RE: Re; Seedling Photos

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Francelle:  Have you ever thought about planting your seeds in pots?  I have used 6" pots for years and find it to be the best solution to many problems.  When I lived in New Mexico, I had problems with enough moisture over one dry winter, but in later years, I stored the pots in the coldest area I could find and made sure they didn't dry out.  I was able to cover the pots with screening to keep out the squirrels and when the seedlings started to sprout, if a freeze came along, and it always did, I just brought the pots into the back of the house, in an enclosed porch area.  When I moved to DC, the same worked for me there...(more Squirrels then ever before)...Paul Black even suggested that the seeds 'communicated' chemically with one another and stimulated germination when they were clustered together.  This makes them a little harder to separate when its time to plant, but you don't tie up the ground with seed that could take up to ten years to germinate.  I have Never had any kind of "greenhouse" syndrome, as you describe...Perhaps you have reasons you do it this way, thought I'd just put in my two cents worth of personal experience......Good luck on the seedlings, they are so much fun...I love when they start to poke their heads out of the ground......Paul

FRANCELLE EDWARDS <fjmjedwards@worldnet.att.net> wrote:

.  I have about 400 seedlings that are pressing up under their row covers.  They were planted directly into the ground in mid-November and covered with seed blankets held over them by wire semi-circles.  I?m certainly glad I peeked on the 2^nd of January for then I discovered I was feeding a bunch of cutworms.  Off came the cover while I dusted with Bug B Gone.  Now some of them are five to six inches tall, and I fear are beginning to suffer from greenhouse syndrome, becoming too tender.  Yesterday I took the cover off of two of the most vigorous crosses to start hardening them up.  We had a light frost last night, but it didn?t hurt them.  If a hard freeze is predicted one of these nights, I?ll have to drape it back over them.