I Started My Seeds!

I finally did it. I started my seeds. They're in a flat on a bookcase in my home office. That wire that you can see poking out on the left side is from the seedling heat mat, which is basically like a heating pad for plants. It's makes the root systems stronger - so they say.

That's a south facing window. Later in the morning the plants-to-be have full sun. I still don't have a grow light. During these early stages the unsprouted seeds don't need light anyway -just warmth and moisture. When the sprouts pop up I may just try to move my flat around the house all day, chasing the sun. Or maybe I *will* go to Home Depot and try to make my own grow light.  The fact that there aren't like, a plethora of pre-made grow lights for sale at every hardware store and building supply shop makes me think that maybe a grow light isn't really a necessity? Maybe window light (and love) is all you really need?

This is what I planted:

I have 50 peat pot cells. I filled strips like this with seed starter mix. They fit perfectly in the flat I got at Ace Hardware.

I planted 10 Aunt Molly's Tomatillos (just one plant purchased at a nursery two years ago yielded over 100 fruit that summer - so I figure if one of the ten survives I'm good to go), 30 Miltomate Ground Cherries (I know I can't find the plants locally, so seed starting is my only hope! Go little ground cherries; go!), 5 Brandywine tomatoes, and 5 Yum Yum Gold peppers. I usually buy tomato and pepper seedlings, but I figured I had the seed starting real estate, so I might as well give a few a try.

The ground cherries take 90 days to mature - so if all goes well I'll have yummy little fruit by the end of June, just about the time the kids are getting out of school (we've had a LOT of snow days this year!).

Ground Cherry Pie. Mmmmmm.

For kicks, and for future reference, here's what my garden looks like today:

Still pretty wintry out there. C'mon spring!

Seed Starting - Tomatillos and Ground Cherries

Back on March 7th I was super excited, because I ordered a bunch of seeds from the Territorial Seed Company for starting indoors (btw, Territorial Seed is my favorite seed catalog, even though they're in the Pacific Northwest and I'm in Massachusetts. Hands down the most user friendly catalog I've encountered, and their seed varieties seem to do well here. Similar enough climate I guess?). That same day I also ordered this very awesome grow-light set up from Park Seed:

Park Seed's website listed it as "ready to ship", but apparently that was a lie, because here we are on March 25th, and it's still back ordered. Grrrr. So I today I canceled the order. I need to start my seeds, STAT.  So I ran to my local hardware store and got some seed starting mix and a tray. I already own a seedling heat mat, and have lots of little peat pots for filling with the seed starter. I'm not sure *what* I'm going to do about a grow light.  I started seeds indoors for the first time two years ago without a  light. I just kept the tray in the sunshine in the window. Most of the tomatoes and peppers didn't fare too well, but I did end up with some thriving grape tomatoes.

I could make my *own* grow light. There are lots of easy instructions out there online. This the best tutorial I've come across. I'm mostly befuddled by how to *hang* the darn thing. I'd like to keep the seedlings on top of a bookshelf in my home office. I'm thinking I might be able to copy the grow light stand in the above pic using materials from Home Depot? I may just give it a try. You lucky readers will get to hear all about it!

I usually just buy seedlings from local nurseries, but this year I want to grow tomatillos and ground cherries - which are hard (and in the case of ground cherries impossible?) to find around here. I happened across a tomatillo seedling two years ago at the nursery down the street. I bought it on a whim, and it took off like gangbusters! By the end of the summer that one plant had produced at least 100 tomatillos. We put them in casseroles and made salsa verde. I think what I loved most was that the leaves smelled like spicy queso sauce. Yum.

I checked high and low for another tomatillo plant last year and came up empty, dang it. I can't take that chance this year. I *must* have my tomatillos. So seeds it is. Territorial Seed has ground cherries on the same catalog page as their tomatillo seeds. They looked crazy intriguing, so I'm now obsessed with trying to grow them too. They look a lot like tomatillos, but they're smaller and rosier, and instead of zesty they're sweet like real cherries. They're supposed to be good in desserts or for canning. I'm tempted to plant an entire bed full of the suckers.

 

Tomatillos

Ground Cherries

Tomorrow begins my seed starting adventure (lightless for now). Wish me luck!

Placeholder. Peas-N-Taters is mine! Lots of gardening goodness to come!