And the Seed Starting Saga Continues

I decided to start new seeds. I figure now that I have the lighting worked out, I can start new ones that will not be nearly as leggy. I only lost a week in terms of time, so that should still be ok to get the tomatoes, peppers and eggplant down in the ground with enough time before potential frost to mature and set some fruit.

I also haven't see an improvement with the damping off, even though I took the water away from them and had a fan on them full time. If anything, it seems to be getting worse. So rather than wait any longer, I'm gonna give it another go and chalk that tray up to a learning experience.

I decided to use the Jiffy Organic (supposedly) sterile seed starting mix that I had left over from last season that I had used in a radish bin and it did awesomely. So I'll be trying the Jiffy mix this time rather than the peat pellets. The consensus when talking with other gardeners and researching online is that pure peat as a starter can be problematic for new seed starters (like me). So I'm gonna give this stuff a go and if it doesn't work, I'm of a mind to use my own mix. The stuff I used in the plot itself (the parts where I added the perlite) seems like it would be a good seed starting medium. Others recommend straight up vermiculite, which I still have from the bed mix leftovers. So I still have a few options if this new method fails.

I pulled out the other 36 pod tray from the Burpee system, cleaned it thoroughly and added the Jiffy mix into the pods. I then grabbed a dome from an old Jiffy eco-friendly seed starter tray I had laying around, cleaned it thoroughly, and placed the starter mix filled tray into that. I then added filtered water to the bottom tray and am just waiting for the soil mix to suck it up. I'm trying to figure out just how much water it takes to get these things moist and then I can work with that figure when I go to water after the seeds get planted later. I'll still be bottom watering, just not using the self watering system. So now I sit and wait until I can plant the seeds. Till next time....