Seedling Update

I haven't posted to the blog in the past couple of weeks.  We have been busy on the house and our "Broadway & BBQ" church event.  We have a painting crew at the house to scrape the entire exterior down to bare wood, and prime and paint the siding and trim.  Next week we will post pictures of the progress of the painters!

Two weeks ago, I transplanted a few of the seedlings into peat pots.  I use a custom mix of one part each of peat, vermiculite, and perlite for the potting "soil."  It is important for young seedlings to get plenty of light, water, and air (both to the leaves and the roots).  Peat is a great absorber of water, and is breaks into tiny pieces that enable to roots to efficiently absorb the water.  However, if you planted a seedling in pure peat, it would get too much water and no air, and would drown (think of the peat bogs in Scotland; not much grows there other than moss).  On the other hand, perlite (a volcanic glass) allows lots of air to reach the roots, but doesn't absorb any water so the seedlings would dehydrate.  In the middle of the spectrum is vermiculite (a naturally-occurring mineral).  It can absorb water (though not as much as peat) and create voids that allow air to reach the roots (though not as much as perlite).  I have found that a 1:1:1 mix of these three products creates an ideal germination medium.  I use the mix for transplanting seedlings from peat pellets (after the first true leaves appear), and for germinating larger plants, such as cucumber and squash.

I use 3" peat pots for my seedlings and "soil" mixture.  When the pots are sitting in the plant trays and exposed to air, they remain dry and contain the seedling and mixture.  Once the pots are planted directly into the ground (where the bottom lower sides remain moist), the plats roots will recognize the peat as soil and grow right through them.  So, the roots do not get disturbed when you transplant with peat pots.

I have transplanted the tomatoes, cabbage and relatives, and cilantro into peat pots.  I have also planted the cucumber and squash seeds.  The celery and leeks are ready to be transplanted, but I don't have enough pots right now, so they'll have to wait (the can still wait a few weeks).  As I transplanted each peat pellet, I pulled out the weaker seedlings, so there is only one seedling per pellet (I did the same with the leeks and celery even though I have not yet transplanted them).  The peat pots are on plant trays in the rack that has my plant lights.


There are no seeds scheduled to be planted this week.  We have "Booth's Blend" (a mixture of compost and cow manure sold by a member of our church) arriving during the week, so next week I will talk about soil preparation and post pictures of the garden.  We have put up some fencing to keep Mason (our 96-lb Chesapeake Bay retriever) out of the garden and wheat, and the peach tree and chives are blooming!