Pot Luck

When it comes to ordering seeds, I'm sometimes torn between sticking with old favorites that have proven their value, and trying new things that dangle the promise of being even better. But when it comes to starting seeds, I often don't give a second thought to changing my processes. I've tried several different techniques, and have settled into a comfortable routine.

Or so I thought.

When I was paging through a recent Gardener's Supply catalog, their self-watering transplant pots caught my eye. (This picture is from their website.)

These trays are not designed for seed starting per se; they have no clear cover, which provides the warmth and humidity so helpful in aiding germination. But they offer several features that are lacking in my standard plastic cells. For one thing, they look a little sturdier. Even though a tray of plastic cells is only about $7, I do reuse mine year after year, and they show the wear and tear that comes with wriggling out the little seedlings each season. And when one or two cells split, it's not worth keeping the whole 6- or 9-cell pack. So sturdy is good.

The transplant pots are also self-watering—the bottom of the tray holds a reservoir of water, and a special capillary mat is supposed to wick up the water from the reservoir and make just the right amount available to the pots. So no worries about watering too much or too little (as long as I remember to keep the reservoir full!).

I also like the fact that each little pot is a separate container. I've gotten fairly good at extracting one seedling from a 6- or 9-cell pack without dumping all of the others willy-nilly, but it will be nice to be able to work with one seedling at a time and not worry about its neighbors.

Of course, having 40 separate containers will also make it easier to get plants mixed up. Currently, I plant only one type of seed in each 6- or 9-cell pack, and I use a single flag for the whole pack. With separate containers, I can just see me moving this pot over here and that pot over there, and suddenly not being able to identify which pot contains what. But maybe I'll come up with an easy method for marking them.

Finally, I'm hoping these pots will be easier to clean—maybe even dishwasher safe? Washing out all my plastic cell packs is one gardening chore that I do not enjoy, and it also contributes to their wear and tear.

So this year I'll try something new, and will see if I have luck with these pots!

A Community Garden Sprouts

A while back, I wrote a post bemoaning the fact that I wished I had more space for growing veggies, and that community gardens were few and far between. Well, apparently I wasn't the only one thinking about that, because the recreation director for our township recently announced the formation of a steering committee to transform some local park space into...you guessed it...a community garden!

I've been struggling with a nasty sinus infection for the past few weeks, so I wasn't able to attend the committee's first meeting, but I was so encouraged to read the minutes. Fifteen people volunteered their knowledge and time to help get the garden off the ground (or into the ground, as the case may be). They're talking about getting fencing donated, and setting up rain barrels to provide access to water, and composting...it's very exciting!

I'm hoping to be well enough to attend the next meeting, and will no doubt write more about this endeavor in the future!

This Year's Line-Up

My husband called this past weekend our "fantasy weekend"—the weekend when we order seeds, and fantasize that our gardens will look like the ones in the catalogs. As always, some things will work, and some won't. So in addition to the seeds we got from Butchart Gardens and Smith and Hawken, here are the flowers we ordered from Park Seed:

• Antirrhinum majus 'Twinny' (a peach-colored double snapdragon)
  
• Calendula officinalis 'Citrus Smoothies'
  
• Centratherum intermedium 'Button Beauty' (Brazilian button plant)
  
• Consolida ajacis 'Sydney' (larkspur)
  
• Heliotrope 'Mini Marine'
  
• Melampodium paludosum 'Melanie'
  
• Osteospermum 'Asti' (lavender African daisies)
  
• Phlox drummondii '21st Century Rose Star'
  
• Prunella 'Freelander'
  
• Ptilotus exaltatus 'Joey' (pink lamb's tail)
  
• Zinnia 'Zahara Starlight Rose'

This is the first time in a long time that I haven't ordered cosmos, but I've been disappointed in their performance the last couple years, and decided to take a break and see if something new will do better in their place.

For the veggie garden, I got these:

• Bush bean 'Jade'
  
• Broccoli 'Small Miracle'
  
• Cabbage 'Gonzales'
  
• Cucumber 'Salad Bush'
  
• Eggplant 'Park's Whopper'
  
• Peas 'Sugar Sprint'
  
• Pepper 'Karma'
  
• Scallion 'Parade'
  
• Spinach 'Renegade'
  
• Tomato 'Margherita'
  
• Tomato 'Park's Razzleberry' (a bonus seed)
  
• Tomato 'Supersweet 100'

I've grown the 'Jade' bean and 'Sugar Sprint' sugar snap pea before, and really liked them, so I decided to get them again. Sometimes it's hard to decide whether to try new things or stick with the tried-and-true.

I'm almost apprehensive about the 'Park's Whopper' eggplant because the catalog says this variety produces 50% more eggplant than 'Black Beauty', which is what I grew last year, and I had more eggplant than I could use! But I do have several eggplant recipes that I love, and perhaps this year I'll actually get around to freezing the extras.

