herb update

About a month ago, I ordered some more herb seeds, this time from Renee's Garden.  The Greek oregano, French thyme, and French rosemary I planted have now all germinated, and the little seedlings are doing wonderfully.

Click on the slideshow to view it larger in Picasa:


The sweet basil replant and the fino verde basil are also looking very healthy.

Sweet basil:

 

Fino verde basil:

 

The main difference (so far) between the sweet and fino verde basil is in the shape and curvature of the leaves.  The sweet basil leaves are much more rounded and arc upward, while the fino verde basil leaves are pointed and lie flat. 

Here're both side-by-side for easy comparison:

In terms of flavor, the fino verde basil is supposedly stronger and spicier than sweet basil, and Seeds of Change says that the leaves retain their flavor even after flowering.

The shelf cilantro is doing well.  I've moved it to a west-facing windowsill, and while it's hard to beat the growth rate in a greenhouse, all of the seedlings now have primary leaves.

We're starting to get into sunnier and warmer weather here, which is creating nicer growing conditions for the plants by the window and adding intense broad spectrum supplementary light to the greenhouses.  It would be nice to live somewhere that had sunnier winters so that the fluorescent lights would be supplemental to the daylight instead of the other way around.

happy plants and new sprouts, new slideshow soon

I have to say, I'm really quite impressed with how well the plants have taken to the new greenhouse post-transplant.  I've read that some plants, particularly peppers, don't like to be transplanted.  Thus far, I've seen nothing but improvements in all the plants, especially the tomatoes.  It's really better than I could've hoped for.  In only a few days time, I've seen not only tremendous growth, but also a return of the green pigment to the shriveled and yellowing leaves.  I'm working on a slideshow to show-off the progress the tomato plants have made.  It's really so nice to see them all looking so leafy and green again.  I think they are going to make a full photo-bleaching recovery.

The cilantro plots seem to be doing well in their new pot by the window:

They really look so small there, though, especially compared to the cilantro herb packets that they sell at the grocery store.

Somehow the Fino Verde basil and the tarragon have sprouted already, even though I just planted them Sunday night.  This has to be a record, and an especially impressive one at that, considering that I'm not using the seedling heat mat to speed up the germination.

The newly sprouted FinoVerde basil:

and the tarragon:

I still haven't installed any fans for ventilation, although I have put in a few more velcro flaps.  Hopefully I'll have time to work on the ventilation and air circulation this weekend.

happy cilantro and transplanting soon

This morning I raised the light fixtures on both shelves again.  The general recommendation for mounting is ~3" above the tallest plants.  The tomato plants are growing taller and taller in spite of their discolored leaves and the purple opal basil seemed to be showing some signs of photobleaching, so I decided to raise up the fixtures another inch or so.

The cilantro on the shelf is doing fantastic.  I'm really pleased that this idea seems to be working out so well.

The Greenhouse Gardener's Companion says that it's generally a good idea to transplant seedlings from their tray to a larger pot when they have produced 3-4 leaves.  The garden sage, pimientos de padrón, basil, syriaca zaatar marjoram, cilantro, tarragon, and the tomatoes have all reached this point, so this weekend they will all get new larger pots.  This means I will also need to fashion a new greenhouse structure to contain these new pots and purchase the new light fixture that will illuminate them.  I'm really excited about transplanting the seedlings.  I like to think that a larger pot and fresh soil will do them all good.

more light isn't always better

When I returned from winter break, the plants were all healthy and green.  I took some really nice pictures of all the first primary leaves of the tomato plants and everything was really looking great.  I had been concerned over break, about the insufficient lighting for the two trays.  One, 2' T5 bulb per tray didn't really seem sufficient, and the phototropism in the plants along the edge of the tray clearly indicated a more uniform light source would be an improvement.

Phototropism of the Chadwick cherry tomatoes (tray 1):

My response to this phototropism was to add an extra 2' T5 bulb to each shelf, which was probably fine.  My mistake was in increasing the ontime of the fixtures at the same time.  The extra light combined with the extra exposure time seems to have primarily affected the tomato seedlings.  It's also possible that this was responsible in part for the yellowing of the cilantro leaves, but I think that the brown tips really indicated that they were being overwatered as well.  The tomatoes on the second tier slowly started to get yellow, dried out leaves.

Santiam tomatoes with signs of photobleaching (tray 2):

Somehow it didn't occur to me that this yellowing was due to the increased lighting and exposure time.  I was distracted by other potential weaknesses of the greenhouse, and thought that they could be the cause.  First, I thought that it was the lack of ventilation, and so I cut vents into the plastic sheeting on both shelves and made sure that the plastic sheeting behind the electric heater on the bottom shelf was open a little so that the fan would suck in fresh air when the heater turned on.  Then I thought that the tomato seedlings were getting too warm.  They still had the seedling heat mat under them heating the soil both day and night, and the lights kept the air and plants quite warm during the day.  So, I took another series of temperature measurements over the course of two and a half days (data forthcoming).  This confirmed my suspicion that, during the day at least, the air was getting quite warm (in the upper 80s F), and since the heat mat is supposed to raise the soil temperature by 10-20F above the ambient air, this seemed quite warm.  Just like with the addition of the vents, however, turning off the heat mat and raising the light fixtures, did not solve the problem of the yellowing leaves. 

