Seed-Starting Reflections

Yesterday I moved all of the plants out of the guest bedroom, took down the lights and the table, and removed the plastic cover from the low tunnel outside. There are now about 30-40 little seedlings in the low tunnel bed and all over the sidewalk in my backyard. There are also a couple trays at the community garden, which I'll hopefully be able to plant today. (Actually, I hope it will rain so much that I'll be unable to go to the garden to plant, but I'm not holding my breath for that.) I thought it might be a good time to record some of my reflections on this year's seed-starting enterprise.

1. The tomatoes are in really, really rough shape. I don't know if they're diseased, but whatever is wrong doesn't seem to spread to eggplant or pepper seedlings, which makes me think (hope?) that it's cultural. Too much water, as the Territorial rep suggested? Too much florescent light, as a random internet discussion suggested? Too much time spent in small pots waiting for transplanting? (I think they grow faster in the guest bedroom than they did in the basement.) Aphids? (I have seen aphids on several plants, but it's difficult to know if they're the cause or effect.) I am beyond frustrated with growing tomato seedlings every year, only to scrap them at the last minute and stick in healthier-looking nursery starts. I'm going to plant at least some of them and see what happens. I may also plant a couple seeds directly out there and see how they do. Next year I'm going to start them later in the season, maybe mid-March.
2. I need to get some more nursery pots. Now is the time to start scavenging, I think.
3. I definitely prefer to start everything for the community garden at home in containers. Conditions out there are too dry and windy (at least this year) for seeds.
   
4. Herb seeds....so annoying.
   
5. I made my own seed-starting mix this year by mixing compost, bagged potting soil, and vermiculite. (About 2:2:1) Very economical compared to the bagged seed-starting soil, though it probably has less nitrogen in it.
6. I didn't like the liquid fish emulsion for seed-starting at all. It's very smelly, and can't be kept or mold develops. Since it has to all be used the day it's mixed, I tend not to mix it often enough, and some of the plants this year definitely wanted more fertilizer. I will continue using it until this bottle runs out (that will be a while) but then I'm done with it.
7. I think the timer may be broken.

Overall this was a good season. It was a little overwhelming doing so many seeds. This post could also have been titled something like, "It Finally Over!" (Though of course I still have a lot of planting to do, most of it in the next couple weeks.) A lot of the things I've started at the end have been one-time things, though - I started a lot of perennial flowers to plant near the back 40. More on that in a couple months!

Fertilizer Questions

As I mentioned in the last post, I routinely use synthetic fertilizers.  I'd like to stop using them outdoors because (A) I do honestly believe that organic fertilizers would be better for the soil, and (B) I find eutrophication frightening.  (A classmate of mine in middle school did a self-designed experiment where she killed several innocent guppies [fish] demonstrating the harmful effects of too much nitrogen and/or altered pH on...well...guppies in a really yucky fishtank.  It was very convincing.) 

I have used the occasional organic fertilizer, mostly what is available at the big box store: liquid seaweed emulsion for seedlings and bagged Miracle Gro organic fertilizer in the garden.  I've also tried mixing my own Complete Organic Fertilizer (COF, popularized by Steve Solomon) from organic ingredients available in local stores and nurseries.  However, a few problems keep my consistently going back to the synthetics:

1. Difficulty purchasing seed meal locally in large quantities
2. Animals (rats? opossums?) attacking my ingredient stores
3. Uncertainty about proper nutrient balancing
4. Uncertainty about application timing
5. Uncertainty about the ethical propriety of the most readily available ingredients

 The last three are the real kickers.  I could probably get a big bag of seed meal if I really wanted to, and I could store it in tougher containers on my back porch.  And I know that the whole idea of COF is that it is a "balanced fertilizer" that won't kill any of my vegetables, but I seem to feel this compulsion to tweak the balance just so for different plants, as long as I am mixing my own.  And as many sources will tell you, organic fertlizers don't make nutrients available to the plants as quickly.  Additionally, the time and rate at which they become available is variable depending on the ingredient.  For example, I typically use bone meal for phosphate, but I've read that phosphate from bone meal isn't actually available to the plants for several months, depending on the temperature of the soil.  And ultimately, none of these things actually belong in my garden's soil.  Kelp meal, this far inland?

And should I assume that the bagged organic fertilizers available at the big box stores don't suffer from any of these problems?  Of course not. 

Really, what I need is animal manure.  I am just fresh out of animal manure!

Happy Mother's Day

"Here mama, take this!"

R and I have been spending a couple evenings a week at the community garden plot, but we always make a lot more progress when N joins us, which he did tonight.  We brought several bags of Leafpro (the commercial name for the composted yardwaste from Montgomery County) and spread them on the beds that haven't been planted, along with fertilizer and sulfur (gypsum) and some vermiculite that I've had in my shed for a couple years now.

Potato sprouts

Meanwhile, I did get the tomatoes in the ground and planted corn last week, and I managed to take some pictures of the beds that are done.  The potatoes are up; not all of them came up, but that wasn't too surprising given how long it took me to get them planted.  There were a few rotten spots on them by the time the bed was staked out and dug, but the ones that have come up so far look really happy with their situation. 

One of two rows of tomatoes

I ended up buying tomatoes seedlings at a local nursery, 5 that are indeterminate (need staking), 3 that say they are determinate, and 2 that were mysteriously not labeled either way.  I'm going to try putting plastic over the soil as a mulch this year because of the lack of water supply out there and because it's supposed to help prevent mold spores from splashing off the soil onto the plant.  I'll let you know how it turns out!

I learned something interesting from Mario, the helpful individual with the gorgeous plot (it's gotten even more beautiful since the photos I posted some time ago).  There is a small creek that runs through the woods next to the garden plots, which I had assumed would dry up in the summer when there's much less rainfall, but he told me that it's spring-fed, and has never run dry in the three years he's been gardening there.  How exciting!  He says it's a little steep getting to the water, but it's still nice to know it's there in a pinch.  He is a very interesting guy; he has a large cold frame built next to the compost pile filled with plants waiting to be transplanted into his plot, and he mixes his own organic fertilizer.  (I tried asking him if he knows where to buy bulk cottonseed meal around here, but he says he hasn't been able to find it either, so he uses....birdseed!  What genius!  He mixes it in his blender to break up the seed and says if the birds eat a little bit he doesn't mind.)

Fertilizer Directions

This bottle of MG says I should mix 1/2 capful with 1 gallon of water. Presumably they picked this quantity of water because it's easy to measure - I just save an empty milk jug. But there is only one measuring line in the cup and it is for a full cap. I actually only wanted a half gallon (8 plants' worth) so I measured the weight of a full cap on my kitchen scale, poured three-quarters of it back in the bottle, then measured out eight cups of water. Would a couple more fill lines cost so much? I have to wonder if MG is kind of hoping people don't follow the directions.