Peggy:Thanks for sharing your indoor sowing pictures!! I have a number of things on the go also under my flourescents as well as my outdoor winter sown items. Just one question?...aren't you're tomato seedlings going to be quite large by planting out time..I don't have a great deal of room and I found that if I plant before the end of March that I could not contain the growth that the tomatoes put out?? but then again I guess you have that green house to fill up! Anyway everything you have started looks like it is coming along well. Keep up the good work. Ross.

I will grow up my tomato seedlings in whatever pot size they need - I have an abundance of south facing windows and east facing that is enough area to grow on these plants - otherwise I would have waiting on some seedlings until end Feb.

I'm glad you enjoyed the pictures.

Cheers,
Peggy

Nice little collection you got there my friend! Wish I had more windows facing south. That and more flat surfaces!

Rolande

Nice...
I have about three plant trays going myself. My early starts are leeks, goji berry, peppers, lavender, rosemary, alkenat, basil, anise, globe artichoke, and some bunches of grape tomatoes.

Your seedlings are coming along nicely. Can;t wait to get past the cold part of winter. Do you know when that will be?

Not soon enough for me for spring.

Chamomile got hit with dampening off. The soil I'm sanitizing with vinegar and hydrogen peroxide right now. I'm letting it dry out to damp - then I'm going to microwave the container and dirt.

I picked up another packet today and will resow and BE HOME to keep an eye on it.

Thanks for taking a moment to check my babies out!

peggy I noticed you've been using those fiber pots. I've always experienced mould and damping off when using these pots which is why I no longer use them. I prefer to use used plastic pots now and the occurence of mould was reduced significantly.

Ianna I actually HATE jiffy pots, pop-up with water grow plugs. The pots I have to put in a large yogurt container with water right up to the top of the rim to saturate the sides and then I water the plant. Their material is awful - yes it can mold, and as it dries it sucks the water away from the plant. I have the last few kicking around so I only use them with extreme caution and only for transplanting up plants. My indoor tomato starts will eventually reach a large yogurt container as it grows taller - I plant up the stem as more leaves grow on top, tomato stems will produce roots so by the time I transplant my tomatoes outside they'll have plenty of roots - more than purchased tomatoes.

I'm mainly I'm using planting trays and then transplanting those starts into deep containers like my water jugs, on their side, very top cut off with an exacto knife. I save any deep plastic containers and use them. If I know I'm going away for overnight or weekend, I saturate those jiffy things to make sure I don't have starved plants.

Great comment - I'm glad I could put my 2 cents in on those nasty jiffys.

Cheers,
Peggy

Yes. they try to sell off these weak fibre pots as a way to go but I started noticing these moulds.. awful awful molds. It's same thing though that i had experienced with homemade newspaper or cardboard rolls. I guess its not very PC to say so. One could say it is not a good green practise. but on the other hand we would need chemicals to combat mould. that isnt terribly PC either.

Interestingly though I have not had such problems with the pop up ones.

I am very familiar with the burying the tomato plants up to the top so yes I've done it many many times over. I also have started new plants from cuttings. Last year I found myself too successful with more tomatoes than i could possibly plant outdoors.

A little trick if you have access to sand.. Sprinkle sand on top of your germinating seeds. This helps discourage mold build up at the top of the soil. It also moderates water loss. It however is not effective if one is using any fiber type pots and mold is developing deep beneath the soil. I use this method as well when I do cuttings with any plants from boxwood to lavenders

Also, if you have a circulating fan, use it. This builds stronger stems. I came upon this trick from another grower and find that it is true. It also reduce mold incidents.