I began my seed germination on 4/9/2012 and 4/11/2012. I tried several greenhouse kits, and found the self watering ones to be the best. Those germinated twice as fast...in spite of the other one having a heating mat. Below is an update of my seeds so far. I will share the greenhouses I'm using in an upcoming blog.
My first sprouts! Exciting but disappointing...I noticed some had white fuzz on them...after a small panic I was calmed by a quick google search, and found out it's a little bit of mold from too much moisture. So as recommended by someone, I gently scraped off the white fuzz and aired it out (which I had to do anyways because it was time for light now that they sprouted). And today they are doing just great ^_^ It's a self watering greenhouse, so I just made sure more air got through under the very light plastic sheet it comes with to cover it.
4/13/2012 - It took just 3 days for the Early Sprouting Purple Broccoli
to sprout up! And being a new gardener I had no idea how many seeds to
put in one cell, so I put 20 lol...most of them sprouted and I knew I
had to give them more space...so in their fragile youngness I
transplanted the strongest 11 into a blue plastic cup. They looked pretty sad
4/13/2012 - It took just 1 hour for the light to give them some life:) They started to look much better!
I used
the cheapest efficient grow lights I could find...grow lights from
Walmart. Around $11 each for a 75W fluorescent light fixture...works
great:) I now have 7 total, used in 2 grow areas.
4/13/2012 - The Chinese
Michihli Cabbage also sprouted at the same time as the
broccoli...looking just as sad when I transplanted them. Their length
showed me they needed light asap. I didn't know they'd pop up so
quickly!
4/13/2012 - But one hr of light also did them wonders:)
4/16/2012
4/16/2012 - Not too
sure which is which in these 2 pictures...but this is day 6 for the
little broccoli and cabbage that sprouted - Not too sure which is which in these 2 pictures, but this is day 6
for the little broccoli and cabbage that sprouted.
The Nero Di Toscana Cabbage also sprouted (as pictured on the left of the first photo). Others by this time also began to emerge like the tomatoes and zucchini (my favorite to watch grow!)
4/15/2012 - As the cabbage and broccoli were growing I decided they needed their own space to really develop, so I separated them, putting just one in some cups, and a few in others...after all I only need a few of each to survive! Will hopefully find homes for the remaining. The middle row are my tomatoes except for the 2nd from the bottom which is Zucchini.
4/15/2012 - This was my first green house set up. I had purchased the wire shelving during a Christmas sale and had it available to use, as it worked perfectly to have the light sit on top. I then set it on a Big box (that houses my germinating seeds that need dark) and smaller boxes onto of that to raise my seedlings as close to the light as possible (since the bulbs are only 75WATT grow lights).
4/19/2012 - By day 9 the cabbage and broccoli began to develop their true leaves.
