Thursday, February 22, 2007

Seed Racing Update 2

As you recall, on October 15, 2006, just as winter was approaching, we planted some seeds in little peat cups in an attempt to get some plants into my barren yard and participate in that new gambling craze, Seed Racing. The contest is to see which species is ready to transplant into my garden first. We've got English Daisies, English Lavender, Painted Daisies and Gold Dust Alyssum. Here's the latest results.

The painted daisies (left) have done the best by far. I've got 7 out of 8 going and they're leading the pack with a whopping 2" of growth. The gold dust alyssums (right) are muddling along.


The English team has had spotty results. The English daisies (left) just recently started to grow and have almost caught the painted daisies. I've got 3, maybe 4 out of 12 of them growing. The English lavender (upper right hand corner) is just a strange mutant thing of a sprout.


Only one English lavender out of four came up and it looks like an alien vegetable from a light gravity planet. The stem is only a little thicker than a human hair, but it's still trying to produce leaves. I'm hoping it gets a little sturdier.

I've learned that October is a stupid time to plant seeds. Plants don't like to work in the winter. Like the French in August, plants take winter off and refuse to do anything productive even with our mild San Diego winter. I think it has something to do with the short days. Since we didn't spring for the growlight bulbs, the sprouts had to make do with natural light, what little there was. Now with spring almost here, the sprouts have returned to work and are taking off.

Now that you've seen the results, I'll let you vote again in the poll.


Which type of plant will be the first one to be transplantable?
English Daisies
Painted Daisies
English Lavender
Gold Dust Alyssum
I can't pick. This is too exciting! I need to go lie down for a while
  
Free polls from Pollhost.com

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