The first question: Where to set up to do it?
Now you know we live in a very small house. The basement is totally taken up with workshop for our Irish bagpipe making business. The half-story upstairs is taken up with my portion of our business plus my seedling setup. That leaves two small bedrooms which are full, the kitchen (not a good idea), the living room (also not a good idea) and THE BATHROOM which is complete with water available. Eureka! So that's where I did my transplanting.
Two photos crudely spliced to give you the idea of what lengths I will go to to get my transplanting done...
So I worked for a good 5 hours on my knees transplanting tomato seedlings into hand rolled newspaper pots the size of a coca cola can. The pots worked well. My knees nearly died.
LESSON LEARNED: Don't try to transplant unless you have a good, comfortable place to do it in that won't disrupt your entire household. LOL But it worked and they are hale and hearty in their new bigger pots.
I only did half of the tray. The smaller typed of tomato didn't have enough root built yet. And my knees couldn't take any more.
17 comments:
Wow, now that is dedication to seedlings! My seedlings are in my bedroom, so in some ways I can feel your pain. I think I am using the same seed tray thingy that you are. Are you using Burpies seed starter kit?
Hello Zach. Thanks for stopping by and for leaving a comment. I've added your blog to my blogroll.
Yes I am using the Burpee Seed starter kit. It seems to work really well although I had trouble getting the seedlings out to transplant them. But as you can see in the photo, they don't seem to care now.
Hi Coneflower,
That's quite the gyrations you went through to do the transplanting! You need a potting bench for that sort of thing ... something to work on, eh? :-)
You are going to have soooo many tomatoes my dear! I wish I lived closer and I'd take a few off your hands, lol. But if you have the room for them, go for it! I'm still debating on whether to plant more than I was planning this year, just so I will have enough to can. I haven't canned them in several years, but when I did in the past, they sure came in handy in the winter and saved a lot of money. And in these times, I should probably do it. I used to can salsa fixings right in the jar, so maybe if we actually get a decent pepper crop this year I'll do that again.
Sorry I don't have a link to when we did the newspaper pots... never thought to post those sorts of things in the past, but it's a good idea. We also use toilet paper and paper towel tubes (with newspaper over the end) for seeds and those work really well too. In fact, I should quit sending those to the recycle bin and save them for the annuals we're planning on planting in April... thanks for jarring my memory!
Mercy! You are so right about the numbers of tomatoes. I have about 7 varieties too. Sure you don't want to buzz over to Ohio? I won't send you home empty-handed, for sure. LOL
Now I also have spinach, cabbage, bok choi, oregano, and, and, and I can't remember the rest, also sprouting. It's great fun watching them.
I've made my neighbor promise to take a bunch of the plants. If that doesn't work, I'll set up a stand in front of the house and give them away. :-)
"where there is a will there is a way" - you and your tomato plants prove the rule :)
Just one more month and they can go out side!
Thanks for your input on the camera. I have a Nikon S10 and it is my baby. It too has the VR, and I thank God for it every day! What would pics be like without it. So I understand what you are talking about...And no you are not too late!
Ilona!!!Another month? Oh no!! And in fact, up here in northern Ohio, it'll probably be more like 6 weeks. How could I miscount by so far? Yikes! They will be the size of redwoods by then. I'll need a derrick to move them. LOL
Hi Zach. Have you ever looked at http://www.nikonians.org ? It's a good place with forums about Nikon products. Good luck. Let me know what you decide.
Hi CF.
I've never had any luck with tomatoe plants. Then again, I've never had any luck with any plants I've tried to grow. I'm afraid I have a brown thumb instead of green. :)
That's interesting about your Irish bagpipe business. Just the other day I saw something on the History Channel about Irish bagpipes. Actually it was about all bagpipes, but they did go into some detail about the Irish bagpipes.
I know you're more than ready for Spring and Summer to get up there where you are. I'm afraid our Spring has already gotten here and our Summer is not to far behind. I really do dread the Summers here because of the heat and humidity. All I know is I don't know how people made it before air conditioning was invented. :)
I've got you added onto my blog roll and thanks for adding me onto yours.
Take care
FM
Wow! What a wonderful surprise! I'm so happy to see you. But I think you're a gardener in disguise. You grow grass, don't you? That's plenty of green. :-)
I can imagine you have that sort of heat down there already. Yikes! I'm worried about our summer temps here but they won't arrive until June most likely.
Hope to see you again soon.
Hello Coneflower,
I noticed your greeting on Olivia's blog and thought I'd be neighbourly!
You certainly seem to have your work cut out! A food magazine that I take gave free packets of tomato and basil seeds this month. I'm not at all green fingered and the thought of all that pricking out and potting on that you do brings me out in a sweat! I think the packets will remain unopened!
Good luck with finding a 'proper' place and with your crops.
Hi Derrick and welcome. Do you have a blog also? I'd like to read it.
Honestly, I think I'm doing everything in the hardest way possible. Everything would be so much easier with a potting shed where all this could be done outside. But it's still fairly chilly outside too. So what ya gonna do?
It sure is fun to watch the little critters grow though.
Hope to see you here again.
Hello again Coneflower,
Yes, I do have a blog. If you click on my name it will take you to my profile page and you can click through from there. Thanks.
Hi Derrick. Thanks. I'll see you on your blog. Ah ha! Scotland. Another topic that is near and dear to David and me.!!
Hi Coneflower,
I just happened onto your blog and had to laugh at all of your tomato plants. I too have just transplanted my tomatoes but where you have zillions, I only have 4. A heck of a lot easier for me:))
LOL flydragon, hello and welcome. Do you need more? I have plenty. :-) Have you planted anything else besides tomatoes?
Ha, no thanks on the offer of more, since I live in a condo and have limited garden space. My tomatoes are also smallish Tumbling Toms and are going into hanging baskets. They are the only edible things that I start from seeds. The rest are flowers. I don't know if you're interested but I've started gazanias, monkey flowers, salvia, petunias, stock, foxgloves, snapdragons, and begonias this year.
BTW I also live fairly close to you here in North East Ohio.
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