Stepping up the pace

I have realised that using the multi-cell trays with small squares gives me good results - at least for now, so I have been proceeding with some repotting within the space that I have. This weekend I completed another 120-cell tray and also a 156-cell tray. I have now reached my space limit under the verandah awning so I'll have to be creative if I want to continue on this path.

My photo log of the tray that I pinned out last January...

Freshly done in January 26, 2008


This was taken in September 2008


And what it looks like now, in March 2009


These have really grown, and the survival rate is very good - maybe because there is less soil to harbour pests and to rot the roots, I think.

Other trays....

These were pinned out in October 2008


Pinned out in January 2009


And last week's work

I finished today's activity after dark so I don't have photos of my most recent handiwork. Will try to remember to take some shots within the week.

I'm clearly not as impatient as I used to be - when I just started out growing from seed, I would pin out 4-month seedlings into 2" pots so that they would have space to grow. Now I don't have the space to be so generous so they stay in the seed pots (those are now smaller also) for over a year before I pin out - except for the faster growing species. It's all about learning and adapting as I go along.

Keeping them growing

Despite the fact that I feel as though I've run out of space to safely grow my young seedlings (under some shelter but with enough sun), I need to keep them progressing at a reasonable pace. Today I pinned out some of the yearlings to a 120-cell tray so that each will have its own space to grow, however limited it might be.

I managed to find a space for the tray by moving over a partly hanging Sedum morganianum, which I have treated very badly. It needs repotting desperately, but I can't figure how to do it without doing great damage to all the tails.

Next week I will start the greenhouse if I can get the blocks for the foundation of the sides. I think I must - can't let this season go by and stifle the growth of all these plants. I'm not back to using my regular soil mix but I'm working with a combination of some commercially available soil and so far, it works for the seedlings under shelter. I can't swear what will happen if they have to be out in the rain - so I'm not putting them out - hence the need for the greenhouse where the watering will be controlled - delivered when I say so and not by Mother Nature.

Really need to update

Tonight I realised just how out of touch I have been with this blog. Many of my links are no longer valid and I haven't even looked in on those sites in so long it's almost shameful to retain them as blogs or links that I know anything about.

They will have to remain so for a while longer because an update is something that I'm NOT going to do now, in the wee hours of the morning. So until another day... it shall remain incorrect.

My daughter has influenced me into trying to grow somethings other than cacti - so now I am struggling to keep baby zinnias and petunias alive, and to add to the problems, we have now put in a batch of tomatoes and bell peppers... it would be great if she would remember to water the tray each day, but that's left up to me. Suffice it to say that more than once I have found the poor things wilted over and about to expire from lack of water. I don't know how this will turn out but I won't give up yet. Maybe I will discover a new passion, who knows??

Still slow (or so it seems)

I just don't know how to get past this. Maybe I'm down to once a month now, and should just try to work with that until I can figure out how to up the frequency.

What to write about? I hardly have time to keep my plants alive much less to process photos and other such excitement. Not that I don't want to, but all of a sudden it just feels like there is so much else to keep me busy -including spending time just doing NOTHING. That is something I have found I need to do more and more just to keep myself within a realm of sanity.

As usual, though, if nothing else I am trying to keep up with my baby babies, to see that they get to the stage of tolerating neglect. I sowed another batch of seed this past weekend, as though I even know where I'll put all these plants and if I'll have to time or energy to care for them. Trying to keep moving forward, at least.

These are some of my older babies - I guess about a year old or so - most of them. Photos from December... and not the best either but just what I have at hand right now.