Hope springs

Remember these? 

cherokee purple & abe lincoln tomato sprouts

 
Look at them now, one month later! 🙂 

cherokee purple & abe lincoln tomato seedlings

 

They did great in the blocks, although the blocks are small enough that it wouldn’t be good to miss a day’s misting – they dried quickly, plus I found out well after I’d sown the blocks, that I should have soaked the growing medium first, prior to even making the blocks, so they ended up starting somewhat dry. Live and learn. 

In any case, tonight if I’d had the bigger blocker (4″), I’d have just plunked’em into the next size block. But this should be ok too, and I set the existing small block into the very bottom of the pot, so part of the seedling would be buried (if there’s one thing I know about growing tomatoes, it’s “bury the plant”… the rest I’m still learning/winging as I go).

Never ceases to amaze

5 days in with my lettuce and tomato seeds. Every.single.time it’s magic. Planted on Sunday.

 Wednesday:

peeking lettuce

  

Thursday:

getting taller; no tomatoes yet

 
Saturday (today, after just under a week): 

on the right you can see the first Abe Lincoln tomato seedling

 

Spring itch

I’m really ready for spring. It’s been an odd winter, mild to start then strange fits of deep winter weather. The up and down is weird.

It isn’t quite yet spring though, so I made do:  I made soil blocks (remember the blocking mix post?), and planted seeds!

The blocking process was pretty simple – grab my mix, add some water and stir well. See if it clumps together when squeezed (hmm, that’s almost exactly like pie crust). If yes, make a pile deeper than the blocker, and push it in. I pushed several times just to be sure it was packed in well; then I ejected the blocks into a planting tray. 

ejecting blocks

When I filled the tray, I then put two seeds in per dimple – the blocker intentionally leaves dimples for you – so I could improve my odds of success. 

two seeds per dimple

 

So now I have lots of blocks for Pirat Butterhead lettuce (don’t even ask how that tastes because I can’t tell you, but I had to try it because of the unusual name!), and four each of the Cherokee Purple and Abe Lincoln tomatoes (I’ve never tried these either). 

pic with the seed packets, mostly so I remember which tomatoes are which

Now the tray is under a grow light. Wish me luck! 🙂