First Seed Starting February 27, 2018

I started the first round of seeds this morning because I had help coming who could do the standing parts. (I can’t stand for very long, Lyme thing…) I try to start as close to dates as I can (March 1, March 15, etc.) because I need things ready to move to new places in time to put new startings in the windows. I have very limited real estate for seed starting in the house.

Yesterday I started pulling out all the equipment and bringing it upstairs and setting it up. In the kitchen there was the frame for the big light, and 3 shelves in the South window. Nothing was going into the East window this time so I left that one alone. In the living room, I set up 4 of the 7 benches, 2 by the woodstove and 2 by the front door.

I’d discovered if I didn’t level the benches, the trays would leak when watered. So I spent last night with a level and shims. This morning I finished moving everything out of the kitchen and putting the extra shelving away until needed.

March 1, 2018

Sunday I spent all day creating the Starting Charts for each starting. Total seedlings to start this year is 1614. I am starting a lot of herbs this year and many need stratified. So I have to make room in the fridge in the barn for those trays.

I pulled the Starting Info sheet for each plant and started making markers and notes.

I put the markers with the seed packets and line them up on the counter.

Then we start filling pots, soaking them with warm water and putting the seeds and markers in.

We had 12 trays and a 9” x 9” tin to do. The tin was for vernalizing the Columbine in the fridge.

We started at 8AM and were done and cleaned up by noon.

The south window has 8 trays: Kale: Vates and Lacinato 5 trays; Onions: Cortland (a storage onion) nearly 3 trays; and 6 pots of Verbascum to fill the partial tray.

The bench next to the wood stove has 3 trays: Beets, 1 tray; mesclun ½ tray and Heliotrope 6 pots. The 3rd tray was to have mostly pansies, but someone put all the seed in the first tray, forgetting there was another to do… So it has a new house plant, Pink Polka Dot plant, 6 pots starting here by the stove. When the pansy seedlings come up, I will transplant them into the waiting pots.

This lone tray in front of the living room door has the pansy seeds. They prefer dark to germinate, so the dome is covered with foil.

When I was making the plant markers I discovered one of my seed orders, placed January 5th, had not come in. It had agrimony and Sweet Cecily that I needed to stratify today. No idea what happened to it…

That’s done! In 3 – 5 days I will need to start getting lights up as the mesclun is sure to be up followed shortly by the beets. Then the kale and a while later the onions. Just about that time, I will be getting ready for the next starting around March 15th.

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