Monsters Move Outside

It's early April -- the warm weather is here a tad early -- and it's planting time.

Gentlemen -- Start Your Engines!

The final, and probably the most important step, in the growing from seed process has now arrived for my indoor tomato and pepper plant starters. It's time for the babies to grow up and move outside.

This happens to be the biggest source of frustration for many growers who are "sans" greenhouse. The "hardening off" process can just be maddening to go through, because you never truly know when the plants that you've been nurturing for months are finally ready for outdoor conditions.

I can tell you this much: moving indoor plants outside and leaving them there is a sure way to lose a crop. I've lost them before. This process isn't easy, nor is it scientific. You can do everything right -- that is -- by the book -- and still do something wrong.

Indoor plants are used to indoor conditions. They've had a constant source of warmth. No stiff wind to deal with. They don't deal with cold mornings or hot days. Indoor plants are accustomed to getting 12-hours of light, generous feedings of fertilizer and water and a constant temperature of 72 degrees.

Putting it short and sweet: What you've got is a bunch of spoiled brats.

Putting the babies outside -- then -- is somewhat of a shock. But you've got to do it at some point -- and by the looks of these photos -- the time has come. The plants are ready for their permanent home, but introducing them to outside conditions has to be done slowly and carefully.

The babies just spent another two hours outside this morning. And they reacted much better than yesterday, where some where wilting after just two short hours under a covered patio. They recovered soon enough and seemed to handle today's cool morning weather quite well.

Hardening off plants is a difficult thing to do if you work full-time like Venus and I. We simply do not have the hours in the day to monitor this plants. We can give them extended time -- and plenty of attention -- during the weekends. But -- during the week -- it's a short two hours in the morning and another dose of outside conditions at the end of the workday.

At some point -- probably by next weekend -- I'm going to choose one of these plants for an experiment. This will be my "Canary in a Coalmine" so to speak. If it can survive one full day and one full night outside -- in rough outdoor conditions -- then my "hardening off" procedures will have worked.

But -- if it up and dies -- I've got more work to do.

Should my "Canary in a Coalmine" survive this "final" test -- then all plants will be placed outside. But -- we're not done yet. This is yet another step. The plants will be kept under a patio cover, shielded from the harshest rays of outdoor sunlight for another four to five days. They will get limited sun in the late afternoon -- but that's a perfect introduction to outdoor conditions.

Finally, at one point in the next two weeks, the Canary in a Coalmine that survived the first full day and night outside will be placed in direct sunlight and darkness for a full 24-hours. This will be the final test.

If it lives -- congratulations son -- you just grew your own tomato garden.

The "Rinky Dink" Seed Starting Effort

I suppose you could also call this "starting seeds on the cheap," because it is that and more. Venus and I took the time to start more varieties of tomato and pepper seeds on Saturday, because demand for what is growing in nearby greenhouses is growing.

I started to get a tad worried when the brother-in-law called up from his Serrano neighborhood in El Dorado County and attempted to "reserve" six of our tomato plants. How nice of him. Not only did he want some of our heirloom starter plants for his gardening efforts, he also wanted to give some away to his neighbors.

Wait a minute. Does that sound right? He wants OUR tomato plant starter to give to HIS neighbors? The brother-in-law is known for his rather outlandish requests after consuming a quart or four of Canadian Mist Whiskey (which we refer too as "Canadian Moose Piss"), but his request for plants isn't the first and I don't think it will be the last either. In short, the backyard garden is back in a big way, and everyone wants those hard-to-find heirloom varieties.

I can't blame them. There's simply nothing quite like the taste of vine-ripened heirloom tomatoes. Once you bite into a Brandywine or an Azoychka, you're hooked.

Venus and I don't have a greenhouse yet (it's on the list of "things to do'), but we did convert and old wine rack into a seed starting rack -- complete with hooks to hold grow lights and space for heating pad to keep the babies warm. This is about as "frugal" as frugal can get, so experienced growers will be anything but "impressed." However -- as cheap as this setup is -- it does work.

Venus and I prefer to invest a few bucks in the Jiffy seed starting kits that are starting to appear by the millions in places like your big box stores (Walmart and Home Depot), and even in the smaller locations such as grocery stores or your independent hardware retailers. You can buy "big" like we did for large scale starting efforts. Or, if you don't have the room, you can buy the small package which looks very much like a carton of a dozen eggs.

These kits come complete with two trays and compressed peat moss pellets. All you need to do is add warm water, and those compressed peat moss pellets grow and expand like nobody's business. They have a somewhat erie resemblance to the pods featured in the now-famous movie "Alien," once they fully expand. However, I guarantee you that nothing is going to pop up and attach itself to your face.

After adding the appropriate amount of water (about a gallon) -- the pods are ready for planting. Venus and I planted three complete rows of green, red and yellow peppers. We then planted half rows of various heirloom tomato varieties, including Red Reif Heart, Pink Ping Pong, Green Zebra, Arkansas Traveler and a cherry variety we purchased at Lockhart Seed. It immediately drew Venus' attention, because the packet of seeds promised cherry tomatoes that are "very high in brix content."

That's important for an event that Venus and I will attend later this year with about three to four hundred other tomato nerds. An event that promises a payday of $2,500 or more! And for this event, you need tomato varieties that are high in brix content (the brix meter was developed to measure the sugar content in wine and table grapes, but does have other uses).

Venus and I used chopsticks to poke holes in each pod, drop in some seed, then use the chopstick to cover the seed. It's that simple. After labeling each row, we moved the pods inside the house to a bedroom converted for "seed starting purposes." If this looks "Mickey Mouse," I promise you that it is. But I promise you, this works. The seeds have everything they need to sprout and grow. The covered seed pods create a "rainforest effect," which is essential to starting seeds indoors. The heating pad ensures strong root growth and thick stems, and the light source is more than enough. In fact, the light might even be overkill.

As I've stated before -- you can put these seed starting kits on a windowsill and they'll be just fine.

From previous experience I know that the tomatoes will germinate first. The peppers usually need a bit more time. Peppers, unlike tomatoes, require HEAT to really get going, so these seedlings will be rather unhappy at first. But, by the time of plantout at the end of April, I'm expecting starter plants in the one to two foot range.

At some point, Venus and I will also transplant the pods into larger cups, but that's another project for another day.

Here's hoping we have enough to satisfy growing "demand." Stay tuned!