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Friday, April 16, 2010

Garden Starters




About 5 days after Bobby and I prepared the garden we started seeds in our starters. The starters are Grodan and they are pretty awesome. After picking what seeds we were going to plant we made a bucket of water with the juice of one lemon and placed the dry starters into the water. Once they sank to the bottom of the bucket they were ready for a seed to be planted in them. Bobby and I made about 45 starters and decided to save the rest (although weeks later I now think we should have just done them all there were a total of 90 starters).
Once we had placed the seeds into the starter we placed them into a zip lock bag. I wasn’t sure if this would work, but you zip all the way across except for an inch or so of opening for air to come in an out of the bag. I think the key to success is how open your bags are. I found the ones that we left with a smaller opening on top had more moisture in them from the water evaporating and collecting on the side of the bag. On some of them I left the opening wider on top and those seemed to have not so much condensation, this would become a useful fact once the seeds started to sprout.
About a week after we planted out seeds in the starter we have our first seedlings. The Broccoli was the first to appear. The funny thing is that I thought the broccoli was going to be one of the last things to sprout, but for us it was the first. I loved seeing the first ones pop out of the starter it was so exciting. Next came the mustard (which looks exactly like the broccoli). It has now been about 3 weeks since I planted all the seeds and there are now 6 out of 8 of our plants have sprouted. We are still waiting on the Peruvian Purple chiles and the Green beans. I am surprised that the green beans still havent sprouted. I thought for sure that they would be quick as well but I guess there is still lots to learn.
Here are some of the seedlings. I will be updating with more pictures of them in the next couple of days. They have grown so much since I took this picture!

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