MEANWHILE, DOWN IN THE BASEMENT

I am running out of lights and tables too. As mentioned before, I put the seedlings under regular shop lights set on tables. I use a couple of bricks at each end to hold up the light. The plants are very close to the florescent tubes but as they grow, I gradually raise the lights, first by turning one brick on its side and then turning both bricks.

Each shop light fixture contains one cool florescent tube and one gro-light tube.

Right now I have the following under lights. Vegetables: cucumber, squash, zucchini. Herbs: basil, dill, marjoram, rosemary, oregano, cilantro and parsley. Flowering annuals: nicotania, canary vine, dwarf marigolds, impatience, lobelia, lavatera, geranium, evening stock, schizanthus, godetia, cosmos, bachelor buttons, dianthus. Keen readers will note the absence of the wave petunias – they did NOT germinate nor did the hibiscus. Two flops.

Some of this stuff grows quickly but others poke along.

Now I must place a few flats sideways. I lift one light fixture three bricks high and put four flats of the tallest plants under sideways and use a foil space blanket thrown over the light fixture to help spread the light. Not the best solution but it is too cold to put the biggest plants in the garden shed. It is way too cold (snowing as I write this) to put anything outside, even close to the house.

At this time of year, the flats are bushy and thirsty, very thirsty. I am spending more time watering. I only water where I see dried soil. As noted before I put one drop of Damp-off in the watering can and I also put a tiny bit of fertilizer powder, the stuff special for seedlings. I buy Plant Prod water soluable starter fertilizer (10-52-10) for this purpose. One large container lasts a long time, years in fact. Pretty soon, I’ll switch to 20-20-20 powder, also by Plant-Pro. In the garden itself, I use chicken manure tea, brewed up in an old garbage can. More on this later.