Monday, March 28, 2011

My Seedlings

3 to 4 weeks ago I started my tomato and pepper seedlings. The sunniest window in our house in the winter/spring is our schoolroom windows--so that's where the seedlings have been residing and growing happily.  I confess that some of them are a bit leggy--ok VERY leggy!!  But in a few days I'll be moving them to 3" peat pots and fertilizing them.  They'll bulk right up in no time. (If you look carefully you can see the children's window art--Crayola window colors--and our planet window clings.)

I planted most of the Jiffy pellets (cells) with 2 tomato seeds because my seeds were old.  There are 72 cells and at last count I have 103 tomato plants.  I can't bring myself to thin tomato seedlings but just divide them up and give away the excess.  :-)



I planted lots of heirloom varieties
  • Amish Paste
  • Ananas Noire
  • Aunt Ruby's German Green
  • Big Red
  • Black Sea Man
  • Chocolate Cherry
  • Chocolate Nyagous
  • Delicious
  • Jerry's German Giant
  • Kellog's Breakfast
  • Matt's Wild Cherry
  • Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge
  • Orange King
  • Pineapple
  • Purple Calabash
  • Super Italian Paste
  • Tsenj Prinz
  • White Beauty
  • Yellow Beefsteak (don't know the particular name)
  • Pineapple Tomatillo
  • Purple Tomatillo
  • Heirloom Mix of about 60 different varieties--just for fun
The tray on the left side is my peppers.  I planted 20 peat pots with sweet pepper and 20 with hot peppers.

The sweet varieties are...
  • California Wonder
  • Chocolate Beauty
  • Diamond
  • Golden California Wonder
  • Orange Bell
  • Purple Beauty
  • Yolo Wonder
The Golden California Wonder and Yolo Wonders didn't come up at all and only one of the California Wonders came up (though you can find the CA Wonders for sale just about anywhere).

The Hot Peppers are...
  • Ancho
  • Jalapeno
  • Long Red Cayenne
  • Red Cheese Pimento
  • Hot Pepper Mix (some are hybrids)
The Jiffy Pellet tray on the right is full of Munstead Lavender seedlings and Dwarf Pampas Grass that I plan to plant along a wooden fence at our new place where we are moving.

I have to get myself in gear and get my flower and herb seeds planted. I'll have to start new perinial herbs to plant at our new house. I'll post an update when those are up and growing. :-)

5 comments:

grammy said...

wow... you really have a good start there (o:
I heard about that snow over your way...crazy.
Glad you are doing well... pray that all will be good for you and yours on this journey.

Carol............. said...

Good Grief! Full speed ahead.....I'm totally envious...LOL

What a wonderful variety of goodies.

Can't wait to get my hands in the dirt.

is there life after 70? said...

Wow.. What a great variety of tomatoes you grow.. i assume you must do a lot of canning.. I've never mastered that.. what are your favorite producing tomatoes?? Thanks for looking at my Ireland pictures.. I'll be sure to use your favorites when i finally get my book together.. Pat

GrammyK said...

Pat,
We usually do a fair amount of canning but we eat a LOT of them fresh. When they are producing heavily we slice up a whole plateful for supper nearly every evening. And that's the ones that make it out of the garden!! ;-) The Matt's Wild Cherry plants are truly WILD!! It just can't be contained and there are so many tiny totally delicious tomatoes that I have to resort to threats of violence to make the kids pick it because it's so prolific!! And the Kellogg's Breakfast Tomatoes are my absolute favorite. They are huge and sweet and so firm yet creamy. It's like eating a tomato version of french silk pie!! But as far as actual high production I like Rutgers, though I haven't grown any in a few years. I like variety and for just general canning I love seeing lots of bright colors in my jars. I want to try to can my own spaghetti sauce this year and hope that my paste tomatoes do well.

I enjoyed all of your pictures! Good pictures make you want to join in the fun. :-)

grammy said...

What a lot of work you have done already (o:
I am sure you will have a great garden to show for it.