Winter is giving up...

It's been a nice week here. I might even be able to do something outside this Saturday. Prune some trees, perhaps.

My plan this year again features a split philosophy... half the patch will be true orange and the other half is based solely on heaviness with no regard for color.

Six plants. I've documented my backup strategy before. Keep in mind that a backup has perhaps a 33% chance of being grown out. The goal is to have six healthy plants on July 1st. You can't grow a pumpkin until you first grow a vine.

Site 1: 604 Warren (1086 Holland X 125 Wolf), with another 604 Warren as a backup. I really think this seed has some potential.

Site 2: 964 Wolf, with a 125 Wolf as the backup.

Site 3: 1092 Martin with a 1185 Bortner as a backup. The 1092 grew the 1535 Glasier, and is certainly the most "proven" seed I've had. The 1185 is a 1068 X Self.

Site 4: 1071 Christensen, with 857 Christensen as a backup. These two are 50/50 in my book. Whichever plant is better gets to stay.

Site 5: 1186 Bowles, with a true orange hopeful as a backup.

Site 6: 1290 Poirier, with another true orange hopeful to back it up.

I've got some deciding to do, to select those other backups.

Winter won't give up

It's been a long winter here, as it has been in many places. It's hard to believe that it's almost time to get busy in the garden again. In a normal year I'd be busy around my yard doing all sorts of things. This year I really hope that I can do the tractor work in time... right now it's not going to be possible for at least several weeks, and that's only if the weather changes.

It's hard to believe that it's already time to start tomato plants indoors. Right now it doesn't feel like it's even on the radar screen.

Update on experiments...

Well, no pictures, but I have nothing conclusive. After two initial root hairs poked out of the fiber pot at the same time the seed germinated, those roots promptly dried up and went away. Since then, no new roots have poked out in the last four days! I don't think I'll be using these fiber pots. They dry out and I think they'll be just as bad as the peat when it comes time for them to break down.

I have also been using some cheapo potting soil. I don't like it, my seedlings seem so slow. I ought to try "seed starting mix", and see how it fares.

Well it won't be too long now and we'll have real work to do, not just this dumb stuff we do over the winter because we're bored. ;-)

Fiber pots for seed germination

I wrote about the fiber pots seed germination experiment. I have a seedling up now, just came up this morning. One thing I see, is that the roots are already coming out the sides as the seedling is emerging from the soil. I will post pictures, with 12 hour updates to see how quickly the roots expand.

Already I can see a situation where, as soon as the seedlings emerge and the roots begin shooting out of the fiber pot, I would at that moment transfer them to 1-gallon pots. This allows the seedling to be adequately warmed in small pots and then transferred to large pots without cramping the roots in any way.