Tag: 2019

This post will be updated periodically until the seedlings will be transferred outside in the garden.

This year I planted the pepper and eggplant seeds earlier than the tomatoes because they take longer to grow. In the previous years, I planted them at the same time and the tomatoes were 3 to 4 times larger than the pepper plants by the time that I had to plant them outside.

I planted the pepper and eggplant seeds on December 7, as showed in this post. I used a small seedling container and a large one, where I also planted dill and basil seeds.

Last year none of my basil seeds germinated. I think that the seeds were not good, as they were a few years old. I always planted them outside directly in the ground or pots., but this year I decided to change things up and start them inside earlier. Hopefully they will like it better.

I will post the pictures with the seedlings at different stages.

Below is a picture from December 14 (one week after I planted the seeds) – the basil and dill had already germinated.

December 20 update – the peppers and eggplants are starting to come out in the large seedling container. I did an experiment and placed the large container on a top of a bookshelf, that was in a warmer place. The smaller container was by a window, where it was colder and the seeds haven’t germinated yet . Today I moved the large seedling container closer to the window where the seedlings can get some sunlight and moved the small container on top of the bookshelf.

Four days later (December 24) the peppers from the small container started to germinate. I haven’t noticed any difference yet between the potting soil and seeding mix squares.

On December 28 I planted my tomato seeds. I chose for now our favorite 6 varieties: Brandyvine (red and yellow), glacier, Cherokee purple, Better boy, cherry (red and black) and small oval yellow tomatoes (that I got from a friend).

January 4 update – The tomatoes are already starting to pop out.

Only 2 bell pepper plants germinated in the last month, so today I planted more seeds in the small container.

January 11 update – the tomato plants are growing very fast, they are almost the same size as the peppers.

January 18 update – today I transplanted peppers, eggplants and tomatoes in larger pots.

January 25 update – the bell pepper seeds which I planted on January 4 in the small container are starting to pop out.

I watered the seedlings in the new pots for the first time since transplanting a week ago.

January 29 update – Today I watered them with fertilizer for the first time (probably a little late).

February 2 update

February 8 update – I needed to make space to plant my cucumbers, summer squash and zucchini seeds, so I transplanted some of the remaining tomato and pepper seedlings to pots. I combined the remaining tomatoes into one 6 square container and placed it outside because I ran out of space inside. The weather is warmer so hopefully they will survive.

The peppers and tomatoes transplanted previously are growing slowly, but most of the eggplants didn’t grow at all.

I planted the cucumbers seeds in the red container and summer squash and zucchini seeds in the blue one.

February 15 update – Today I had to transplant all the seedlings from the large container, because some of the plants were 2 month old and they stopped growing. I had to leave some seedlings outside because of the space limitation inside the house, but the night temperatures are in the high 40s and low 50s, so I think they will be fine.

In the picture below are the 8 pepper plants, 5 eggplants and 2 basil plants that I will keep inside the house.

The remaining basil plants that I will keep outside.

I don’t have any more small pots, so I had to transplant the eggplants into 1 gallon pots. I put 3 or 4 seedlings into each pot and if they survive, I will split them when they’ll be bigger.

The tomatoes and peppers transplanted last week more than doubled in size. They are bigger than the ones that I transplanted 4 weeks ago and I think the difference is the potting mix from Costco, they like it much better.

Below are the pictures of the seedlings transplanted 4 weeks ago.

I’m very pleased with the pepper seedlings, in the first picture.

Here are some more peepers and the eggplants. The very small ones are the eggplants, only 4 of the eggplants are growing, the other ones are very small.

Below are the tomato seedlings. Next week I’m planing on taking a picture of the tomatoes transplanted 4 weeks ago and the ones transplanted last week, side by side.

The cucumbers and zucchini that I planted last week are starting to pop out

February 17 update – The plan for today was to remove a few extra peppers and eggplants that started to germinate after I moved the seedlings into the pots. I pulled out the smaller ones, as seen in the picture below, and planted them in different pots.

I also changed the potting soil, with the one from Costco, for the eggplants that didn’t grow at all since I moved them into the pots a month ago. Below it’s a picture of the re-potted seedlings.

February 22 update – Today I replaced the potting mix for the seedlings transferred on January 18 as showed in this post

In the picture below I have the seedlings transferred a weeks ago on the left and the ones that I left outside in the original container. The transplanted ones are at least 3 times taller, this shows why you have to move the seedlings in bigger pots after a while.

In this picture you can see the difference between a good potting mix and a not so good one. The seedlings from the right were transplanted 3 weeks before the ones from the left but because of the mix they didn’t grow much. I changed the mix for the ones on the right, hopefully it will help them grow faster.

The pepper seedlings grew nicely in the Armstrong garden potting mix, unlike the tomato and eggplant seedlings.

Below are the seedlings that I re-potted 1 week ago.

Below are the eggplant and basil seedlings that I left outside.

February 28 update – the tomatoes transplanted on February 8 were too big for the red cups and had to be planted in the garden. Below is a picture of the tomato seedlings on February 28 vs February 8, they grew from around 3″ to over 18″ in 20 days.

March 1 update – it seems that the new potting soil works better for seedlings. They are growing faster and I didn’t give them fertilizer since I transplanted them.

Below are the basil, peppers and eggplants transplanted 2 weeks ago.

Below are the tomatoes that I changed the potting mix last week, some of them almost doubled in size.

I started to take the peppers outside in the sun for a few hours every day to prepare them for transplanting in the garden next week. They started flowering, I will remove the flowers to allow them to put more energy into growing bigger and stronger.

March 3 update – the peppers started flowering. I removed all the flower to allow them to grow bigger and stronger. Once they start flowering they put all the energy into flowers. Below are a few pictures of before and after

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March 7 update – the biggest difference is that the tomato plants probably double in size again in 1 week

The papaya has been growing slowly and has survived almost freezing temperatures so far.

Bonus tomatoes in December!

The Meyer lemons are starting to ripe.

The figs did not grow much from last month. Some of them fell off and we probably won’t be eating any of them since it’s so late in the season.

This is celery that grew from the seeds that fell of the ground last year. I should pull most of it out, to allow a few of them to mature, but I will let them all grow as an experiment.

These are the radishes planted on November 18 as showed here

The radishes that I planted 1 month ago seem to grow very slowly.

The parsnips planted 1 month ago are just starting to come out.

This type of cherimoya didn’t grow much in the last month. Probably it’s a small fruit variety.