Monday, April 14, 2008

Seedling Update


Last summer I had bought some ornamental pepper plants and when they went to seed I figured they would be easy to start indoors this spring. Little did I know that every seed that I planted would sprout. This first picture are the plants from just one of the containers I planted and that is after I had transplanted about twenty seedlings a couple weeks before. Rather than throw them all out I thought that I would plant 3 or 4 in these 6 inch square pots.




These are the ones that didn't make the cut. I felt a little guilty about getting rid of these but there was no way I could keep them all. I already have more than I have room for in the garden.









This next picture I was trying to show the difference in the plant size between the two different pot I used. I was at the store and saw some peat pots and thought they would be a good thing to use. I'm not sure how many came in the bag but they didn't go far. Then I found in the closet some plastic cups we had left over from one of our parties. To make a long story short I ones in the plastic cups grew better than the ones in the peat pots. Why you may ask? Well my thoughts are that the peat pots dry out faster which causes the plant to grow slower. After I thought about this for a while I remembered as a kid I planted in peat pots and the plants never did well. The peat pots never broke down in the soil. I guess you live and learn.

This was little friend that I found crawling around an the plants and thought I would share it with you.

9 comments:

Wayne said...

I never understood peat pots either. I never had any luck with them breaking down.

Unknown said...

I am glad to see your plants growing. I was beginning to worry since we had not had an update for a while. Jane

Phillip Oliver said...

I was about to give up on you but I'm glad to see you are back. Your seedlings look great. I admire gardeners who have the patience to do this. I've never been able to!

Andrea's Garden said...

Great to hear from you, Cliff! Thanks for the lesson with peat pots. I used them last year and this and none of the plants turned out ok. Now -since it was warm enough- I put the seeds directly in the flowerbed. Greetings from Germany, Andrea

Yolanda Elizabet Heuzen said...

It's always hard to throw away some of the seedlings that you've nurtured for a while but you can't keep them all, so out they go.

I hope you are well and that you will be able to post some more in the future.

lisa said...

I made the same discovery with peat pots, but the "jiffy pots" with either peat or coir work pretty well (I still cut a slit in one side of the mesh when I pot them out, just to be sure.) You have a mighty fine seed startin' operation going there!

Randy said...

Cliff,
So glad to see you posting again and your flowers are wonderful! Keeps those pictures coming, buddy.
-Randy

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Cute little beetle..
Coccinellidae is a family of beetles, known as Ladybugs.
- They are natural enemies of many insects, especially aphids and other sap feeders. A single lady beetle may eat as many as 5,000 aphids in its lifetime.
-cheers.