Each week, this newsletter will contain three sections:
How things are going
I will share an update on my garden as a point of reference for how my weekly tasks are adding up and looking.
What to do this week
Here I will present the 3 - 5 things I am planning or doing this week.
Resources
A deeper dive into information and perspectives that are inspiring or informing my gardening.
If you are coming to this newsletter mid-season, please take a look at the posts from the past few weeks to get a sense of context for where we are at this week!
Week 7: 2/11/2024 - 2/17/2024
How things are going:
This week I am wrapping up ordering seeds for the coming season, and I am sowing more seeds in doors. At this point, I’ve finished sowing pepper seeds, but a lot of my attention has been on making sure they have good conditions to sprout. It looks like my experiment of bringing the seed trays upstairs, out of the cooler basement, is working. A few of my second round of sowings are starting to sprout, which is faster than I expected.
It’s nice to see the adjustments I’m making resulting in some faster germination times. Last year, some of my peppers didn’t germinate for six weeks. If you’re trying to grow peppers from seeds, be patient and stay consistent in keeping the soil moist, and the temperature warm.
As they sprout, I am returning them to the basement to continue growing under my LED lights, because the light I can provide them upstairs is not quite sufficient. It’s a dance between light needs, and temperature needs.
The serrano peppers that came up last week are doing well, growing under the lights in the basement.
As soon as these start to have their second set of leaves, I will choose the healthiest looking of the seedlings in each cell, and cut away the others.
If you plan to start peppers for your garden, now is the time. If you plan to have an early March garden of cold hardy crops, now is the time to start those seedlings too. The cold hardy plants (bok choy, lettuces, kale) I sowed last week are already starting to sprout. It’s amazing to see how much faster they come up compared to the peppers.
I’m going to hold off on starting anything else until we are 8 or so weeks out from our last frost date (roughly March 20th). You don’t want to start seedlings out too much earlier than that. They can outgrow their starting cells, and I don’t want to repot them multiple times.
My setup is pretty simple, and yours can be too. I have:
Plastic starting trays
Potting soil (I’m using Black Gold)
A heating pad to put under the starting trays until the seeds germinate
Two shop lights (I use this LED light)
Find lights that are between 5,000 and 7,000 Kelvin
An outlet timer to automatically turn the lights on and off
A table and space that can get a little messy
Watering can
Marker and labeling stakes
That’s all you really need. While that may seem like a lot, once you have these things set up, you can really propagate a lot of seeds and grow exactly the varieties you are interested in. If you have a south facing windowsill, you can also try growing some seedlings without lights, but there is a risk that they won’t get enough sunlight and will become leggy and weak (seedlings that expend too much energy growing tall and skinny, trying to reach more light).
I keep the lights about 6 inches or so above the seedlings - close enough to wash them in a lot of light, but far enough away not to burn them. The lights are suspended by chains so I can adjust them as the plants grow taller.
And that’s it really. Not too complicated, but when I started out growing seedlings, it felt like a big jump. My first season doing it, I tried just using window light, from a west facing window, and my seedlings were terrible. But I learned from that, and since then have had a lot of success. Just provide them with a little water, a lot of light, and they’ll do great.
What to do this week:
Here’s what to do:
We are about a month away from when you might want to try some spring planting! If you want to grow in March, now is a good time to finish planning your garden and making sure you have the seeds you need.
Start pepper seedlings. Because they can take so long to germinate and can be slow to grow, start these the sooner the better.
If you’re not going to try spring planting, continue taking steps to map out your summer garden. Use your maps to understand how many seeds / seedlings you will need, and start making plans for how you are going to secure those by early May.
Next week:
Preparing for growing in March.
Seedling updates
Resources:
Resource 1
This is an incredibly thorough introduction to starting peppers in doors.
And another great guide:
https://peppergeek.com/starting-pepper-plants-indoors/