchased a biodegradable, breathable cover. Great for decreasing the amount of weeds and increasing germination rates.
Window with the white tape: simple lean to design for pumpkins
White A-FRAME is reclaimed gazebo structure poles duct taped together. The glass just leans on the either side.
The peas did exceptionally well under these, however the ones that I did not have under the glass caught up in a couple of weeks. I guess I see if it made any difference in pea production in a few weeks.
These are the lettuce beds... however, with the advantage of writing this many weeks later I can tell you that the lettuce is suffering the same as the sunflowers did. Yes they are growing and we are harvesting -but it has been slow growth and minimal production. I have pots in the front of the house, which is south facing and receives full sun - this lettuce grew more in 2 weeks that the lettuce against the fences did in almost 2 months! (Just FYI)
I have made a serious effort to plant the same plants in various areas in my yards, in the ground and in pots to compare which plants do best where... I'll keep you posted....
