What I did...

...to get my seedlings to look this amazing.



Here are a couple cheap ways to get the heat going in your seed trays.



Under the beer box is a hot water bottle and you can see the milk jug. I crushed it so it would be flat and cover a large space. Strangely enough the milk jug stays warm longer than the hot water bottle. And I know the jug works because as soon as I put a covered seed tray on it condensation instantly appeared.

Another thing I did, and I'm thinking it helped, was to sprinkle kelp powder on the plants as soon as they popped up. Seaweed is an excellent fertilizer. You can buy a small packet of it from the health food store for 1.99. And a little goes a long way.

Next step is to find a way to get my beans out of there without disturbing anything else. The box is just about ready to decompose, which is just what I was hoping for, but I still need it to hold out for a few more days. Just until I can get more pots and the weather to warm a bit.

Repotting Annuals

I had no idea repotting seedlings was so delicate. I looked at the full seed tray and thought "Now how do I get those tiny things into these bigger pots without killing them?" So I made a decision, cut the trays. I don't know if that's what you're supposed to do. Since I've never actually witnessed someone repotting seedlings I just did what I thought was right. If I'm right, yeah me! If not, please tell me what you're supposed to do.

Like I've said before I'm very new at this. Thankfully most of my seedlings are growing, rapidly, and surviving being outside most nights. I'm trying to toughen them up, and learn what they can tolerate at the same time. So far, no casualties.

I repotted my carrots in a wide deep pot usually used for bulb planting. My allotment is too shallow for really deep rooted vegetables so the pot is the perfect depth and width. If I haven't killed the seedlings during transplanting, I should have quite a few carrots to harvest. I'm going to plant them in succession to try and get continual harvesting. If the seedlings don't make it I'll just sow seeds directly in the pot to avoid root disturbance.

March is going to be a busy month for me. I have a tray full of seeds just waiting to be started. I'm going by what the packages say. I'm still too inexperienced to be that adventurous. I'll keep you posted.