Lessons in seed starting soil.

Because of generally decent price and constant availability,  i normally use Miracle Grow Seed starting mix.  After i used up most of the Miracle Grow i bought a bag of Pro Mix potting soil and continued seeding.  The Pro Mix seedlings look very different than the MG seedlings.

This is two seedlings of Ancient Sweet peppers growing in Pro Mix



And these are Snapper sweet peppers and Raveena eggplant growing in MG




Also,  my tomato seedlings have also  had a purple tinge to the underside of their leaves when grown in MG, though MG SS mix claims to have extra nitrogen in it.  I can't seem to get that color to show up well in pictures.



Now the eggplant and peppers in the peat pots...   it could have something to do with that and the fact that the Ancients are in a paper tray,  but its pretty drastic for that to make such a difference.

So,  even though the Pro Mix was not labeled for seed starting ( i forget the exact product,  but i'll remember the packaging for next year)  i'll be using it next year instead of the MG.  I sterilize it anyway when i wet the soil in a bucket.

No more Miracle Grow.

Finally planted some more!

I got all of the tomatoes planted, the schizandra, some borage, basil, the Ancient sweet peppers and nasturtiums.

Tomatoes:
Cherokee Purple
Martino's Roma
Matt's Wild Cherry
Mortgage Lifter
San Marzano Lampadina
and
San Marzano from Providence Acres

Nasturtium- Trailing mix
Borage- common
Basil- Genovese

Sweet Peppers- Ancient

and 26 Schizandra Chinensis seeds.

I didn't take pictures of the dirt filled pots,  but i do have pics of things i saw in the last few days:

Not sure if this is a mushroom or a lichen.


The colors were really that blue

And this is a picture of an oak leaf that melted straight into the ice:



I scraped a teeny bit of bark off one of my Carmine Jewel cherry plants and saw green!  Looks like this one made it ok so far


Moving some pieces of wood,  i noticed one with what looks like toe prints


Garden looks so awful at this time of year.  Its hard to believe that in a few months it will be green again

It finally feels like Spring is here

On Friday morning i was taking the dog out to do her business and i saw this:

Worm Castings


It doesn't look like much but if the worms are tossing up castings it means the ground is thawing out.

This is what was left of the snow in the yard on Friday:



Did i post that my Ancient Sweet Peppers came in?


My Hoya pubicalyx philippine black chimera is getting ready to bloom for the first time:



The rhubarb is waking up:



Saturday was beautiful and warm,  i had the windows open and i spent the day out in the sun just soaking it in.
Sunday was bright as well,  but the wind was chilly.  We got rain Sunday night and into Monday,  which melted almost all the rest of the snow in the yard.  The weather cleared up nicely later on Monday.  I took my 4 year old daughter out to play for a bit,  but she started misbehaving so we had to go back in.
Today is cloudy and chilly again and tomorrow is supposed to be quite cold,  but the rest of the week  is forecast to be around the 50's and sunny.  I'm actually seeing flurries out the window right now.

Three out of the 5 gojiberry seeds i planted for my mom have come up.  Aunt Molly's ground cherries have too.  The schizandra seeds are done with their 30 day stratification and need to be planted.   I haven't gotten any more seeds started lately,  i had planned to over the weekend but i spent Saturday enjoying the weather and spent Resurrection Sunday with family.  I need to get going on those peppers and get those tomatoes started!

Seedlings

I've got one parsley seedling finally up



one pair of Zsa Za peppers



Tea Hibiscus



Then the Raveena eggplant and Snapper peppers



Looks like none of the Brussels sprouts are coming up,  though the broccoli are already germinated.  I took the Brussels out of my garden plan because i just don't care.  I removed them so i could put the Minnesota Midget melons in their place.  I'll save the pots for cucumbers or something.

I'd like to get some tomatoes started today.  My Ancient sweet peppers were mailed out on Friday,  so i should see them in a couple more days.  I'll want to start them as soon as they come in the mail.  If they just happen to come today,  i'll definitely make time for tomatoes and them.

Seeds....just a couple more.

And i do mean just a couple...

My Zsa Zsa peppers have not come up,  but the others have.  Never did have luck with Zsa Zsa.  I think in three tries i got plants once. Even with a heat pad,  nothing is happening.  The other sweet peppers (Snapper) have been up for days now.  I found out about a sweet pepper called Ancient Sweet (possibly heirloom?  -depends on the info source) that  i'd like to try, so i ordered some.  They are supposed to be about 1.5 times sweeter than red bells.  So why not try them instead.  I imagine that even if they don't ripen all the way,  they will be quite sweet at the green stage as well.  If they are not hybrids,  i can save the seeds.  They weren't as cheap as i'm used to.

Also,  while going thoroughly over the Pinetree website,  i found a melon called Minnesota Midget. Its a tiny, sweet melon on 3 foot vines.  Its inspired me to try melons just one more time.  Its a 60 day melon,  so i may have a shot.

Hubby won't be too happy because i had to transfer a couple dollars to buy them,  i'm already well over my share of the paycheck this week. However,  it cost less than one take-out lunch...which i never have but he does. lol

Oh,  and i started some Goji seeds for my mom.  Four pots,  3-5 seeds each.  If seedlings fail and my plants survived their first winter,  my other option is cuttings.