I planted my first seeds of the year on March 4 this year. My indoor seeds are growing great, and my outdoor seeds have been struggling. Let’s start with the bad news.
Outdoor
On March 4, I planted kale, spinach, carrot, radish, and pea seeds in the garden after prepping the soil. On March 17, I added lettuce and a second round of carrots and radishes.
By March 24, I had no sprouts. We’ve had some crazy weather – vacillating between 60 degree days and 5″ of snow. I don’t know if that has thrown them off or if something else is going on.
So, I got impatient and bought some starts/seedlings of lettuce, spinach and kale.
I did have 3-4 tiny radish sprouts from the first round of planting, but they were looking very weak. So, I sifted the top few inches of soil from the carrot bed (getting rid of more rocks) and replanted my radishes and carrots. I did switch to carrot seed tape that I bought at the store instead of the Baker Creek seeds.
I was going to replant my peas as well, but I loosened some soil around them and found sprouts under the surface getting ready to emerge. So, I left them alone and hopefully they’ll emerge this week.
Indoor
I have historically had horrible luck with indoor starts. I try to plant tomato seeds indoors every year, and every year I have to go buy starts because my indoor seeds fail. I’ve come to realize we don’t get enough sunlight into our house for seedlings.
So, this year, I am using the UV light from a retail hydroponic garden to give the seedlings light around the clock. My wife is not thrilled about the constant LED light running in our dining room, but it’s working!
I have healthy tomatillo, tomato, and red cabbage starts!
Side note – My seedling pots are made of newspaper. So, I can just transplant them directly into the garden and the roots will grow through the newspaper. I made them using this super cool, old-school pot maker that my mom bought for me on Amazon last year.
Here’s to hoping that we are done with snow and my outdoor seedlings can start making more progress!