#growing seedlings

[balkanradfem]

Alright so, and I promise this is funny, I have been dealing with severe deficiency in 'making plants grow successfully'. It's going worse than any year but I'm also having a lot of fun with it, because I'm no longer discouraged by baby plants dying, I'm already germinating the next batch and I know I'll be just fine.

This year's weather has been so nice, gardening wise! We didn't have a crazy hot February like the last few years, it's been very frosty in fact, so that the trees didn't flower too soon and I love that for us, that is the promise of fruit, and also making me feel a bit more at ease that the weather, for now, isn't hectic.

The middle of March was nice and sunny, and I felt encouraged to put my baby plants outside, just for an hour or so every day, so they would get used to direct sunlight. I also noticed some of my baby plants turning purple, and I thought, AHA! Nitrogen deficiency, I can fix this by fertilizing them, so I did, a bit too much maybe, because 3 days later half of my tomatoes, and a bunch of other plants sadly died. Some of the plants actually showed signs of getting burned by the sun, but only after the 3rd day they were outside! You're telling me sun was fine for 2 days but then the 3rd day it was just too bright and you had to expire??

Some of the plants that did well initially, also ended up outside when it was, a bit more windy than they could handle. And I wasn't even home, by the time I got home, the plants were already lying horizontally, unable to fight the violent weather.

And this is funny because I take all of these risks every single year and I never had this many of them pan out badly, and never had this amount of seedlings die, but truth be told I do plant too many tomatoes every single year and I should maybe tone it down, 70% of my meals are tomato based at this point (it's so easy to conserve), and I should focus more on some beans and pumpkins.

So anyway, since seedlings are not vibing, I finally gather my senses to go to the actual garden one day, because I'm thinking, there will be cabbage savoy there, and spinach probably grew a bit by now, maybe I can have some fresh spinach! Maybe swiss chard grew and I could eat that, maybe there's a carrot that germinated and would make me happy.

So I bike to the garden and as soon as I get there I realize that everything I was hoping to harvest just went to seed. Two weeks I've been too sick and dealing with medical issues, and I couldn't check on the garden, and 2 days of warm temperatures and everything said bYE and went to make seeds?? The rapid change took me completely by surprise, I didn't think things would go to seed while we still had frosts. I stubbornly picked the cabbage deciding to just eat the little flowerbuds and leaves anyway, the flowers didn't open yet so with a bit more prep time, it's all edible. My spinach went to seed as well, the traitor. It's March!!!

As discouraging as all of this sounds, this is incredible for learning, because now I know that every single thing on this list has a good chance of happening this time of year, and I'll be able to make better choices next time. In fact, if all of this didn't happen now, it would probably happen any year from now on and I wouldn't be ready or expecting it. Next time I'll get all those cabbages before the sun touches them. I'll try growing spinach in the fall when it won't go to seed as easy, and I'll think twice before taking 3-4 risks at once with baby seedlings.

The baby seedlings who survived all this are the victors who are strong and resilient and probably can't be killed by any of my bad choices. Even if I have slightly less plants, I'll have the most powerful plants. The last batch I've planted seems to be growing rapidly, because the weather is light and warm now, and I've planted some flowers I've never had before! I'll have tansy on my garden, for the first time ever.

[hanafubukki]

Thinking about falling in love with Malleus.

How it’s such a gradual love that you don’t see coming.

You met him one night.

You might have even thought him weird.

Became friends with him.

Got to know him as Tsunotaro first.

Then as Malleus Draconia.

But never the future king.

There’s tears and wounds as there always are in a relationship of any kind.

But as time pass, so do wounds heal.

And as time moves, so do feelings gradually change.

Until one day, you noticed your feelings had seamlessly changed.

It felt normal.

A given.

How could you not have fallen in love with him?

This fae that held your heart.

He can have it.

For you knew no one else would treasure it as much as he did.

I love you, Malleus Draconia.

[gardening-guy]

good morning! 🌞🌻🫶🌱

i repotted some of the lil seedlings that have been on my kitchen windowsill! they've begun needing bigger pots, and the rest who i have yet to repot will need the same soon enough.

i repotted two black cherry cherry tomato seedlings and a lemon drop hot pepper, and there should be more repotted soon! like that ground cherry plant...

