New Seed Starting Setup!

After a lot more research and getting some advice from some very knowledgeable gardeners on GardenWeb.com in the Florida section, I have needed to make a few changes. It's only been about 12 hours since the changes were made but I think I am off to a great new start!

I was working with some 2ft under cabinet lighting before and it just did not provide me with enough lighted space. I was about to take over the garage shelves but my husband sure would not have liked that and we just use that space way too much. Plus the temps out there get ridiculous and I'm positive the exhaust fumes from the bikes would not be good for the little guys. So I fortunately waited for my Mom to get home and she made the suggestion of some unused space in the laundry room. She wedged some of our tray tables in there and off to home depot we went to find a true shop light. She also made comment that she's gonna need to start tallying and protecting her assets because I keep nabbing things for my garden project! I owe her some new tray tables... and a new pot if I'm totally honest.. shhhhhh

So now I have a 4ft light (almost the same money, too) and with two bulbs. The plants seem to be ecstatic over it. I also took some advice on how to water - going from the top, until you hear it draining below. So I used a heating return vent to elevate the plants over a catch tray. I did my first water this morning and it's amazing how little they actually needed before it ran through. So I am thinking I will do better with this batch.

I've heard about a bottom wicking technique using some yarn and am going to research this more for the next batch. We have a tendency to go on vacation so, I'll need to figure out a longer term method and that sounds like it might be the one. I asked my neighbor to water my little guys over Spring when we went away for the week and they were all soaked when I got back and had to be scrapped. On to the pics!

Not all my guys are growing at the same rate so I had to elevate a few of the trays more than others so that they all were pretty close to the light.



They seem to be really happy





However, I'm a bit concerned about these guys. I've got them quarantined under the original light and may cut one particular cell out from the pack.



This here is a seed from a hot pepper mix I bought from Tomato Growers Supply. Learned another lesson in seed buying - when you buy a "mix" you have no clue what seeds are what when you get it, or at least I don't. In this mix there was supposed to be Hungarian Wax, Jalapeno M, Large Red Cherry Hot, And Serrano Chili Hot peppers. So the photo shows one of those. When I went to plant, I tried to group the ones that looked alike and chose one from each of the five piles. But who knows if I got it right or not! Anywho - I'm thinking this guy is actually showing signs of fungus and it started to show right when it peaked its little self out of the soil! Soooo he's on quarantine and getting the fan. Sigh.





That's all for now. Looking into how to apply neem oil to my wild petunia... Temps may be too hot for it. And apparently I performed my Summer rain dance a little too well cause it feels like SW Florida up and moved to Seattle in the past month!