First aid procedures

Hey. I'm late, I know. I've been living hard and riding fast lately, and finally the busyness caught up with me. Last weekend I worked till 11 pm on friday, slept four hours, went to Helsinki and back, slept another 5 hours, then Helsinki again on Sunday. I was barely alive Saturday and Sunday evenings, so I actually forgot to water my plants and update the blog. But, it's been fun if nothing else!

Some of the chilis are in bad shape. I have given them water, heat and sunlight.

Ramiro looking sick.

Sad Duke is sad. Not so surprising, his friend is a rotting corpse. That happened before my carelessness, for unknown reasons.

As you can see, everyone else is feeling fine! Those are some handsome squash plants.

Next I'll have to make some wooden sticks so that the tomatoes and squash have something to climb along. Otherwise they will grow towards the window and become and one big mess of entangled stems and leaves. That can't happen, because then they will be next to impossible to transplant outside!

Transplantation and germination

Hey! I'm going to Helsinki to educate myself further this weekend, hence the early update.

I have moved most things to the window by now. I had eight cartons with tomato seedlings, and three of these I cut up and transplanted the seedlings each to their own carton. I only did three to see how they take it, because they are so super-delicate and I'm afraid of killing them. I could hear the roots snap on two, but they seem to be fine now!

I arranged the fan and curtains to create a warm microclimate by the window. In this picture, the fan is further away than in reality.

Squash germinating! Transplanted tomatoes looking fine.

Aji Amarillo Pequeno, finally. I thought it was lost.

The last chili also germinated, with the seed capsule is stuck to the tip of the seedling. I've had this happen with various plants, and usually I pick it off carefully, but this seedling is still so delicate, I'll wait.

In a few weeks the snow will probably be gone and the work outside will start. Maybe then there will be pictures of something besides milk cartons in this blog :)

A true garden warrior's desk on an ordinary day.

Seedlings of Chili and Tomato

Nothing much to report. Most seeds have germinated.

A friend lent me a fan that blows hot air. After sowing my tomatoes, nothing happened for a few days, but when I activated the fan, they germinated immediately. Correlation does not prove causality, of course.

The fan. Tomato cartons placed in a triangular formation so that each carton can catch as much heat as possible. This is how I made them germinate.

***

The unknown chilis growing well. The Aji Amarillo Pequeno next to it has not germinated at all! But it is the only pair that seems to have failed completely.

Ramiros looking tougher than all the others.

Tomatoes. Most germinated.

***

Within a week I shall transplant seedlings to individual cartons. What they need more of now is light, so I shall attempt to line them up on the windowsill in such a manner that the fan can keep them warm. This will present a new challenge: the fan will probably drop the relative humidity quite low. I have a couple of strategies I am considering for this problem.