Three weeks of intense planting of seeds into 288-cell plug trays, now in the early stages of potting up into 3-1/2″ trays. Garage and basement are filling up. Tally is at:
735 varieties of tomatoes – see list at: DT Tomatoes 2015
210 varieties of peppers – see list at: DT Peppers 2015
25 varieties of eggplant, tomatillos, ground cherries, etc.
7,600 = minimum number of seed planted so far.
Melons, squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, lettuce, beans, etc. still to be determined.
A few pics of work in progress follow.
Some seedlings on 4-10-2015. Note how the row of a dwarf variety stands out:
This variety is Bonsai (seeds obtained from Andrey Baranovski of Belarus) and here’s what the ripe fruits look like.
Seedlings in progress:
Somehow, the weather of March and April have switched this year. A massive windstorm blew in today, with sustained winds of 49 mph, and gusts as high as 92 mph recorded in the area. Dust storm leading to virtually zero visibility, semi-trucks blown over, accidents (including fatalities), wildfires, the temperature dropped from 76° down to 35° in less than three hours, it was raining mud (very bizarre…) and it’s snowing now:
Next morning: 4″ and still coming down hard:
Next day –
Storm produced 9″ of snow in this (West Valley) City, local ski resorts up to 42″! Snowiest April on record – all in one day. Average temperature for all of March was 49.7°. Through April 15th, average has been 49.5°. On rare occasion, procrastination can result in less negative outcomes…
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Update 4-19-2015
Heavy into potting up from 288-cell plug trays:
up to 3-1/2″ pots:
This batch is 63 trays (1,134 seedlings) in the recovery room under a 1,000-watt metal halide light. This is only about 15% of the 7,800+ total seedlings I’ve planted this season. Space, time, energy, $, and especially my marketing skills are all severely limited. Still have 18 of these plug trays to pot up and time is very short, but doing what I can and getting some good help!
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Update 4-21-2015
Just finished potting up plug tray number 14, so 12 left to go – all tomatoes. Recovery room was completely cleared out yesterday morning, but is now jam-packed again, this time with 70 trays (1,260 seedlings).
Here a few pictures of the process –
Following 3 weeks of intensive planting, here are a few of the thousands of seed packets, only 95% organized, though feels like utter chaos. Imagine what it’s like when a seed packet is badly misfiled! It will take a couple of days to reorganize and many weeks to update computer inventory.
Here are the 12 plug trays of tomato seedlings (3,400 +) left to pot up:
The main ingredient for potting mix:
Main amendment is Sustane 4-6-4; also Azomite, Redmond Sea Salt, black mineral residue, bone meal, wood ash and perlite.
Preparing pots and trays:
Blending customized potting mix in an old concrete mixer:
Potting mix in pots ready for soaking up water:
Rain water heated to 90° F with an aquarium heat, then a 1/2 dose of Alaska Fish Fertilizer and a tablespoon of Sea Magic dried seaweed.
Inventory must be done with care in advance of preparing labels and plant tags:
Last tray of pepper seedlings ready for potting up:
Tags and labels in preparation (someday I’ll have a thermal imaging printer so I can print right on plastic tags…):
Plug extractor, dibble and work station
First room full outside under shade cloth to prevent sun scald of leaves:
Seedling recovery room, round three:
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Update 4-29-2015
Finally getting around to “Fall cleanup” of the high tunnel last Thursday morning:
Thursday afternoon:
Thursday evening:
Monday – seedlings getting leggy,
and round 4 in recovery room:
Today, final surge to get tomato seedlings potted up – 58 trays with potting mix (see DT Starts page for list of ingredients) in 3-1/2″ pots, watered fish/sea/rainwater mixture, and in place ready to go:
Round 5 in recovery room:
All need to be taken upstairs and outside to make room for the final 58.
Then it’s on to cucumbers, melons and squash – and someday soon perhaps getting around to prepping my own garden plots??
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Finally, more than one week later than I had hoped, all 6,000 plus seedlings – from nearly 8,000 seeds planted and of nearly 1,000 total varieties – are potted up. Wow, this is NOT what is meant, in the jargon of economics, as “Economy of Scale”. Quite the opposite.
The last few seedlings:
Round #6 in recovery room for a another 2-3 days, depending upon weather:
Here’s the light source, a 1,000 Watt Metal Halide light:
From about 15″ or closer, intensity registers brighter than noon day sunlight on a light meter! Really not the best choice for growing plants. An array of 400 Watt bulbs, spaced about 4′ apart, would be better. For anyone who might be curious, here’s a summary from a bit of research I did into light vs. energy consumption:
Another way to compare light sources is to consider efficiency, that is, lumens of light output per watt of energy consumption. Here’s a brief overview:
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BULB TYPE LUMENS/WATT
Incandescent, 100 W 14
Compact fluorescent 54
T-12 fluorescent 60
LED 82
T-5 fluorescent 104
Metal halide 115
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Now on to the cucurbits…
Delectation of Tomatoes, etc. 