My seedlings are going very well and are not requiring much of me at the time. Every two or three days I rotate the trays (with respect to the sun) and I water the seedlings. To water the seedlings, I don’t pour water directly on top of my soil blocks. Instead, I pull at the sides of the trays and pour water in the tray so that it pools at the bottom and then works its way up the soil blocks.

A few of my seeds still haven’t germinated yet. I did discover that my borage seeds are no good, which definitely bums me out. But other than the borage, I actually have a very good germination rate – 88% to be exact.

So all is good. The weather is warming, my seedlings are growing, and I’m gearing up to transplant.

 

Below: Chamomile – my favorite seedlings. They are so tiny and delicate; it’s crazy to think of what they will become. My chamomile seeds germinated in under a week, making these seedlings 3 weeks old.

Below: Marigold. These guys germinated in a few days and are nearly 4 weeks old.

Below: Lemon balm. I love how you can see the tiny “spikes” on their leaves. My lemon balm germinated in a week, making these seedlings 3 weeks old.

Below: Dill, 3 weeks old.

Below: Parsley. The parley took two weeks to germinate, making these seedlings 2 weeks old.

Below: Basil. Three weeks old and already smelling very fragrant.

Below: Thyme (in the background) and oregano (in the foreground). Both about 3 weeks old.

Below: Starting with the row in the foreground and working back: sweet peppers, chile peppers, and San Marzano tomatoes. The tomatoes are 3 weeks old and the peppers are 2 weeks old.

Below: Bells of Ireland, 3 weeks old. These guys got too tall and leggy and started to fall over. In fact, when they fell over, some of their stems got bent pretty bad and I was concerned they weren’t going to make it. I transplanted them deep enough so that the seedling leaves sat right above the soil level. The buried stem quickly grew roots, thus better anchoring the seedling. As you can see, they’re still growing like crazy. They are a bit too leggy for my taste, and I’m eager to get them outside on nice days to start hardening them off.