Germination Station

*I’m a slacker….I just realized that I never published this blog entry about my germination station…now, my plants are transplanted and growing like CRAZY in the gardens out back.  I’ll have to do a REAL update on the progress this week.*

I don’t know if I stole the term “germination station” from somewhere or not…but it’s pretty funny.  Don’t get too excited about the presentation of the germination station…it’s quite ghetto!  (but definitely effective – and cheap since it cost me $22   TOTAL)

• $7 replacement florescent bulbs for my 4’ shop lights(mine were black lights from a church presentation thing)
• $5  timer for “grow lights” (because there’s no way I’d remember to turn them on and off at the same time every day)
• $10 2 mini green houses (black tray, black tray with drainage, cell pack, clear dome lid)

And THIS is it:

[pic of germ. stat.]

(Well, this is the finished product of the “heat lights”.)  I should take a pic of the whole setup with the “grow lights” too. 

The whole setup can be reused next year (after sanitizing the mini greenhouses with a bleach/water mixture), so that’s a SUPER inexpensive initial investment I think!!!

My last gardening post I mentioned that pics of my little seedlings were coming soon  (left you hanging didn’t I…bet you’re glued to your computer chair huh?) .

   

Tray 1 of 2 (cucumbers, squash, some flowers, herbs, jalapenos)

Cucumbers (tendergreen & National Pickling)

My friend, Ali, says that people start their own seeds because of cucumbers!  She said, “After 2-3 days of waiting on dirt, they sprout and give us hope for the slow pokes.” (or something like that).  When I saw those first little leaves poking out, I felt like doing a celebration dance.  I’m pretty sure there was clapping and some whooping going on in the germination station area of the garage on seed spouting day.  :o)

 

Tray 2 of 2 (Tomatoes, tomatoes, more tomatoes, and some Alyssum flowers)

 

The Alyssum

Mr. Handsome is going need to hang my growlights from a “permanent” location because they’re getting sooo tall.  Right now, they’re just sitting on top of 6in pieces of wood (which has/will work fine until about Sunday or Monday.)

About our garden boxes, they are still empty (of plants/seeds) but all that’s going to change today.  It’s supposed to be unbelievably gorgeous outside today, so in goes the lettuce/spinach/carrots/onion sets.  I started onions from seed too, but none of my gardening family/friends had done that before and I was a bit uncertain of the outcome, so I bought some sets too.  So far, the onions have come up…kinda droopy yesterday (but that’s because I didn’t check the water the day before and it was pretty WARM in the germination station area of the garage yesterday afternoon.  So, hopefully, after a little drink, they’ll perk back up.

Back to dirt, we filled the last 2 boxes last Saturday with 4 more batches of Mel’s Mix.  We needed some additional “poo”/compost and other dirt ingredients:

• 2 bales 3.0 cu ft peat moss (Lowe’s) $8.96
• 4 Black Kow manure (Local Garden Center) $4.25
• 6 Manure compost & humus mix (Lowe’s) $1.47
• 4 organic soil conditioner (Lowe’s) $2.68
• 4 vermiculite –they were out of coarse, so I had to get fine, which we liked the use of more but we’ll see the outcome of the “dirt” once planted (Local Garden Center) $12
• 3 mushroom compost (Local Garden Center) $3

Because of the “fine” vermiculite, it seems to fill the boxes with less “dirt” so we had a bit left over.  We put part of it in a rubbermaid-like tote to use as potting soil for my transplants (which will not be too long) and the other part we split into 2 pots for my daughters K(3) & C(1) to have their own “garden” spot.  (Really, this is so they can dig in their own dirt and leave my plants and dirt ALONE!!)