Seed-Starting, Day Seven

The little zinnias that emerged so quickly earlier this week (above) have spent the past several days straightening up and fully opening their oval first leaves, or cotyledons. They are vigorous little things.

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Lemon basil (Mrs. Burns' Lemon Basil, Ocimum basilicum citriodora), in the left-hand cells above, was next up, with the first tiny points of green appearing on day four or five. A large-leaf container basil (Italian Cameo, Ocimum basilicum), in the right-hand cells above, appeared a day or so later -- you can see how very tiny these basils are when they first appear by looking at the one in the lower right cell.

The first tomatoes to appear were the tricolor cherry tomatoes (Garden Candy: A mixture of Sweet Gold F-1, Supersweet 100 F-1, and Sungold F-1), in the two lower rows above, with their slender, elongated first leaves. A few Big Beef seedlings, in the top two rows of cells above, came next, but they are already showing their greater size potential.

No sign yet of the remaining two varieties I started -- a container tomato and a green pepper.

I've been leaving the grow-lights on around the clock to add a little warmth and aid germination, but once everything's up that is going to come up I'll probably turn them off at night. Soon I'll start some lettuce, chard and radishes directly in the garden. It's been so wet that I'm waiting for some drier days before working the soil.