Sunday, March 28, 2010

Seed starting: What have I done?

Two weekends ago, the kids and I took on our seed-starting project. After all, that's what the books said to do - start around six weeks ahead of last frost date. Right now, I'm wondering, what have I done?

The peat pellets did well. Far too well. Within a few days we had some early sprouts:


The kids were thrilled, and each day had to check progress. And one week out, we had actual plants:Another week later, and I'm stumped. With temps still sometimes getting below freezing at night, we're not to the point of transitioning outside. But I'm drowning in sprouts - some of which have already outgrown their peat pellets and needed to find a new home.


The tray of seed starts is still on my table, and my already crowded countertops are overwhelmed with pots. And I have company coming in four days...Any brilliant ideas of what to do for housing these guys for the weekend?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

We've been saving our milk jugs for a few months. Hubby cut the tops off and used them for our seedlings. Once they outgrow those, we'll be ready to put them in the ground (I hope!) and recycle the milk jugs.

That's about as clever as I've gotten so far!

Robbie said...

Great idea! I'm just running out of counter space! Though we're starting to have some issues, as some little, excited hands are breaking them off accidentally.

Robbie said...

And we are back to square 1...I think I may have killed them off. They are looking mighty limp. Sigh...

Levinson Axelrod said...

Good luck on this project. It's a very good idea.

Maggie said...

Two other thoughts...
If you can use a grow light on your plants (a regular fluorescent shop lamp works great) they won't grow as tall and spindly so they will be a little easier to control.

It's getting to the point where you could plant them outside with a really basic cold frame, like a milk jug dome or a couple of window frames propped on straw bales (make sure to crack them open when it gets wicked hot like today).