I started my Chocolate Bells a couple weeks ago. From everything I've read I expected a germination rate of somewhere between 14-21 days. With those seedling heating mats...I had 7 of the 12 sprout within 5 days. So, in retrospect - invest in heating mats....worth the money! As of this morning I've had 4 more of them sprout making 11 for 12. I was expecting 75% but this is amazing.
Once sprouted, I took the heating mats out and got the lil seedlings under the T5's.
so here they are 12 days from sprouting...just starting to get the 1st set of real leaves.
I was thinking ( I do way too much of that ) that the openings on my Squash arbor may be a lil too wide to support a rope trellis.... So, I cut the roof apart and added 4 lateral supports. Measured and painted.. reattached and waiting to bring outside for final assembly. I really hope this works... If it doesn't it will be because of some short sighting of mine... prob wind and storm sturdiness...I'll keep working on stabilizing it for weather.
(BTW - NOT as nuclear red as my camera makes it seem to be).
And lastly, as I said before my plow guy hit the raised bed back in January. I took it as an opportunity to to upgrade and improve. I re-cut the sides and added and extra foot, also got rid of the OSHA staging plank..not sure if that was treated, so I cut it up and got rid of it.
Old bed was a total of 80 sq ft. (16 x 5 )
New bed is 96 sq ft. (16x6) - also turned the layer of cow manure I dressed it with last October.
...next is sifting/leveling and amending. See ya soon.