Journal May16, 2013

The tomatoes and cucumbers started for soil garden have been planted, and I hope that we don't have another cold spell.

Already this week we had frost warnings on Monday and a hard freeze warning on Tuesday.  I covered Ava's melon plants as best I could, but they look kind of stressed.  Just in case, I started six more seeds, in the event that they don't recover.

A few weeks ago I decided to make the plants in the grow chamber struggle a little bit.  I was thinking that they were really growing too fast, and the calcium uptake was suffering.  The photoperiod was reduced to 12 hours and I cut the nutrient strength in half.  The result was that the lettuce and beets are doing better than ever. 

Today I also noticed that the beet plants directly under the center of the light, where it is more intense, are producing large bulbs, while the shaded plants are not.  It works out OK, as my wife prefers the beets, while I prefer the tops.  That said though, it might be best to rotate the plants half way through the growing cycle to even out the lighting.