Seed starting

Today I started my herbs.  I planted Genovese Basil-10, Thai basil-4, Fernleaf Dill-12, Parsley-12, St. John's-wort-12, Fennel-24, Chamomile-36, Thyme-5, Lavender-4, and Lemon Balm-4.  Last year I scattered the seeds on the seed tray and came up with WAY more than I needed.  I'm trying to keep it under control this year.  I planted them in the cell-tray and labelled each column A-X and each row 1-12. (pictured above, herb cell-tray; tray under lights)

Pat already started spinach, pak choi, lettuce, napa cabbage, red express cabbage, and kohlrabi.  He started them around 2/25/10.  By 2/2/10 we already started seeing germination and he took the trays off of the heating pads.  Spinach still had not all germinated yet, so we left them on the heating pads.  (in pic--kohlrabi & pak choi)

This year we have a big seed-starting cart.  It is on casters, so it is easily moved, and it has four shelves, each of which holds 4 trays.  Each tray holds 72 plugs or 288 small cells.  That is quite a lot of room!  Each row has 2 fluorescent light bulbs, and two of the rows have heating pads too.  We got germination so much quicker this year than last year.  Last year we had an ingenious but inconveninet system made up of foam-core boards routed out in zig-zag patterns, fitted with plastic tubing with warm water flowing from the hot-water heater, covered with asphault shingles and tin-foil!  All topped with shop-lights that were hung by chains of zip-ties.  It was pretty crazy!  It worked, but not exceedingly well.  Add to that the home-made pots (made out of newspaper and formed into pot shapes) and the home-made seed trays (made out of scrap lumber and sealed with trash bag liners).  This is a much more elegant system.  (pictured in our office)

Just for fun, this is a pic of our new puppy Duke.