Ready to transplant

It's been two weeks now since the first seeds were planted. Nearly all of them have sprouted (the neon eggplant are slowly coming up!), the first true leaves are coming out, and you can tell at a glance the difference between the peppers and the slightly fuzzier, duller-green eggplant. They are big enough to begin transplanting into larger cells. The hot peppers, which were planted later, are just beginning to sprout.

The plants are becoming high maintenance as they mature. Mom not only has to uncover the plants during the day so that they get light, but also lift them out of the heat chamber on sunny days so that they don't heat up too much and so that the roots don't grow out of the soil. Plus, they need to be watered frequently since the heat dries them out. It's a lot of work to start our own seeds, but being able to control the quality and choose the seed varieties makes it worth it for us.

--Katie

Little green things

The first seeds to come up were the eggplant, which sprouted last Wednesday. By today, over half of them have come up. Some varieties are slower than others; only 1 seed of our bright purple eggplant has come up so far. That's one I planted, so I hope it's just a slow growing seed!

On Friday mom planted two flats of hot peppers (Inferno) and 12 different pepper varieties for Jamie's (http://www.outstandingseed.com) trial.
--Katie

Snowy and cold, but still warm in the greenhouse.

Here's a picture of what the plants look like 1 week later.

Dad says: Tuesday I was wearing a T-shirt and today I need long underwear. March madness has nothing to do with basketball.

--Katie

First Seeds

Yesterday the sun warmed the greenhouse to 100 degrees or so. Katie and Becky planted 3,744 sweet peppers and eggplant seeds, each one in a thimble full of soil. Pepper varieties include green, red, yellow, orange, and purple bells, plus sweet banana, cubanelle, sweet stuffer, Italian fryers. Early next week we will plant Jamie's experimental varieties.

Becky covering the seeds with vermiculite

Spring is coming!

Even though there's still snow on the ground, it's time to start seeds. Last week mom and dad cleared out the greenhouse and bought the flats and potting soil they will need. By the end of this week we'll have turned the heat on and have some seeds in the germination chamber.
--Katie