Planting Pansies and Pepper Pictures

Good morning!


Spring is finally coming! This weekend we spent some time outside in the yard trimming trees and shrubs around the yard starting the ramp up for summer. I'm getting really anxious to get into the garden. My tulips and crocuses I planted in my front flower beds are already about an inch above the soil, and I suspect that this week they will really go for it with the temperatures being high with lows above freezing.
My peppers are coming along really well, and only one or two seeds didn't sprout. Here are a few pictures of how they are doing:

The tray on the left is all the Northern Hybrid green pepper, and the tray on right is Mucho Nacho Jalapeno (top row) and Mohawk yellow pepper (bottom row).

They are doing really well and I have started to fertilize them bi-weekly with liquid seaweed and 10-52-17 at half strength. This mix was suggested to encourage strong root growth.

I also planted my cool wave pansy seeds and some left over petunia seeds I had for a total of 36 small cells. I also filled an old berry container with soil and planted petunias throughout. If a lot of the seeds sprout I will separate them as they start to crowd.

No sign of sprouting from the Basil or Tomato seeds just yet. they should start to sprout this week hopefully.

Peppers are sprouting!

Well, I've officially got seedlings! My onions came up at the end of last week and are now about 4 inches high. There are definitely a few that are taking longer but I got a very good germination rate and will have more than enough to plant for the season.
Also, my peppers have started to sprout! I have a few from all 3 varieties coming up and can see a few more pushing through, I'm hoping all seeds will germinate so that I've got enough for the summer. If not, I will buy them as transplants at planting  time. I seem to always have a hard time hardening off peppers so I may end up buying transplants anyways.
I subscribe to the email list from a few of the local seed companies and they suggested it's time to be planting: peppers, tomatoes, basil, petunias, onions, and impatiens. Yesterday I planted my tomatoes and basil, so I'm right on track. I will also be planting my cool wave pansies this weekend. I'm pretty excited for these because I've always liked pansies, and these can run up to 2 feet and will be in my hanging baskets this season (see picture below).

For growing seeds, I have my onions growing in a rinsed out plastic mushroom basket in a south facing window, and the rest of the seeds are in my basement under a grow light that is on for 14 hours per day right now.


Seeds planted March 23:
Bush Beefsteak Tomatoes (62 days)
Basil Dolce Fresca


Sprouted as of March 23:
Onions - all
Peppers - a few of all 3 varieties, at seedling 2 leaf stage:

• Northstar Hybrid  [Green] - 3/6
• Mucho Nacho Jalapeno Hybrid -1/3
• Mohawk  [Yellow] - 2/3

Onions and Peppers planted!

Well, the first seeds are planted!
Thursday night I got ambitious and decided to plant my peppers and onions. My onions I always start from seed in mid march so that they have time to get a bulb started before I plant them out. If you don't start them early enough, you will have very small onions by the time you have to pull them from the garden.
Peppers are a different story. Generally I plant them 6-8 weeks before last frost which ends up being 8-10 weeks before I plant them out in the garden. However, this year I found a new YouTube channel called  Alberta Urban Garden (link on the right under the YouTube links section). It is a guy from just outside of Edmonton who makes excellent videos that are much more relevant to someone growing in my zone. He's in zone 4a but his planting and ideas generally work for me.
SO. He plants his peppers in December (!!) because he prunes them a bunch of times. Yep, prunes them. I was skeptical but he has made enough videos about it and can actually show that by pruning his peppers, he ends up with more of a pepper bush than a pepper plant by the time it's planting season. If you want more detail, go watch the video yourself on his channel. Long story short, it makes them have a much stronger stem and more branching.
I decided better late than never, and planted my peppers at the same time as my onions hoping that I can get at least one pruning in before they go outside. This is about 13-14 weeks before they will likely go outside and I'm hoping to see some increased yields.
They should start to emerge from the soil in the next week. My seeds were from last year so I'm hoping they still germinate.




Seeds planted March 9th:


Onions:

• Candy Hybrid (85 days)
• Spanish Onion Superstar Hybrid (95 days)

Peppers:

• Northstar Hybrid (68 days) [Green]
• Mucho Nacho Jalapeno Hybrid (68 days)
• Mohawk (65 days) [Yellow]

Almost onion time

Well, it's almost time to plant the first starters of the season!


I start my larger variety of onions in mid March so that by the time they can go outside they already have a good start and a bulb developing and will end up growing larger by the end of the season. Last season I grew onions and managed to successfully store them for the winter. I'm just using up the last of them now, and they are still in great shape. They're also very easy to grow and low maintenance.


After promising myself I would not start my own tomatoes and peppers, I have decided to do it anyways. Mostly because last year I bought the equipment (trays, grow light, seeds) and I have the room. Seems to me that if I can now grow them essentially for free, I might as well. There are other plants I'm growing from seed anyways, and since the light will be on, I might as well use it.


So this season I am going to grow veggies and flowers both from seed indoors, seed outdoors, and bought as starters.


Seed indoors: Storage onions, Cool Wave pansies, nasturtiums, morning glories, beefsteak tomatoes, green peppers, yellow peppers, jalapeno peppers, cucumbers, watermelons, and cantaloupes.


Seed outdoors: Peas, leaf lettuce, head lettuce, mesclun mix, arugula,  swiss chard, spinach, carrots, green onions, yellow beans, green beans, basil, parsley, rosemary.


Bought Starters: Eggplant


Starters from family: Oregano, chives, mint






The plants I'm seeding indoors will start with the onions in mid march, and then roughly follow the order they are listed above, with the pansies being started 10 weeks before the soil has warmed (after last frost), to the cucumbers and melons which will only be started 3 weeks before the soil warms.




If you have a small garden, I really recommend just buying starters yourself. This year I still have seeds left so I'm going for it. Next year, I will likely just sell the light and buy starters once it's time.