Around the same time, the leaves on the tomato seedlings on the top tier also started to lose their green color, but instead of just yellowing, they started to look really dry and almost crumbly.

Crumbly, dry leaves on Fox cherry tomatoes (tray 1):

When I finally figured out that it could be photobleaching (which really should've occurred to me much sooner), I switched the light timer back to 15 hours per day and pulled the trays off to the side of the shelves so that they weren't receiving as much direct light.  I tried to let them recover in partial shade for a few days before I put them back fully under the lights.  This seems to have helped.  The green pigment is starting to return to the tomato plants on the second shelf, and most of the tomatoes on the first shelf no longer have crumbly leaves.

Improvement (tray 2):

My current thought is that at best I've just lost a month or so in plant growth, and that they'll eventually recover.  I probably need to thin them pretty soon, anyway, and that the stronger plants should hopefully survive.  It does seem strange to me that only the tomatoes and the cilantro seem to have been affected.  None of the other plants seem to be showing signs of photobleaching.

The worst case is that the plants never really recover and continue to have stagnant growth, never really putting out any more leaves until I finally give up on them.  I'm clearly hoping that this isn't the case.  I have started a few new Maglia Rosa cherry tomato seeds in the empty slots adjacent to the dill and tarragon in the second shelf tray as a sort of backup plan and to make use of the space that I'm heating and lighting 15 hours a day.  These have already started to sprout (quick, even without the heat mat).

Maglia Rosa cherry tomatoes (take two):

The cilantro by the window has also sprouted, though less vigorously than when in the greenhouse.

cilantro improved

The cilantro seems to have responded well to not being watered.  From Sunday morning until late Wednesday afternoon, I let the cilantro plants dry out.  Some of the wilted, brown leaves will probably never recover, but all of the plants have sprouted new leaves and are looking much better.

Day 48:

 

 

 

I'm currently watering them only every couple of days.  The stems seem floppy regardless, and I'm starting to think that they'd perhaps do best growing in a horizontal trellis for extra support.

As a result of the overall health of the cilantro plants, their sensitivity to heat, and the desire to have a constant supply of fresh cilantro, I've decided to start germinating a fresh batch of cilantro seeds outside of the greenhouse.

 
The Slow Bolt cilantro can supposedly germinate at temperatures much colder (55-65F) than the other plants I'm growing in the greenhouse.  So, I placed a handful of the seeds in organic seedling soil mix, watered the soil, and put the planter by a south-facing window.  I've covered the planter with a plastic container to keep in the moisture and allow the soil to retain at night some of the heat from the day.  With the larger planter I also can avoid the hassle of having to transplant them later.

sick cilantro, bolt, measuring second shelf temperature

I think I've been overwatering the cilantro.  The problem with an overwatered plant, is that except for the soil, it can look a lot like an underwatered plant, or an overheated plant.  Here's my wilty cilantro as of yesterday morning:

There are a lot of yellow leaves, some with brown edges, others with brown stems.  I had been erring on the side of overwatering the seedlings since I'd found some of the tomatoes looking particularly wilted after going more than 12 hours without water.  But I guess that was a few weeks ago, and it's probably time to start spacing out the waterings a little more.  I haven't watered the cilantro since yesterday morning, and am going to wait until at least tomorrow morning, even though the soil now looks quite dry.  Hopefully they'll be able to recover.

During my research into causes for droopy cilantro, I found out some interesting information about the plant.  I'd like to amend a previous post where I jokingly attributed the "Slow Bolt" name for the cilantro seeds I planted to a comparison between how long they germinated and how quickly they grew.  I now know that "bolt" actually refers to an herb sending up a flower stalk.  The flavor of the leaves often changes after it has flowered so bolting is undesirable, and the slower it happens, the better.  Cilantro in particular bolts due to temperature increase, typically when the soil temperature rises above 75F.  I didn't take that into consideration when I chose to plant it on the cooler top shelf and in a tray without a seedling mat, but it's good information regardless.  It also helps me rule out underheating as a cause for the wilting plants.

In other temperature related news, I'm starting to worry that the plants in the second shelf might be getting too warm.  They are closer to the electric heater meaning increased air temperature and are also on top of a seedling mat meaning further increased soil temperature.  I put the USB thermocouple on the second shelf yesterday evening, and am planning on letting it collect data until tomorrow night.  It will be interesting to compare these new data to those I collected previously from the top shelf.

new seeds and cilantro slideshow

The Pimiento de Padrón and sunflower seeds arrived yesterday from Renee's Garden. The package says that they take 10-21 days to germinate, and that they need to stay very warm (75-80F). I planted them toward the back of tray 2 so that they hopefully won't even cool off when I open the greenhouse flap for watering. The back half of tray 2 also receives the most sunlight, which should help not only with warmth, but also the strong light source that the seedlings supposedly will require once they've sprouted.
I think I finally understand why the cilantro seeds I planted are called "Slow Bolt." They took 7 days to show any signs of germinating, but since they first started to emerge, they've grown very rapidly, and have now almost caught up to the tomato sprouts in height.

Click for full screen viewing in Picasa: