Everything Is Homemade: Seeds: Week 2

Approximately two weeks ago I started seeds for my first garden. I keep them indoors (in my bedroom actually) in front of a sunny, east-facing window. I planted 32 pots of eight different seeds. They have been doing pretty well I think. Most of them have germinated by now and are growing more and more each day. I'm afraid I might have to transplant some of them sooner than I planned.

There hasn't been much to do for the seeds this week except water them and thin out the pots with the larger seedlings. To thin means to pull out all but the strongest seedling in each pot. I've thinned all of the larger seedlings by now but for some of the smaller ones I'm going to let them duke it out for a few more days.

In the past week I noticed that my peat pots have mold growing on them. I think I was keeping them too wet and also I was watering them from the top which is a no-no (promotes mold and mildew; should water from the bottom instead). A quick Google search told me that a little bit of mold on pots is no big deal and that I should turn a fan on in the room with the seeds. Not directly blowing on the seeds, but just enough for air circulation which should cut down on the mold. I have been leaving my ceiling fan on during the day and it seems to have helped.

Another interesting gardening tidbit I read this week is that a fan blowing indirectly on or around your seeds can help them grow stronger. The fan acts like the wind outside and will make them develop sturdier stems. Interesting!

The last thing I learned this week about seeds that I wanted to mention is that if your seeds are growing long and spindly it is because their light source is too far away. They are growing taller and taller trying to get to the light. If you put a light source directly above and closer to the seedlings they won't grow so tall and spindly and instead will develop thicker, healthier stems. I think this may be the issue with my broccoli. It is just laying across the soil instead of sticking up.

Here's what my seeds looked like a week ago.

Here's what they look like after another week of growing:

Broccoli

Big Boy Tomato (these were not even out of the soil a week ago!)

Peppers - very slow to germinate. I think a basil seed got in one of my pepper pots because the first pepper plant to pop up looks an awful lot like the other basil plants and the second pepper plant to pop out (this one) looks nothing like the first one. Ooops!