[blondebrainpowered]

GIF by Hyper RPG

[rosielindy]

What an awesome idea! Get those melons up there where they belong 🍈🍈

I have a chain link fence, I’d like to do this with butternut squash. Hmmmm, it’s not too late…. 🤔

[wildrungarden]

4/20/24 ~ I found this tree hidden in my gardenia bush out front growing. Anyone know what kind it is? I pulled it up and planted it in a pot for now till I figure out what kind it is ☺️

[dearjewels22]

Brace yourself. It WILL get dark. It WILL be hard. It WILL feel like eternity. But don't give up. You WILL come out better, stronger, wiser.

[geothebio]

today in gardening: found a wild black raspberry bush behind our shed that i never even knew existed

[tj-crochets]

Hey y’all my brother is trying to grow some seedlings (this one is a sunflower) and these white dots showed up in the soil overnight? Do you know what they are, and should we do anything about them?

I know pretty much nothing about growing plants and I have no idea what to do lol

[elucubrare]

ok herb garden version uhhhh 5.0 let's gooooooo

i'm putting in gravel at the bottom for drainage and only doing things that should be good companion plants (rosemary, thyme, oregano, parsley) AND now i actually have decent sun exposure so it should hopefully work this time

[balkanradfem]

Thank you to everyone who added a comment or a reply, I love the info!

I've been trying to look more tips up, and one I find consistently is 'use old toilet paper rolls and old egg cartons to grow seedlings' and I'm about to go off on a tangent here but please don't do this!

Technically, you can, you can grow little seedlings in paper toilet rolls or egg cartons, but it is so incredibly difficult, and I know because I've tried it. The problem with paper containers is that they dry out so insanely fast, it's almost impossible to stay on top of it. You need to put the paper containers in the entire tray of water, and the paper will 1. absorb that water before the soil does, 2. dry off and have that water evaporate incredibly fast. Every single time I tried it, it was impossible to stay on top of it, I had to water it multiple times a day and my plants still dried out!

Plastic containers are much easier for this because they actively protect the water that's inside, it can only dry out from above where the soil is exposed to air, and it's much easier to stay on top of that! You need to water only every 2-3 days and you're good, unless your plants are in direct sunlight which dries them out faster.

Also, gardeners who planted their seedlings in 'biodegradable paper containers' and then just buried the entire container with the plant, expecting the paper to fall apart and for the seedling to be able too push its roots through, all found out that the container did not biodegrade in time, and the seedling was stuck inside for weeks before the roots could find a way out. With paper containers, little roots can also start pushing inside the cardboard and get stuck to it, so trying to wheedle a plant out can harm it, while with plastic, it's very easy to take the plant out.

So if you're a new gardener and you wanna grow some plants, please stay away from paper and cardboard containers, they make it so hard, I've had nearly every plant dry up in them, despite being obsessed with taking care of them. If you want natural plant containers, you can look into wood, metal, clay, and there's also grow-bags! You could use old tin cans for growing, those work great.

If you wanna see which plastic containers worked for me, you can find a detailed list here!

Lately I've been pleased whenever I find a way to make use of something that would otherwise get thrown away; for instance, I learned that you can use scrunched-up aluminium foil to scrub pans and pots, instead of that ball of wire you can buy!

The walnuts that you can't completely clean out of shells, are a great bird snack, who can get their beaks in there. Fruit that is starting to go bad/already has gone bad, is a great food for butterflies. Any food that's starting to get rotten can be a great addition to a compost pile and a snack for any worm. Citrus peels can be used to infuse vinegar to make nice-smelling cleaning solution. Or they can be made into sugared candy! Lemon slices that make a great winter decoration, can be used as a halloween decoration later when they turn black. Any small carboard box you have can be used for organizing, and if you have a big one, you can put a wooden board on it and create a little shelf to put plants on! An old cracked aquarium can be used as a little greenhouse, or an extra shelf on top of a surface. Old newspapers and old clothing can be cut into strips or tubes, and weaved into baskets. Old paper egg cartons can be soaked, blended and then turned into paper. Any plastic container can get a hole at the bottom and grow a plant in it.

Please tell me more things that you know how to reuse that would otherwise just be thrown away! I want more of this knowledge.

