This weekend was busy, I have had the feeling that it's going to stay warm and so I started seeds way before I would typically start them. So not only did I direct seed (see my post from Sunday) I also started seeds in the basement. (By the way, I was looking in the garden today and some of the radishes I planted already are splitting and starting to grow.)
This is for Paul - it's time to start your seeds, I'm pretty sure. At least I'm starting them, so go for it. Don't direct seed anything but cold weather plants, so wait with your squash and cucumbers, but feel free to start seeds indoors for both cold weather and hot weather plants.
I started lettuce (11 types) in 72 starter cells. I also started my tomatoes (18 types) and peppers (8 types). And I started purple and green tomatillos and two types of eggplant. Lettuce always does great for me - all of these types grow well. I've put notes by each of the tomatoes and peppers when I have something to say about them - the problem is that last year was so cold that I can't judge how well some of the varieties I tried for the first time will do this year. Obviously I'll keep a record here so you can know which do well and which do not. To make matters worse, the people at work who took my plants had different experiences with them than I had - microclimates do affect productivity, so take what I write with a grain of salt and experiment for yourself.
Here's my list of seed I started this weekend:
Lettuce:
Sweet valentine
Red deer tongue
Merlot
Emerald oak
Asian red
Forellenschluss
Dark lollo rossa
Red sails
Amish deer tongue
Beleah rose
Little gem
My favorite lettuce Forellenschluss:
Tomatoes:
Lemon boy (nice color)
Garden peach (didnt' plant last year, but the 2 years before that they were productive)
Japanese black trifele (this did great last year in very cool summer and short season)
Striped roman (also did pretty good last year)
Violet jasper (a small tomato, but extremely productive last year, and very early)
Black mauri (same comments as violet jasper, smaller)
Black krim (the best tomato I've grown - always productive, and the best tasting I've had)
Amana orange (large tomato, and productive every year I've grown it)
Illini star (I didn't get a single tomato from this plant last year)
Sub-arctic plenty (these matured extremely late last year, and I only got a few)
Koralik (I didn't get any tomatoes last year from this plant)
Royal chico
Dr Wyche's yellow (I've planted this tomato 2 years in a row and have never gotten a tomato)
Bison (nothing last year)
Ananas noire (not productive last year, but the 3 tomatoes I got were beautiful)
Peacevine cherry (I didn't have luck last year, but a colleague said it was super productive for her)
Anna russian pink (nothing last year)
Mary Robinson's german bicolor (like the ananas noire, only a couple of tomatoes, but super pretty)
My favorite tomato, Black Krim:
Peppers:
Quadrato d'asti rosso
Orange bell
Roberto's cuban seasoning
Albino bullnose (last year these were the first to produce, but know that the peppers are tiny)
Patio red marconi
Jimmy Nardello italian (good producer last year)
Corno di toro rosso (good producer last year)
Anaheim (terrible last year, didn't even grow, but am trying again because I want a mild hot pepper)
All of these I planted in the basement under lights. The eggplant I put in damp paper towels, folded them over and put them in a plastic bag on top of the refrigerator. They haven't started growing yet, but when they do I'll put them in dirt. It supposedly takes a long time for them to sprout, and I haven't grown eggplants before, so it's all a mystery. The tomatillos are also under lights in the basement.
(Note that I took these images from the web - I looked for the pictures that looked most like the crop I get. Some of the pictures don't look even remotely like what I harvest, but these are representative.)
Good luck!
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