#pot seedlings

[caleod]

2-3-24

[oldfarmhouse]

🍃sustainable living

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[fancyshooting]

ocelot's first encounter with snake in 1964 had an impact so profound that it altered the entire course of his life. it shifted his focus away from the objectives of others and provided him with an object of intense personal fixation. it significantly affected his self-perception after years and years of conditioning and stifled consistency. that meeting was a complete turning point for ocelot and it happened at a place called rassvet - "dawn" in english. everything changed for him at a place named for new beginnings and realisations :)

[balkanradfem]

So, I decided I could start onion seeds early. I've never started onions from seeds, and my seeds are just the ones I've collected from an onion in my garden (if they grow for 2 years, they make a flower, and then the seeds are inside).

First I had to find some good containers, and this is where I got side tracked. I've been collecting plastic cups and food containers for years now, and I've just been putting them in the basement, not realizing how much I've got. So I grabbed all of the storage boxes and decided to see what I have. This is the sight that greeted me:

I became a little concerned, in anyone else's home this many containers would be considered garbage, but when I think more about it, it's a good thing for me to have them. I never bought any of these, I've gotten them from roommates, been given some as a gift, from people trying to get rid of them, some I've just found in the forests and creeks, some I've found in the trash and saved. While they're all with me, they're not in a landfill, and I'm dreaming of one day having a big garden that can feed lots of people, and at that point, it would be so great to never be out of little seedling pots.

I spent some decent time sorting these out in categories and stacking them to make them more manageable, these are the categories:

At this point I went to research how growing onion from seed works; I found out a lot! Firstly, they need to be planted very shallow, half of an inch. They should be started 8-10 weeks before planting outside, that also works out great, I can plant them out in March. They will germinate in one week, and sometimes their tops are stuck in the soil, and will stop them from growing; in that case it's best to cut the top off, than to pull it out. The plant is so fragile, you're likely to pull it all out. Cutting the top off will not hurt them, but make them grow more straight. I also found out that onions decide to bulb once they calculate that there's more than 10 hours of sun in the day, how cool! That's also why its important to start them early, and give them a good start before the days become long enough for them to go into bulb mode.

So last year when planting, I've been mixing some forest soil, old soil and sand into my planting mix, because that made the soil very light and airy, and I thought it would be good for the little plants. I've however noticed, that the plants were not doing great in that soil, even though they did succeed, it took them longer than usual. I've decided to just go with pure forest soil this time, no mixes or additions, that way it will have the max nutrients and I think it's what my plants are looking for.

These are the containers I've chosen; I've also put them in these big transparent cake containers, because when I close them up like that, water cannot evaporate out, and they're kept in high humidity, which will help the germination. After they start growing, I'll put them in normal trays.

I've decided to experiment a bit so for the left one, I put exactly one single seed in each space, but in the second one, I've peppered a lot of seeds, just to see what happens. I can always thin them out if a lot of them grow. Once on top of the soil, I've sprayed them with water gently, and then peppered some more soil on top so they're safely surrounded with soil.

And now we wait! Hopefully I'll have some onions next year :)

[micamicster]

It has to be said I do love sitting in my ugly little backyard drinking a beer in the afternoon easily worth all of the bullshit and nonsense this apartment has put me through so far 🥰

[wisegirlandseaweedbrainforever]

More enjoying of the nice weather, this time sans Toph (the neighbor is on their porch and apparently she doesn't like them? Normally shes very friendly)

[lilakennedy]

The past month or so has been a HILARIOUS trainwreck - My new job essentially went bankrupt after my FIRST day, I accidentally grew Datura on my balcony, I have an elusive MRI appointment that keeps getting pushed around, tried to get the limited Hozier vinyl but they only got a payment method I don't have, my friend nearly got snuck up on by a TORNADO cause we were busy playing Fortnite, and I STILL need to fix some of my ReShade presets -

[maggot-baggage]

I been gardenin

[b-blushes]

baby silver birch (?) buds, blueberry buds!

[dontwanderoff]

worked in the garden for a couple hours today and i KNOW im not gonna be able to move properly tomorrow

[cantankerouscatfish]

first (big official) batch of tomatoes and peppers are transplanted! we worked on preliminary orders for annual flats for the first week of May today! the florists were discussing mother's day! the spring rush is a clearly approaching dust cloud on the horizon!

[langernameohnebedeutung]

my grandmother has always loved gardening but at this point, it's becoming quite hard for her to do much work out in the garden or do much heavy-lifting - so I got her a little Bonsai kit for her birthday today so that she could a) garden inside and b) actually see her plants more often.

