Germination and Seedling starter

[Avidgreenthumb]

This is my second year using my grow cabinet. It is nothing too fancy but will be slowly adding in some environment monitoring and hopefully some basic controls. Last year my plants were ready way to early. I can get a consistent warm temp 75-80f and getting good germination rates, but I wasn't ready for how quickly things progressed. This year I should be right on schedule for hardening off and not need to worry about having plants get root bound or just going into an early flower. Battle some edema on peppers also.
The picture is from last year.

 

[Avidgreenthumb]

Starting to get some the hardware and software put together using Home Assistant. I can now trend some data to see what is going on throughout the day. Have control over exhaust fans for when this get too hot and when a heater turns on at night when things get cold.

 

[riverhamill]

Wow - looks beautiful. Do you fertilize the seedlings? If so, what do you use? Thanks Peggy

 

[Avidgreenthumb]

I do fertilize after the second set of true leaves for peppers and tomatoes. I use either diluted fish emulsion or worm leachate. Sometimes top dress with worm castings. Thanks for the kind words.

 

[Genevieve]

How long do you leave the grow lights on?

 

[Avidgreenthumb]

The lights are left on for 16hrs each day.

Here is a couple pictures from today. So far everything is doing well. Some peppers have some darkening leaves so I'm trying to narrow down the cause of that.

 

[Avidgreenthumb]

Summer has officially ended in zone 3 today. We've had 1 light frost so far but it didn't do very much damage thankfully. We had a pretty good year with most of the garden but had some issues with a few things. Got a really big storm mid summer (first pics) which set a few things back but for what it was, it didn't hurt too much. It was 3" of rain in a couple hours and big winds. I have never seen it rain so much in a short span, but the garden drained the way it should, thankfully. Still have lots of garlic to put it next week.




I disassembled my DIY cabinet and bought a 8x8 grow tent for doing more growing through the winter. Along with some better LED fixtures which has helped heat and power usage. I plan to grow some of the herb cuttings I've propagated. As well as lettuce, radish, 2 tomatoes, 2 peppers, 3 bush beans, microgreens, some other herbs and maybe a couple other bigger plant if I can find some space.

 

[Avidgreenthumb]

Some updated pictures. I brought in some outdoor pepper plants which also brought in some aphids. Luckily we haven't had too many negative Celsius temps so I was able to recruit some help from the garden. One picture is a lady bug going to town on an aphid.
The lettuce has been growing fast so I'm able to start cutting and eating from it and also getting a bunch of basil to cook with. Very little fungus gnats but I went ahead and bought some carnivorous plants to help out with those. Also because they are just sooo cool.
I've recently seeded cilantro, dill, parsley, and more basil varieties which are coming along. Propagated more sweet and Genovese basil to give away but I'm not happy with the gel rooting hormone and have been getting better success with powdered.
I hoping to keep the indeterminate tomatoes under control but not to sure how my plant training will go.

 

[Avidgreenthumb]

Starting to get my tent going again for the winter, growing mostly leafy greens and some other news things to try. New to indoors this year will be cucumbers, zucchini, smaller cherry tomatoes, kale, over winter peppers that seem to want to really keep growing. I have most of the controls all completed as far as I'd like to go for basic info and conditions.
I'm hoping to find time and get into growing mushrooms for eating and cooking with. Just not sure where I want that to go because I'll want to start culturing them and that sort of thing. Here are some pictures of what's currently going on and some outdoor garden photos from this year in zone 3 Canada.

 

[YumYum]

Well you sure do have some nice gardens there.