Seed Starting for 2010

There it is, my first sowing of Summer vegetable seeds. Those are all peppers, 28 varieties in 72 paper pots. There's 2 pots of each variety except for the sweet peppers at 4 pots each, and the Padrons at 6 pots. And here's what they are.

Bell Pepper, Madrid Bell Sweet **
Pepper, Nonbell Sweet, Donkey Ears*
Pepper, Nonbell Sweet, PI 593480 (Morocco)**
Pepper, Nonbell Sweet, Pimiento Cuerno de Cabra Chorrizero **
Pepper, Nonbell Sweet, Pimiento, De La Vera**
Pepper, mild, Aji (C. chinense)**
Pepper, mild, Christmas Bell (C. baccatum)****
Pepper, mild, Kaleidoscope (C. baccatum)***
Pepper, mild, Orange and Red Suave (C. chinense)
Pepper, mild, Puerto Rico**
Pepper, mild, Puerto Rican No Burn****
Pepper, mild, Scotch Bonnet Tobago Sweet**
Pepper, unknown heat, Puerto Rican Turban (C. chinense?)**
Pepper, hot, Aji Limo Rojo (C. chinense)***
Pepper, hot, Aji Pineapple (C. baccatum)****
Pepper, hot, Bogyiszloi***
Pepper, hot, Cayenne, Iberian Long**
Pepper, hot, Chimayo***
Pepper, hot, Drew's Chorizero
Pepper, hot, Espelette
Pepper, hot, Guyana (C. baccatum)***
Pepper, hot, Padrone Pepper
Pepper, hot, Poblano
Pepper, hot, Poblano San Luis*
Pepper, hot, Santa Cruz (C. baccatum)***
Pepper, hot, Tlostenna Dunajska Krajova**
Pepper, hot, Topepo Rosso*
Pepper, hot, Viego Arruga Dulce**

* Plants grown in years past that I'm trying to grow again (old seeds)
**Seeds acquired in 2009 but not used
***2009 seeds started last year but murdered before they could produce anything
****Seeds that I saved in 2009 or earlier
No asterisks means new seeds for 2010.
All are Capsicum annuum unless otherwise noted.

Notice how few pepper seeds I purchased for this year. Hah, that's just because I got so carried away last year when I finally got my Seed Savers Exchange yearbook and requested far too many varieties than I had room for in my garden. The 2009 seeds had priority over new seeds for this year. And I also had to retry a number of varieties that I started last year but managed to screw up. So, I only bought new seeds for must have plants that my seeds were too old for plus a couple I couldn't resist from Teleri that she sent in exchange for some caper seeds.

I drape foil over the sides of the lights to reflect as much light as possible onto the seedlings. The heat mats are on and the lights are on an automatic timer.

Once the pepper seeds have emerged and have grown a true leaf or two they will start spending their days outside (weather permitting) and nights (and rainy days) on the living room floor. The schlepping in and out gets a bit tiresome when I plant the little pots up to 4" pots. I'm considering planting them out extra early and protecting them with something - a row cover tunnel, water bottle cloches, wall-o-waters (there's some in the garage somewhere). As soon as the peppers vacate the seed starting setup I have to get the tomato and eggplant seeds going.

The seed starting setup has been put to good use already this year. Earlier I sowed paper pots of various spring vegetables, most of which have already been planted out or potted up to 4-inch pots. They did very nicely under the lights without the heat mats on.

Below are shown some Piracicaba broccoli, Romanesco Natalino, Mammoth Red Rock Cabbage (thanks Pam), and Welsh Bunching Onion (thanks Emma) in the 4-inch pots. There's a couple 4-in pots of cippollini onions that aren't germinating well which is rather disappointing since they are new seeds. In the paper pots are Devoy beets, Butterhead lettuce (thanks Jennifer), Yellow Wonder Strawberries, and Azure Star kohlrabi. All of those in the paper pots except the strawberries need to be planted out in the garden as soon as I can get to it.

Here in the garden are some starts that I planted out last week, these include Even'star American Rapa, Hon Tsai Tai (thanks Josh), Saisai Purple (thanks Pam), Pancallieri A Costa Bianca frisee, Mizuna, and Golden beets (under the water bottle cloches). I'm growing just a couple plants of each of some of these since I'm not sure that I will even like them.

I've filled in some of the gaps in the beet bed with some more Chioggia beets which are under the black flats to protect them from the birds.

And here's a few Gigante kohlrabi plants. Maybe this year I'll beat the rats to them.

Some new Bok Choy seedlings (thanks again Josh), again they are under flats to protect them from munching birds. Not shown nearby are two Senposai seedlings.

So that's it so far for new stuff in the garden for 2010. There's lots more to come! Oh, I have to add that the only seeds that I purchased for the spring veggies were the cippollini onions (crummy things!), strawberries, devoy beets, and golden beets. The rest of the seeds came from trades or from seeds that I had purchased last year or before.