April 13, 2014 Starting Seeds

I located my setup int he basement because that was the only place in the house where I had enough room. The challenge with the basement was how cold it is in March.  Because of this, the heating mats was essential to keep the soil temp high enough for germination (70°-90°).  Two 20"x20" mats were enough for 4 flats, but I only needed 3.

The two ratchet straps are connected to eye hooks screwed into the beams in the ceiling.  This gives me lots of flexibility to keep the height of the light just above the growing plants.  The light itself is connected to a timer I had laying around that I use for Christmas lights.

The heating mats are plugged into a thermostat that is designed specifically for the mats.  There is a temperature probe that comes off the thermostat that you place in the soil.  It simply shuts off power to the mats when the desired temperature is reached - without this piece the mats just constantly run when plugged in.

Here are the components of my setup.  It's not a budget system but it's not top of the line one either.  My goal was to have it around for a few years.

T5 EnviroGo 4' 4 x Tube Light

Two  20" x 20" Heating Mats

Heating Mat Thermostat

Ratchet Hangers

Timer

Flat Trays without holes

It's been running for nearly a month now and it seems to be working really good.  Here are some progress pics of the Polverini Tomatoes - the local heirloom variety that started inspired me to start my garden from seeds this year. More on that later...

April 9, 2014 - A Late Start

The 2013-2014 winter was the second snowiest on record - a total of 67.4" fell in the Philadelphia area and I suspect that is on the low side for Downingtown. All that snow is now gone and Spring is here. Unfortunately, because the winter weather continued late into March, I am behind schedule this year getting the garden cleaned up. It was VERY swampy until this past weekend but after spending the first warm weekend out doors it is now ready to go.

While cleaning up I noticed there were some onion-looking things sprouting in suspiciously neat rows.  I think these may be the leftover ramps from last years market.  I wonder if they multiplied?

Here is the tentative plan for this year:
8 Tomatoes
9 Peppers
2-4 Cucumbers
3 Eggplant
1 Zucchini
1 Yellow Squash
And a rotating crop of salad greens

I'm trying my hand at successive plantings this year of some of salad greens.  It's always something that I intend on doing but this year I'm planting 5 Watermelon Daikon Radishes and 5 Merlot Lettuce seeds every weekend for a month - the first set went in on April 5th.  As soon as I get some spinach seeds I'll work them into the mix too.

The biggest experiment this years is a new setup I have for starting seeds. I'll add another post detailing the setup, but I have 18 Polvarini Tomatoes, 18 Green Zebra Tomatoes, 3 Rosa Blanco Eggplant, 18 Grenada Seasoning Peppers, 6 Golden Bell Peppers, and 6 Yellow Bell Peppers - all of which are doing well.   The biggest lesson so far has been how slow the peppers grow.  I really should have started them 2-4 weeks earlier I think.