Last post I discussed the transplanting or repotting of tomato seedlings. So here is an update on all those young tomato plants and their seed shelf neighbors.
The actual repotting of the tomato seedlings occurred on March 25th. I'm going to admit though, that since then, my tomatoes have been a source of anxiety... they are growing too fast!
Soon after transplanting them into new containers, it became painfully clear that they would out-grow the seed shelf set up I had. I reached the point where I couldn't raise the lights any higher... from prolonged contact with the lights the topmost leaves of the plants were becoming damaged (the lights are not that hot so it was probably from dessication). I was on the verge of panic for my tomato investment as I knew there was over a month still before they could even go in the ground.
This brings us to April 1st (no joke) when I frantically dismantled my seed shelf and modified it to be taller, hence allowing more room for the lights to be raised gradually for the growing plants. Except this was only a temporary relief.
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| Modified shelf with extra height. |
The tomato plants... they just kept growing! They wouldn't slow down. I was raising the chains on my lights a link a day just to keep the leaves from touching the fixtures. I've never had a problem like this before, this seed shelf is at least three years old and this is the first time I've had plants outgrow it like this. Did I plant my seeds too early or is something else going on?
By April 5th the tomatoes appeared to double in height!
And that brings us to, today, April 25. Below you can see the state of the seed shelf is desperate. It's like a jungle in my living room. The plants have gotten so tall, and unfortunately lanky, that they are a mess... falling all over each other. They are competing against each other for light in such a way that there was one tomato plant I had to separate from the tray just because it quickly became the 'runt' of the group and was being shaded from all the rest. I can't raise the lights any higher and there is still another week or two before they can go outside in the ground. Ahhhh!
I've been working on hardening them off... which is like a fancy gardening term for 'toughening up'. Slowly introducing the young plants to the harsh conditions of real life outside. In the comfy conditions indoors they didn't know REAL sunlight or REAL wind or REAL temperature changes. Too much too soon can cause real damage to the cells of the plants. Think of what happens when humans go outside in shorts and t-shirts for the first time after winter... uh... sunburn? Seedlings face similar problems, the sun can literally burn them. Hardening them off will help the plants deal with altering their chlorophyll production to handle the real deal sunshine and to thicken their stems against the wind.
How I harden off my plants, no matter what they are, starts with half an hour of exposure on the first day. The second day an hour of exposure. Increase the exposure of the plants by a half hour every day until you get to a total of about 4-6 hours and then you can up the time by the hour (4hrs to 5hrs to 6hrs to 7hrs etc). When your plants can spend a whole day outside they are ready to graduate to the garden ground (temperatures and planting times pending).
Today my tomatoes are up to about 4 hours. If I can get them fully hardened off, I can just leave them outside (bringing them in if there is a threat of damaging cold temperatures) until it is their time for going into the garden soil.
I have a tray of just basil that is going out with the tomatoes at the same times.
Today I started to harden off the peppers... peppers grow so darn slow. I planted the pepper seeds a good week before the tomatoes and you can see the clear difference in growth rates (peppers love heat, which is why I have been holding off on the hardening off as indoor temps are still a bit warmer than outdoors).
I also planted a six pack of eggplant. I don't have good luck with eggplant, but I decided to give it another go and see if things might turn out better this year.
Here are some pepper seedlings that my cats have taken interest in. Ugh. I guess I should plant another round of cat grass to distract them.
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