[semprvivum]

Spider plant seedlings 🌱

[gardening-guy]

aaaaaaaa one of my roommates who is also one of my closest friends let me spend an allocated amount of money on whatever i wanted for a late holiday gift and i am going to use it to convert one of my living room bookcases into an indoor seed-starting cabinet!!!

it's one of those kinda tall white bookcases that you can get from target. i try to avoid target as much as possible nowadays, but i bought this bookcase back when i was just starting in college, so i'm comfortable with using it instead of throwing it away as unnecessary waste.

i'm buying the following:

small humidifier

4 thin grow light panels

a bag of seed-starting mix (we're trying out espoma organic brand)

10 seed-starting trays with 12 cells each

a surge protector for the outlet that i'll be plugging the humidifier, grow light panels, and my current grow lights into

new spray bottles for misting plants & for neem-oil solution

my first actual bottle of neem oil (how i haven't bought this yet, i have no idea)

more plant labels

2 new bags of potting soil just for the rest of my houseplants

8 window box planters for a separate project (i'll be drilling them into either my backyard fence or onto the back deck railing)

additional ideas and advice are appreciated! i can post a picture of the bookcase that i'll be working with once i get home from my shift :)

[vulpzz-zrrda]

Hello other dad variant, I believe we haven't met before!

I'm other Collei!.....I think

@sumerus-little-sprout

Oh hello, ...other.. Collei! How nice to see you around ^^ How are things for you, sweetheart?

[kineticallyanywhere]

Tell us more about Doodler Normal Kinetic i beg of you

First thing to note: Doodler Boss Normal would not survive contact with Canon Normal

Cause the thing with this version of Normal, I think, is that the situation to create it is so specific; and in a way that I've never thought about before, for a narrative? I'm sure it exists somewhere, because what story framework doesn't already exist somewhere but like.

this version of Normal only happens in a world where all 4 anchors are broken with violence and not a single other person is questioning that decision by the end. (which I don't think is going to happen! for the record!) in this world, Normal presents himself as a last bastion of empathy, but where in any other story that would look like a shining knight with their Chosen One sword and shield and righteous strength, in this story it looks like a kid ready to turn into an eldritch monster because the eldritch monster is the only other creature he can find that makes any sense to him. a character who, written in words, is a paragon hero who's virtues refuse to crumble. but because of the Ao3 CSS skin of the world he's in, he gets all the style and flair and trappings of a villain.

(which, again, I don't have reason at the time of this writing to think that this situation would happen; that there isn't going to be at least one other person on Normal's side. It's all but impossible to predict any of these kids and I think they all have good hearts, even Scary. Link right now is an unsettled weather vane in a storm, Taylor for all his swagger doesn't seem on the side of brutality, and then like... Hermie???)

that said! In a world where sometimes you can't decide if you want to sit in your disappointment or scream at the top of your lungs, there's falling back on your new frienemy-of-the-family monster bro

(anyone with a writing bug and time, feel free to use any, all, or none of these ^^)

for thoughts on where this AU would end up, anyone can obviously take it anywhere but I know the version I would make would have a happy ending (I am allergic to writing tragedies, sue me). I guess it would be a story where finally snapping and letting out some Oak Anger and not apologizing (because while it's not okay to be cruel it is okay to be angry) is what gets characters to come to terms with each other and better understand each other and meet each other in the middle and even come to terms with themselves and what version of expressing themselves makes them happy and comfortable and best able to love themselves and the people around them.

all of that admittedly wrapped in a gift box with the catharsis of a character saying "I'm not okay with how you're treating me" in a very badass fashion, as we all wish to do one day.

also for those of us who would die for Scary but also want to take her by the shoulders and shake vigorously there's the Rule of 3s for swiping the Goth Crown from Scary a THIRD TIME

all of her put-on apathy and tiredness and lashing out but from a genuine place, simultaneously forcing her in front of a mirror and asking her to reach back for the part of herself that started the day of the debate "bright eye-ed and bushy tailed" so that she could even stand a chance at getting through to Normal??? The ways to talk about Scary skyrocket even higher. to be clear, I don't want this as a form of stealing Scary's narrative, I want it as a way of taking Scary's narrative and hitting the NOS. give her just about everything she wants, for everyone to agree with her and listen to her and think she's right and enforce the belief that she has any power over what's going on and then see if she even likes it. See if she likes herself and see how far she's willing to take the identity of goth punk seeker of darkness. ask her where the line is. show her the road she she's taking and ask her where the line is. canon parallels and connections between normal and scary are a whole other post I can have and will drive to work in the morning writing the meta in my head, the way Normal is a previous version of Scary cranked up to 11 and the way Scary makes herself into a person that Normal has every right to be but isn't becausehe'shumanandflawedbutsogoodatheartandnevergivesuponothersnotevenherandAUGH

[amelia-rate]

January 19, 2025

I'm still bringing them in on the coldest nights but the cool-weather seedlings have mostly graduated to full time outside. Once they have their second set of true leaves I'm planting them out in the garden. *Sniffle* they grow up so fast.