The one thing that I didn't order from Park Seed was garlic, which I plan to plant around the roses and among the daylilies as a deer deterrent. A half pound of 'Early Italian Purple' from Park costs 33% more than a full pound of the same variety from John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds, so guess where I'm buying it? (Aside from this, I do like Park Seed. I think the beating they take in the ratings at Dave's Garden is a little harsh.)

I'm on the fence about whether to order a potato bag from Gardener's Supply. As my husband correctly points out, we're terrible at remembering to water potted plants. So I'm not sure whether to have faith in the possibility that I might take better care of them, or concede that old habits die hard.

The Joy of Grow Lights

A friend recently asked for my advice about grow lights, and I thought I'd go ahead and share my experiences here.

I've been an ardent fan of grow lights ever since I bought my first tabletop model about 20 years ago from Gardener's Supply.

They're virtually essential for ensuring that tall plants started indoors from seed (like tomatoes) don't become spindly, and extremely helpful for good germination rates and overall seedling health.

My husband's first set of grow lights were just fluorescent shop light fixtures that he bought from a hardware store and suspended from his basement ceiling with chain link. When we got married, we splurged on a free-standing three-tier light (also from Gardener's Supply), which we absolutely love.

There's a wide variety of options out there, so how do you choose the right grow light system for you?

Size matters. Obviously, you have to consider how many seedlings you plan to start. My tabletop system holds two Jiffy seed trays, which have 72 cells each; the three-tier system holds six trays. That sounds like a lot, but you also have to take into account whether or not you're going to be potting up any of your seedlings. For example, those same Jiffy trays only hold 18 3.5-inch pots, which is what I use for my tomatoes and peppers as they get bigger. So you have to figure out how much space you need for the number and type of seeds you plan to start.

You also have to pay attention to dimensions. For example, the Garden Condo from Park Seed has trays that are only 17x12 inches, which means my 22x11-inch Jiffy trays wouldn't fit there! If you have any existing seed-starting materials, you'll want to make sure they work with whatever grow light you purchase, or you'll end up having to buy new trays and whatnot to go with your lights.

Height is another dimension to consider. My three-tier grow light has only about a 10-inch clearance before the seedlings start bumping into the lights. When they get that large, I move them to the tabletop light, which has a 20-inch clearance.

Speaking of size—when we bought our three-tier system, it came in flat boxes, and we assembled everything down in the basement where we planned to keep the light. When we were packing up the moving van to go to New York, we were startled to discover that the stand was too big to make it up the basement stairs, which had a low ceiling! The movers were kind enough to help us disassemble the light enough that we could get it on the truck! Not something you normally have to think about, but you never know...

Shedding some light. Many grow light systems accommodate standard fluorescent bulbs that you can get at a hardware store, which are OK, but plants really do prefer full-spectrum bulbs, which do cost a bit more. Be aware of what size bulb the system takes—for example, the new T5 bulbs are narrower than T8 bulbs, and they can't be used interchangeably without an adapter. I've read a lot of contradictory information about which is better for plants. Whatever system you prefer, just make sure that you can easily get replacement bulbs.

How much will grow lights increase your electric bill? If you want to know exactly, multiply the number of bulbs by the bulb wattage and the number of hours that you run them, and divide by 1000. That will give you the number of kilowatt-hours of electricity that they use. Then check your electric bill for the cost of each kilowatt-hour, and multiply the number of kilowatt-hours you're using by the cost of a kilowatt-hour. For example, my tabletop system has two 32-watt bulbs, which we run for 8 hours a day, 30 days a month, so that would be (2 x 32 x 8 x 30)/1000, or 15.36 kW/hr per month. My buddies at Duke Energy charge about 13 cents per kilowatt hour, so that system costs about $2 per month to operate. Such a deal!

The feature attraction. Other qualities to look for in a grow light? It absolutely must be possible to raise the lights (or lower the tray) as the seedlings grow; you'll want to keep the lights about an inch above the plants throughout their indoor life. And the easier it is to do that, the better, especially if you find that you need to raise the lights to be able to water.

My tabletop light has knobs on either end that tighten or loosen against a rubber ring, allowing the light fixture to slide up and down along a rail. I find this awkward, because I have to brace the light with one arm while I loosen the knob with the other hand, then raise or lower the fixture and retighten the knob, and then do the same thing on the other side. I don't bother making these adjustments for watering, and just slide the tray out instead.

My three-tier light has a pulley system, which is extremely easy to use. The beaded chain runs from the outside of the frame through the top of each brace from which the lights are suspended, and they're held in place by a plastic gripper. The only problem I've ever had with these is that, when I've disassembled the system, I've sometimes dropped the S-hooks and small suspension chains into the light fixture body, but I was always able to fish them out.

