I must do something with these now.
The petunias (not shown here) set at the window receiving strong indirect natural light are still tiny, but these planted at the same time under 40W fluorescents and with a heated blanket skipped well ahead.
So these large plants must be replanted now, leaving room to plant more and with enough time left before Spring to fix any oversights.
But the poor petunia development at the windows shows me that natural light in those two spots is still insufficient to take over where these fluorescents leave off once they are replanted into their containers. The natural light is not strong enough yet, not direct yet, and the days not yet long enough. Did I jump the gun perhaps?
No! What's with the second guessing and self-doubt creeping up in here already?
I think, but I am not sure, I must now invest in a few more lights to fill the light-length and light-strength at the window for a month or so until the sun moves and the days are longer. Only until the plants can be left outside. Eh, they're cheap enough. All garage-type shop lights. Very effective. I got the fluorescents on eBay. I have 25 of them. Clearly, they work very well. Even better if I knew what I was doing. This is one of those live and learn as you go things. It's just the idea of storing all that when not needed.
The petunias are growing much faster than when I did this before with a small plastic greenhouse and without lights. That year, those petunias did very well once outside, better than the larger more developed supplemental petunias purchased later. I wrote the seed-company and told them I didn't expect much from the 10-each seed packs of nearly microscopic seeds that took so long to get going but once they took off the plants poured out of their basket containers with surprising and long-lasting profusion. They wrote back and said,
"THANK YOU FOR SAYING THAT !
Nobody ever does. It means so much.
I forgot what these plants are, but they sure are cute. I have a feeling these are going to spread like crazy.
These tiny two-leaf things just starting are coleus. It occurred to me after some of the first round failed that most arrangements I saw around last summer had some kind of coleus in them, often mixes of various coleus species. Once I began noticing then I noticed them everywhere, new species I hadn't seen before. Intriguing large-leafed plants with wild patterns and very wide range of colors. I found an online source and bought seed packs from each category of coleus, the full range of sizes and colors and types. These shown above are the type that grow large as dinner plates. They're grown for foliage, not for blooms, but their foliage is so bright and so varied they're like blooms. They grow well in shade, appreciate bright light, tolerate direct sun. Pretty much a perfect container plant. I think they will work well in my situation.
They are very easy to grow, a beginner's plant, the first houseplant I owned, but I never started them from seed before. This is going to be fun. I bought ten or so packages of seeds. Some packages have 10 seeds, some packages have 250 seeds, it's insane. All failed cups from hereon get some kind of coleus seeds and help with heat and light to get started. That's the plan for now. See that naked cup up there? It's already planted with dragon coleus with dark compact fuzzy and convoluted leaves.
This is a pepper, I think. I'll know when it blooms, probably pretty soon too.
