there’s something magical about going from seed to plant to plate…
…start out by grabbing some seed starter equipment. i like seed cells with the compacted soil pellets that expand when water is added…
…drop a few seeds in each cell…
…i use mostly heirloom and rare varieties to keep things interesting…
…label everything so nothing gets mixed up…
…pop on the dome – this will simulate a greenhouse…place out of direct sunlight…
…the seeds should sprout within a week…
…here’s what i’m starting indoors for ’12…
- tomatoes
- swiss chard
- beets
- spinach
- basil
- thyme
- dill
- parsley
- scallions
- hot peppers
- sweet peppers
- cherokee purple
- san marzano
- amish paste
- roman striped
- roma VFN
- riesentraube (cherry)
…swiss chard & beets…
…scallions – spinach – thyme…
…lots of basil for pesto sauce…
…after ~2 weeks, when majority of seedlings have sprouted, place by a window for some sunlight…
…the tomatoes are standing strong…
…the basil is growing towards the sun…
…normally pepper seeds won’t sprout as quickly as the rest since they prefer warmer temperatures, so we have to hack the system…
…plant seeds, except this time you’re going to place the seed tray on a heating mat…set mat on high every morning until sprouts begin to appear. once majority of seeds have sprouted, take off the dome. keep tray on mat and continue to heat every day to keep the soil warm and until all of the seeds have sprouted…
…hot peppers…
- scotch bonnet
- tam jalepeno
- quadrato di asti rosso
- friarello di napoli
- red mini bell
…once it’s consistently in the 50’s outside and the nights don’t get too cold you can transplant into the ground…about the second week in april…
…the rest of the veggies will be sown directly in the ground…
- romaine paris cos
- cucumber
- beit alpha
- delikatasse
- rotonda bianca sfumata (sicilian eggplant)
- ping tung eggplant (thai eggplant)
- melon charentais
- arugula
- zucchini lungo bianco
- swiss chard
- beets
