RIP Sprouts

Well, apparently one or more of the chickens broke past my cloche's defenses at some point yesterday, because when I went to check on the sprouts this morning it was clear that there had been a sprout massacre!

Only two sad little radishes were left standing!!! So sad!

I have hopes that some of the salad greens may still rally, and there is still a chance that some of the spinach seeds that I put in last weekend will sprout.

After a mourning period, I recovered the cloche much more securely and went and started some new seeds.

I'd been saving up some old egg cartons so I filled the bottom portions with soil and started more radishes in one and more salad greens in the other.

They are hanging out in the sun on our kitchen table right now. I've been thinking of getting a little IKEA shelf for going across our kitchen window which would be an ideal spot for starting seeds - that will just have to wait until I have the energy for an IKEA trip.

In the meantime, I'm still waiting to see if the peas will sprout. Right after I planted them we had a bit of rain, and last night there was a light frost.

If I don't see any action by next weekend, I'll plant more seeds.

Sprout Update

The Sprouts still seem to be doing well. The radishes are growing at a good rate - they are a couple inches tall now and looking strong. In just a couple more weeks I might even have a harvest!

The salad greens are still growing too - but much slower. It's a mix, so it's interesting to see the different kinds of greens coming up - different sizes and colors.

I remember reading about doubling rate in the gardening book, but now I think I'm getting a first hand lesson.

Basically even thought I got a head start planting the greens, they are growing so slowly due to the cold that greens started several weeks later would probably be ready for harvest at about the same time, because they will grow so much faster in the warmer weather.

At least they are alive - I'll count that as a victory, and eventually - I'll get a salad out of it!

Yesterday I dropped a few spinach seeds in the bed with the greens and radishes, so we'll see how those do.

Seed germination test.

While thinking about what to grow this year, I remembered that several years ago I grabbed a number of seed packets out of a 'free' pile at a chicken keeping workshop.

I went and found the packets - quite a few of them - and saw that they were all stamped with "03". So that means I've got at least a dozen 7-year-old seed packets on my hands.

Rather than just throwing them all out, I thought I may as well do a quick test to see if they were still viable. I started with the radishes, thinking that if the seeds were in fact still good, I could try an early planting.

I assembled the necessary components; seeds, paper towels, plastic bag, and plant mister.

I sprinkled about a dozen seeds on the moistened paper towel, folded it up, placed it into the plastic bag, and waited.

Less than 48 hours later I took a peak and much to my surprise found that every single seed had sprouted!

A little bit of research has since told me that radishes are known for their high germination rates - but 100% germination of 7-year-old seeds is still really impressive!

Finding all the seeds so happy, I went and popped the sprouted seeds into the prepared raised bed next to the lettuce seeds that had been planted a few days before.

No signs of green yet - hopefully I'm not pushing my luck too much planting them this early!