Planting Update, amongst other things...

I have daylilies popping up all over the little dirt cubes and the cottage cheese tub I planted the seeds in. The first seedling to emerge stands over 3 inches tall now and is a deep healthy green under the lights. Lots of others followed quickly behind.

I also planted a flat of peppers and tomatoes. I chose a mix of sweet bell peppers, sweet long peppers, and "Biker Billy Hybrid" hot peppers, which appear to be a large jalapeno type. The tomatoes are pretty standard, Romas and Sweet Millions cherries. They have come up already after less than a week. I noted tonight that one of the bulbs in my light stand has burned out, so I'll have to replace it, but I may wait another week so I don't sunburn the little seedlings with too much light all at once. I would welcome other people's comments on their experiences with situations like this.

We're still having morning temperatures hovering around the freezing mark here, but the skies are usually clear and sunny (except on the weekends, then it likes to do the spring weekend cloud up and rain thing, sunny during the work week cycle just for us bikers). If it didn't take so long for me to thaw out, I would go ahead and ride the bike to work in 40 degree weather, but I have to be able to sew as soon as I get there...

I have one tip that I discovered several years ago that gave me miraculous results with my peppers and tomatoes. I read somewhere that watering with a solution of 1 to 2 tablespoons of epsom salts to a gallon of water after the regular watering would improve the plants overall. So I tried it. My pepper plants grew to about 30 inches tall and produced huge peppers with thick juicy walls, and the tomatoes just went nuts. Epsom salts is magnesium sulfate, which I guess would acidify the soil and allow the plants to take up iron better and probably some other nutrients as well, because they just took off. I've never had better results, even with Miracle Gro, and that works wonders too.

Still haven't knit anything in over a month. I have 8 batches of soap ready to photograph and list on the websites, and still need to write listing copy for four of them. I think about these things while I sew during the day, but when I get home, there're regular chores to do first, then dinner...time to make lists again.

Nite all, morning comes early.