On Thursday morning I was up at 5:45AM and got my post up. Then I started moving seedlings to go out to the cold frames.
Once they were all out of the windows in the office, I took down as many of the lights as I could. The plastic for the heat mat was wet, so I draped it to dry.
The reason I didn’t take all of them down was because of these 3 trays. These are the ones that hadn’t come up and I wanted to restart some of them. But I wouldn’t get to that until Friday.
So I condensed the trays as much as I could and I still had these 3 to go out. I started carrying them out at 7AM and I had to move trays around in the cold frames, and condense those down also.
I got the first cold frame full.
And the last 3 trays filled the second. They all fit!
Big Rose – the second flower opens
So the roundtop is empty. It was a cloudy day with threats of thunderstorms so I didn’t worry about getting the window cleaned out.
I had the plumbers put a hot water line outside the house. When seedlings first go out, I don’t like to shock them with cold water, so I temper it. Carrying 5 gallon buckets of water across the yard isn’t something I can do right now. So I tried running hoses from 2 faucets, one hot and one cold, over to the cold frame.
That worked for filling 1 set of buckets. When I’d filled the second set, the old hose with the hot water blew as I was afraid it might. So the seedlings ended up with cold water anyways.
I mix up two 5 gallon buckets of feeding nutrients at a time. It took about 16 buckets to feed all the trays. I finished about 11AM and was really wiped out.
The 2 year old large geranium has 3 flowerheads
I cleaned up and got a shower and rested until lunch. I was so wiped out I ended up in bed at 1PM and slept until 4PM.
Peace lily flower
Sorry about the poor photo. This plant was happy to be cleaned up and attended last week. It put out this flower.
My brother came home and did some minor repairs to the truck as we have to get it inspected next week. Then we made a stirfry of the cuttings from the basil, ground pork sausage, and greens from volunteers in the Big garden.
On Friday, I have to finish taking down the lights early and get the shades pulled, restart those 3 trays, finish laundry, clean up the kitchen, and pack up the light stuff to go to the cellar. I’m hoping my son will take it down for me.
Moving those plants outside isn't going to be that easy though but they need the sunlights to enable them grow bountifully...
You meant that the seeds planted in the 3 trays didn't sprout? What could be the reason?
Many reasons: it was too warm, not enough light, planted too deep, seed too old, not cold enough at night, and the list goes on...
Wow, I can see the proudness in you, you definitely did a nice work, well done
#hive #posh
The cold frame is quite big! So many pots in there. You’ll have tons of vegetables soon.
If I may ask, what's the essence of putting them in cold frames instead of planting them outright?
The plants have been in the warm house and it's still cold out at night, This gives them a chance to adapt to the colder temps without the added stress of planting.
I bet you're glad to have all the plants outside now. It takes a lot of effort to care for so many babies. It is exhausting but so worth it.
I was thought in school that plants don’t grow inside the house but you proved me wrong😁😁
nice, hope they all do well outside now. We had a day in the 40s about a week ago but now I think we are completely in the clear for good days here in Virginia.
Your plants look good.
What if they grow very well, will they still able to stay in the tray or you’d relocate them?