Well, it was a great experiment. Ultimately, I ended up transplanting a few sweet pepper and broccoli seedlings on April 16th. They were probably a little small, but we had to plant them. We had a open house that weekend and I didn’t want to distract any potential buyers with the mini-greenhouse that we had set up in our master bedroom. It was probably about two weeks early. A couple of the broccoli plants made it and produced a modest amount of broccoli (but nothing like we got off of the small plants we started last year.) And one pepper plant made it, but it wasn’t producing by the time we sold our house at the end of July. Hopefully the new owners enjoyed some lovely organic California Wonders.
Notes for next time-
- The egg cartons worked great as a cheap method of started the seedlings, but they need to be transplanted to something bigger for the last couple of weeks (second half of April).
- You can overwater your seedlings. Too much moisture seems to breed some kind of fungus.
- Starting flowers from seedlings seems to be a big pain.
- You need to invest in real grow lights to simulate sunlight. At the very least, a super sunny window is a must.
- If you are going to do it, be prepared to stay close to home from March-May, unless you have dedicated friends who will come over and tend to your babies!
I haven’t given up, but will probably not start seedlings again until we have a dedicated space for them.