Working with specimen program

[ideasguy]

Good to hear you are ready for next session!
I'll get to this ASAP folk

[diegartenfrau]

you mean a table like this

http://diegartenfrau.blogspot.com/2010/02/growing-seeds.html

I made one a few years ago, it has been working pretty good for me.
I think your plants should do good with this timing of light and dark.I am not sure what the formula was, but I had mine on for 14-16 hours.
This year, since my sun room is much too cold to start seedlings at this time, especially peppers and eggplants, I also with the help of my husband (I could have it done myself, but he always wants to help with these manly things >lol< so sometimes I let him),  built a warming tray with that foam stuff coated in shiny aluminum and these Christmas rope lights. I am still waiting for my thermostat to better control it. I haven't planted anything yet, first I wanted to se how warm the soil in the pots will get. I think it will work fine I measured about 73 F today. As long it is as cool as it got again I don't think I even need the thermostat.

I am trying to start my tomatoes, peppers and eggplants earlier this year, bigger plants in the NW I heard will produce earlier. The trick is just to keep them warm and transplant to bigger pots as the grow. Otherwise I only am starting seeds I will be able to plant out early season, before they get too big for their pots. Where in the PNW are you located? Our official last frost is April 24th, but since we have moved half a gardening zone higher now due to global warming it is unofficially now April 15th so I am adjusting my planting dates.
I had the same problem with my row covers last year, I did have hoops to hold the row cover but neighbors cats shredded the row covers to pieces. I think when it is a bit windy they move in the wind a little, even they are clipped to hoops and the cat's think it is a fun toy to play with. I was so mad. I have lost a lot of veggie seedlings to neighbors cats digging in my beds, not to think about the presents they leave in there. I really think cats do not belong outside, they should be in the house.

I also have one bed I kept free of plantings, but now I am thinking I might use it for growing more peppers and eggplants, I decided to grow a few of my older Hybrid seeds and I might try to grow them out to OP seeds. I'll know in a few years if I succeed>lol<

I started a few years ago saving the seeds of my salad and endives, then I added Tomatoes and peppers.  I am still a novice at it myself but I really want to learn to save all my seeds, as much as my yard allows since so many of the heirlooms are disappearing thanks to Monsanto and Co, if we want to preserve OP seeds we'll have to do it ourselves I am afraid.
Some are more difficult to save and some are almost impossible to save on a regular sized yard, since they cross pollinate each other for 1/2 a mile or more.
I have several compost bins and I use that, we also added chickens last year and they give me good fertilizer. My beds are filled with gardensoil from our local compost facilities, plus my home compost/chicken compost and finished off with mint straw. Which I learned last year is supposed to be the cream of the crop for gardenbeds.
I also add some home mixed organic fertilizer and in between I give them diluted Fish fertilizer and Kelp water.
Often I forget to fertilize though, one of the things I need to improve at >lol<

I wish you too a successful growing season
Isabell

[bossgard]

Isabell:

You are giving me the encouragement I need to forge ahead with my Veggie Garden!
Thanks, for sharing the pic of the seed starting rack, mine is about the same, except maybe yours is a little bit larger.

I live within about an hour's drive from downtown Seattle, that's the place where its supposed to rain all the time, but really doesn't.

I will get back to you soon, I have some things to do first thing this morning.
I'll answer some of your questions, and probably ask you a few more.
Hope you don't mind.

Thanks, again, for sharing.

- Toby

[diegartenfrau]

I encountered another challenge with planning the tasks of the vegetables, which has to do with succession sowing, but using different named varieties of the same Vegetable.

I have many varieties of the same vegetables, but I don't necessary want to plant them at each sowing.
So I made specimens for example for my Beets.
I have
Beet 'Burpee's Golden'
         'Chiogga'
         'Egyptian'
         'Golden Beet'
         'Golden Detroit'
         'Intermediate Yellow Mangel'
         'Kestrel'
         'Three Root Grex'

So I made 3 Specimen files for each Beet variety. Then I wanted to make the Tasks for the 1st sowing.  I first added all my Beets to the task, thinking as I select Specimens for the 1st batch I can un-click the ones I don't want to use in the 1st sowing. But then I saw all the Beets in my Task, just the ones I selected in the batch file had the *yes* and the others just yes. All the Beets are still shown in the task program. So there is no way I can deselect the specimens I don't want in the 1st sowing, but maybe I want in the second sowing or 3rd....
Then I choose to delete all the other Beets from the task, leaving only the 2 Beets I want in my 1st sowing.....now I am thinking the only way to plan the second sowing with different varieties is to make a 2nd, 3rd, 4th......task for each time I want to plant the same vegetable, but a different named variety of the same vegetable. Which now adds to many more tasks to add, since I was planning to seed many vegetables as often the season allows me to do, but in small quantities.

So is there a way around this? If I have to make all these separate Tasks for each variety, wouldn't it be much easier to just use the Task program, forget about the Specimen program and eliminate extra steps, since now it looks like the specimen only allows me to plan succession sowing of the same variety. I still would have to do all the separate tasks anyway?

Maybe I am not understanding the procedure properly

Or is this something which would be covered in the next lesson?

When are we getting to the next lesson anyway?

Isabell

[ideasguy]

RE:

When are we getting to the next lesson anyway?

We have a rather different way of asking for things in Ireland

Sessions 6, 7 and 8 are now published:
http://www.garden-software.co.uk/vegetables/

To all:
Please follow the steps explained in the Sessions, and restrict questions to the sessions, material and screenshots presented, otherwise the topic will be impossible for others to follow.

To Isabell
RE:

Maybe I am not understanding the procedure properly

Since in your last posting you have mentioned successive sowings then yes, that might be the case.
We haven't got to Sessions 10 yet (where successive sowings will be discussed)

You have to follow the procedure as described.
To get the most from this project, I would advise you to start again and try to create tasks which are exactly the same as described in the sessions.
Do first sowings ONLY at this stage
I think you have missed important points in Session 3 (Specimens) - where it explains that you have to create Batch References.
As you can see from the Index to the project, Session 10 will explain how to continue to a second sowing.