March 31, 2012 journal

As luck would have it, and as I suspected it would, the cold weather has returned. The crab apple bonsai has a few open clusters of blossoms; so with no bees to pollinate them I turned the task over to my assistant, who really enjoyed it.

At the beginning of each gardening season, you can expect a lot of posts on gardening forums where beginners are asking for help with starting seeds. Some of the responses amaze me, as there seems to be as many seed starting methods as there are gardeners. Then again, I would venture to guess that many gardeners would find my seed starting procedure rather bizarre.

Seed starting was also my Nemesis when I first began indoor gardening; following the advice of local hydroponic dealers, I began by using rockwool cubes. In addition to the pre-conditioning to adjust the pH, I discovered a lot of other drawbacks to using rockwool. I felt that it retained too much water, and, that the seedlings have a tendency to push themselves out of the cubes.

For the last several years I have used horticubes, and, the results have been much much better than when I used rockwool. Additionally, the cost of horticubes, locally, is about 30% less than rockwool, and the horticubes do not require pre-conditioning. That, to me, is a win win situation.

At this point in time I have several tomato plants, a few pepper plants, and two full trays of annual flowers already potted. To space the plantings out, I am still propagating seedlings for both the soil garden and greenhouse.

The center photo shows today's planting of cubes containing: lettuce, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes and eggplant. The seeds were germinated in coffee filters, moistened with dilute nutrient solution, and placed in the cubes using tweezers.

The bottom photo shows the completed planting with the cover in place. The red/blue 90 watt LED will be used to light the seedlings until a strong root system develops and they are potted.