And I didn't have experience with the shop I got it from but when she opened it, we found that they included a little hand-written note and (on top of the promised content) several additional free packages of seeds and cups and even a phone number to call for all your bonsai-ing emergencies/questions and it's really nicely packaged with straw and everything. And she enjoyed it so much! I'm glad they put so much work into it!

[elephantbitterhead]

Once again, we arrive at the time of year when I regret having saddled myself with a bunch of seedlings & only the vaguest plans about where to put them.

[balkanradfem]

It's time to up-pot, move and save some little seedlings!

Most of my plants haven't grown big enough to out-grow their pots, but I've been noticing some problems caused by me, and caused by weather, so I figured I should fix it. I prepared a big bucket of soil, lots of cups and little pots, and it's a nice day out, so I get to do the messy work on my balcony.

This plant you see on the picture, is a dwarf tomato. They're a balcony variety, she won't ever be planted outside, and, she's just about to outgrow her pot. I don't want her roots to start circling this cup, so I'm moving her before she gets too big. I grew these for several years and the bigger container they have, the more tomatoes they produce. They give produce as early as late May, which I love about them. So! I'm up-potting her to this big plastic bucket:

This plastic cup is very pliable, so I'm taking the plant out by pushing with my finger on the bottom, and flipping it upside down, so the gravity helps me get the plant out. This plant is so small and vulnerable, it would be easy to cause damage if I were to pull on it, this way she is safe. As soon as she's out, I flip her around and place her in the bucket, already half-filled with soil. Then I just bury her roots in more soil, water her, and she's done!

So now I've taken this tomato out, I have a little cup, free for another plant! Next thing to tackle is this problem:

See this little plant container with 12 spaces? That thing is horrible, it was my first time using it, and I'm never gonna do it again. it's atrocious. Since the spaces with the soil are so small, it dries up insanely fast, and it's impossible to keep it watered. I found it completely dry several times, and some of the plants just died in it. The soil inside also gets super packed and plants have trouble pushing their roots in, look at this:

Even though it's such small amount of soil, the plant managed to overtake only half of it. SAD! But, it's going to be all good now, because I'm taking all of these plants out, and putting them in proper cups, where they'll be happy and healthy. You can see on the picture I'm putting these plants on the balcony floor, and the little tomato is now being bottom-watered. Bottom watering means you have a container with holes on the bottom, and you put it in a bigger container, full of water. That plastic food container is filled with water, and the soil and the roots are able to draw this water in, making the plant watered just the correct amount. I'll keep adding plants in there.

The next project is this kale that needs to be saved. What happened to it is this: I planted it early January, and then it was just, very cloudy, rainy and dark outside, for the entire week. This means the poor fella didn't manage to get enough sunlight to grow a good stem, and instead it grew leggy. Leggy plants are those end up arching too much and growing too long in order to get some sunlight, and as the result, the stem is weak, flimsy, breaks easily, and cannot hold the plant. That's exactly what this kale is doing:

See the first picture? Cannot hold the leaves up. I've seen several people save seedlings like that by planting them a little deeper, and having soil hold up the stem. I'm not sure if it will work with kale – it might, it might not, because stem isn't exactly supposed to be underground, it can grow sick. But it's worth trying out, I believe in you kale.

And now, for my own mistake ��� this container of tomatoes has been planted too shallow! I love shallow planting because it means the plants push their way out of the soil fast, but it can also mean that they can't gather enough purchase with their roots underground, and they end up falling over. This entire container fell over. Luckily, you can transplant a tomato as deep as you want. Tomatoes are special in this way; their stems will grow roots if in the contact with the soil. So If I plant them deeper, I will push them to create a better root system. This isn't applicable to other plants! Only tomato family does this. They're going to have a better time growing with only their leaves over the ground, like in the picture:

If you look at the second picture, you can see that I'm just compiling these plants on the floor, and I kept putting down new ones until I had about 20, at which point I have had to make another bucket of soil to keep going. I also ended up not having enough space in the kitchen for all of them, but I found a solution to it.

I have more light on the balcony currently, and some of these plants can withstand a freeze – kale, broccoli, cabbage. They'll be alright even if I leave them outside overnight. So I did a little moving around, and this is my current kitchen plant situation:

This picture is taken the next day, and all of the up-potted plants here have recovered from the ordeal, and are doing great :).

[thatsneakymedic]

// The convention was fun. Even if I could not find a Kabuto. As the pokemon itself is as elusive as the shinobi. But I did get these nice trinkets. Hopefully the anime convention next month would be much better.

[emmashouldbewriting]

Love Harry playing the game and briefing to the Telegraph that he was told his father was too busy

it's a miracle he still thinks the monarch will clear their diary for him after all the times he's been shown otherwise