Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Planting - Lettuce / Broccoli

Broccoli, take three

I started the first round of lettuce and spring broccoli this evening. I've had nothing but problems trying to start broccoli the last two years. Those years, I started the broccoli outside in the greenhouse. I think the wide swings of temperature in the greenhouse were too much for the young broccoli. This year they are in the house with nice stable temperatures. I'm interested to see what I get this time around.

Soil Blocks

I've had great success with soil blocks and will use them for everything that can be started in them. Last week I started tomatoes in 2" blocks. Today I used the 3/4" blocks for lettuce and broccoli. Blocks of this size are easily out grown, but they are also compact and allow me to start a lot of single seeds, resulting in more than enough plants, even with spotty germination. As it turns out, I've had great luck with germination in this manner and will have enough starts to share with all interested.
3/4" soil blocks - 160 total

Top Row (Left->Right): 
  • Mascara Lettuce (x20); Territorial Seed
  • Drunken Woman Fizzy Head (x20); Territorial Seed
  • Marshall Lettuce (x20); 
  • Italienischer Lettuce (x20);
Bottom Row (Left->Right)
  • Valmaine Lettuce (x20)
  • Fiesta Hybrid Broccoli (x20) (Pelleted)
  • Broccoli Sampler from Cedar Grove Nursery (x20) (Not sure the exact variety)
  • Blank, for now.

4 comments:

  1. Mascara lettuce, Drunken Woman Fizzy Head.....Did you choose some of your seeds beause of the names?

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    Replies
    1. For sure -- the names are great. And, as it turns out, these two lettuce varieties are very good and make great contributions to our salad family.

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  2. The seed starting season is definitely in full swing now. It sounds like you are having good success this year.

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    Replies
    1. So far, so good. The spring race is on, though it is more about proper pace than speed. I think I Getty a bit better at that with each passing year.

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