Two weeks ago, when we had nearly two feet of snow on the ground, and no reasonable expectation that spring was anywhere near, Mr. Mulch started the first of our seedlings.
Yes, this is early, and yes, it's in apparent defiance of Mother Nature, but we have high hopes that the scheme we installed last year to extend the end of the growing season might also be used to get an early start on it. Mr. Mulch installed a series of metal hoops over our raised beds, draped plastic over them and, presto -- instant greenhouse! We had one renegade kohlrabi that kept growing doggedly until late December.
So this year, we started radicchio, kohlrabi, and kale on February 10 -- a new record for jumping the season. Last week, they seemed just as eager as we were. In each cell there were tender shoots sprouting optimistically under the grow lights, competing with several cell-mates to see which one can grow stronger first.
Just one week later, and that optimism meant that for much of the radicchio and kale, it was time to move on up. They graduated to their first solo abode -- the plant equivalent of a studio apartment, where they can continue their journey without sharing nutrients with their weaker cube-mates. Here are those specimens that survived the first thinning...
They now happily occupy the lower floor of our grow light tenement. The slower growing kohlrabi and the laggard kale and radicchio seedlings reside on the top floor.
I wonder if word of next week's imminent thinning will spread from the plants below to those above, and perhaps encourage a more determined battle for dominance in the remaining cells. I don't know whether it would be better to play soothing music to calm the plants, or spur them on with tales about survival of the fittest. I'm inclined to the latter, since the competition in here is nothing compared to what they'll see outdoors, and we'll need the strongest and wiliest to make it past the various insect predators they'll face later this season.
And I'm thinking that maybe a few Pilates sessions wouldn't hurt, either!
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