Growing from seeds

This year, I have been experimenting heavily with seeds. I mostly buy my plants from HD but the selection are rather limited and those 6-packs have gone up in price considerably.

So far, I have been able to successfully grow many plants from seeds: Basil, Cayanne pepper, Eggplant, Zucchini, Okra, Onion, Tomatoes. I must have spent no more than $10 on plants and may be $20 in seeds so far. I started saving seeds last year and every seed I saved, grew :0

Eggplant from a discarded fruit
One of the white Japanese eggplants I bought last year was planted in a container and survived the winter. I ignored the small eggplant and let it ripe until it started to rot. I was going to toss it into compost but instead decided to experiment with its seeds. Those seeds germinated profusely within a couple of weeks of tossing them into an empty container.

I had to quickly transplant the crowded seedlings. Now I have at least 15 pairs of healthy plants transplanted in small containers and ready to go into the garden. These are about 1.5 month old, a bit slow growing but look healty. One of the container is Calendula and another with three melon-looking saplings is a Honey Dew - both grown from seeds. I have a bad habit of putting everything everywhere.



There are still about a dozen left that I need to find a room for soon


July 10, 2009
The plants are now settled in the garden. I managed to squeeze in some edamame in between.



Tamarillo (Tree tomato)
I planted the seeds back in February in a home-made mini-green house (plastic bottles). I few of them were killed by slug in a single night that I moved them to the main garden area. These survived and are doing very well. I am going to keep two and trade or give away others. Planted some more seeds the other day in the garde.



Chili (Cayenne Pepper)
I had about a dozen Cayenne Pepper that did very well last year. Quite a few ripened to bright red. Earlier this year, I bought some cayenne pepper from HD that were devoured by slugs overnight. That was when I started growing from seeds - cheaper if I lose plants that way.

I planted a handful of seeds from last year's chili into a greenhouse made of strawberry box and they came out heavy. These plants were about 3-4 weeks old. I still have some more thinning and transplanting to do.