Mission Endure 47: Starting Seedlings

We planned to start our indoor seedlings today and the weather actually cooperated. We start our seedlings indoors every year to give our warm weather plants a head start so that we can transplant them outside when the weather warms up sometime after the average last frost date of April 15

As you can see if the photo above, I spread out the seed packets on the hood of the Grand Chreokee and surveyed what I had. We ordered some seeds from both Baker Creek and Johnny’s and we also have some additional seeds that we saved from our Tomato and Jalapeno harvest from last year. We had some very productive Tomatoes and Jalapenos last year, so I will plant those seeds alongside these and compare them as we get closer to transplant time. I will plant the flowers at another time.

This year we thought we would try a new, more self-sufficient technique, and use Keurig K-Cups for our starter beds. We have been keeping our used K-Cups all year and have more than we can ever use this year. As long as we transplant the seedlings before they become root-bound I think the K-Cups will work well. This may be a good resource for us to re-use many years in a row. The K-Cups are about the right size and they have a hole pierced in the bottom for the coffee to flow through. This will help they water to drain out of them and will allow them not to become waterlogged.

We planted the seedlings with potting mix and moved them outdoors for watering.

The seedlings are all watered up and ready for warmer weather. It was so nice that we left them outside for the afternoon. Temps were in the high 60s with a few more days of warm weather in the forecast. In about a week or so we should start start to see seedlings poking up through the soil.