Houston, We Have Lift Off

Upon my return from Idaho for Easter, the seedlings had hatched and were looking a little leggy. Cardinal rule of seed starting, i learned, is have the light nearby--and no a window doesn't count. :o)

Some of the overachievers that sprouted a whole week before their siblings are really, really leggy. Then i got the wise idea to move them to the stove top and use the hood lamp. Well, it worked a little bit, and i am pretty sure the heat from the nearby oven helped the tomato seeds finally break their dormancy, but having these seed trays in your kitchen on your stove of all things, isn't the most handy (or desirable, eh?)

Enter Moose.

He kindly brought up his desk lamp and placed it lovingly over the seedling at their new home on top of the piano. Now the procrastinators that have waited this long to shed their seed caps are growing thick, strong stems. Lesson learned. :o) Listen to the experts!

Something that will have to wait until we move, but is a high priority for me to complete is a seed starting bookshelf plan i saw in the Apr/May issue of Mother Earth. It's like a nightstand, except that there mounted above the bottom shelf is a flouresent light fixture. Looks really handy for making seed starting in your home more streamlined and not so cluttered. Of course, if we find a place with a green house, then.....i'll consider myself to have dodged a bullet, since i haven't really had a ton of experience with power tools. :o)