Incidentally, do you notice that on both of these, the fixture includes "wings" to direct the light down instead of letting it just shine out the sides? Nice feature. It's also handy that I can adjust each side individually. Not all plants get the same size at the same time, so I sometimes put my tall seedlings at one end and my short seedlings at the other, and then make the lamp slope. Not all systems allow that.

Some systems come with built-in shelves or trays, some are no more than a stand with a light. Just recognize what you're getting, and how that will affect your own seed-starting practices and preferences.

For seed-starting, you really don't need to worry about the aesthetics of the system (unless you plan to keep it in your living area—for the basement, who cares?). But you might want to consider sturdiness. You'll want something that will last for years.

Other bells and whistles. If you're going to bite the bullet and buy a grow light, you might want to consider a few other gadgets that will enhance your experience. For example, we use timers on our lights so that we don't have to worry about turning them on and off each day.

Another handy gizmo is a heat mat. I went for many years without one, and was pleasantly surprised at the better, faster germination rates that I got once I did buy one. (Remember what I said about size mattering? When we bought our heat mat, we forgot to check its dimensions, and ended up with one that's square rather than rectangular, so unused mat sticks out from under the tray. Ah, well.) Although we have room for eight trays, we have only one heat mat, and we use it only with seeds that require temperatures above 70 degrees Fahrenheit to germinate (like tomatoes and peppers—the seed packet should have the preferred germination temperature on it). And if we have more than one trayful that require warmth, we wait until the first tray germinates, move it elsewhere, and then use the mat with the second tray. It just takes some coordination.

I've never understood why hardware stores and garden centers typically don't carry grow lights. Are we seed-starters that small a market? Besides Gardener's Supply and Park Seed, I saw some systems at Burpee, Home Harvest Garden Supply, Buyplantlights.com, Indoor Gardening Supplies, and Birds-N-Garden. So they are out there. You just have to dig to find them. But we gardeners are good at that.

Forgotten Seeds

With the seed catalogs coming in fast and furious now, I find it easy to get carried away with my wish list. The pictures are so enticing—wouldn't that delphinium look great in the back bed?

"Don't we already have delphinium seed?" my husband asked. Why, yes, we do! I had completely forgotten about all of the seeds that we picked up when we visited Butchart Gardens last September:

• Delphinium 'Pacific Giant'
  
• Delphinium 'King Arthur'
  
• Campanula 'Cup and Saucer'
  
• Primula vulgaris 'Giant Bouquet'
  
• Tithonia rotundifolia 'Torch'

I had also forgotten about the seeds we picked up at Smith and Hawkin's "going out of business" sale:

• Nasturtium 'Vanilla Berry'
  
• French Rosemary
  
• Thai Basil 'Queenette'
  
• Italian Pesto Basil
  
• English Thyme
  
• Nigella 'Bridal Veil'
  
• Sunflower mix

The herbs are going to go around the border of the veggie garden, in part since that just makes sense from a culinary perspective, and in part because herbs are supposed to discourage bad bugs and critters.

My husband's secret plan for the sunflower mix is to plant them in the field behind our house...not our property, but it's just overgrown grasses and weeds, so who could object to some sunflowers out there? Surely the birds won't!

Gotta Love Foxglove

We have had a couple inches of snow so far this winter (now gone), and some very cold temperatures (down into the teens), so I am pleased to still see a little spot of emerald green out on the berm.

This bright patch of color in an otherwise dreary bed is Digitalis purpurea 'Foxy'. Thompson and Morgan, where I got the seed, lists it as an annual, although they acknowledge that if it is not planted soon enough in the spring, it will simply develop leaves and then bloom the next season, which sounds like biennial behavior to me. I grew this variety of foxglove many years ago, and remember it coming back year after year, although in my admittedly faulty memory, the new stalks seemed to sprout from the original clump of foliage rather than new ones, like a perennial. So we'll see how it grows this time around.

The challenge in starting foxglove from seed is that you practically have to be a microbiologist to do it. The seeds are so tiny! One sneeze, and the 1500 seeds in the packet will be just so much dust in the air. But once you get them in touch with the soil, they do germinate easily.

I grew an annual/biennial foxglove in New York as well (don't recall which variety), where it flourished in the dappled shade. I do think it's one of the loveliest flowers, even if it is poisonous.

Back there I also grew Digitalis x mertonensis 'Strawberry Foxglove', which was a perennial variety, but I was not impressed with it. It just didn't seem as lush or pretty as other types.

My fondest foxglove memory, though, was seeing it growing by the side of the road outside of Seattle. What a wonderful wildflower! It was almost enough to make me consider relocating!