Sprouted

The kale and red lettuce seeds we started indoors last week are up!

 I'm pretty happy with the germination. We planted three seeds per cup and every cup has at least one sprout.  Most have more. I put the seed cups in a plastic bin in the laundry room and covered the bin with loose plastic wrap.

This year, I tried placing a heating pad set on low underneath the bin for a few hours each day. This was easy to do since we have all been home fighting a nasty virus! The seeds seemed to germinate much faster this way, compared to my usual method of sticking the bin on top of the refrigerator.  In fact, one morning I noticed there were four cups that had not sprouted, so I moved them all to one side of the bin, stuck the heating pad under just that side, and left them  for a couple of hours. When I returned, there was a sprout or two in each cup!

So now I am just in spray-and-watch mode. The seedlings are as close to the light as I can get them and the lights are on for 14 hours per day. We use a timer to turn them on and off, because I can never remember. I raised the bin up on a shelf and stacked some books under the bin to get it as close to the light as possible. In another week or so, I plan to start watering them with some diluted fish emulsion.

 I thought about starting tomatoes from seed this year but we have a vacation coming up and I didn't want our animal sitter to have more to deal with. These guys will be out in the garden before then, so they shouldn't cause too much trouble.

I find myself sneaking down to see the sprouts first thing each morning and fuss over them a little before the day really starts. Seedlings are such happy little things:).