Swiss chard seedlings

It's that time of the year again, well, the growing season is coming up and it's getting harder and harder to resist this "urge" to try grow something. It's still pretty cold AND WINDY in Northern Colorado.  This last weekend was quite warm (comparatively) but the temperature still dropped to below freezing at night. 

Below is a screenshot I took from AccuWeather. Accordingly, last week has had lows between 13° - 30°, all below freezing. I definitely felt the chill when letting Duke out for potty at night. This week doesn't look much better. Definitely not the perfect time to plant anything that worships the sun and heat. Still! One can dream! So I ordered grow lights...although that's not the point of this post 😎

The point of this post is - I planted my first swiss chard! Well, to be more accurate, I planted 28 Swiss Chard seeds in my Jiffy peat pellets! In an attempt to test how viable the store-bought seeds were, I planted "1 seed" in each peat pellet. You will notice there are only 26 peat pellets in the picture below - that's because I added an additional seed in two of the pellets. 

Day 5 since planting, Day 2 since the first sprout popped up.

 The first 3 days went by with nothing coming up from the pellets. On the 4th day, I noticed a tiny bit of green shoot from only 1 pellet. The picture above shows what the pellets looked like in the morning of Day 5.

The "Jiffy dome" I'm using is from Home Depot. I think I paid around $4.98 for it. It came with 36 peat pellets. There was also a smaller dome with 12 pellets for around $3. I debated whether to get the 12-pellets dome or the 36-pellets dome for about 10 minutes of my life at the store. I went with the 36. I also bought a box of extra pellets (36 peat pellets for $3.48) for other seeds I plan on planting later this spring.

I kept the dome on all day and all night from Day 1 (February 22) to Day 8 (March 1).

Day 5 since planting.

Day 6 since planting.

On day 6, I noticed something I thought was strange. You see, I was pretty certain I only planted one seed in each pellet, and one extra seed in only two of the 26 pellets. So how the heck can a pellet have 3 seedlings sprouting at once?? Then I had a genuine thought - hey, since humans can have twins and triplets, why not plants? I know, this may sound crazy to the skilled gardeners. That's really what I thought.

Later, I saw some pellets had "quadruplets." Okay, while it was good to see the seeds I got from Home Depot were indeed very viable, I was getting worried HOW MANY SEEDLINGS am I going to be caring for just for swiss chards? I did a bit internet search and learned each "seed" I sowed was actually a cluster of seeds. Whaaat? Each cluster of seeds can produce 3 to 5 seedlings. Here (Quickcrop) is where I read about this new piece of information, along with some care guide on swiss chards.

Day 6 since planting.

Between Day 1 - 8, each day I opened the dome to check on the growth progress and to make sure soil stayed moist. I wanted to keep the dome on longer to give it the greenhouse effect because our house is usually kept around 66 degrees but it can get a bit cooler near the windows at night (and the seedlings are placed right by a window). However, on the morning of Day 9, I noticed some seedlings were touching the ceiling of the dome. My guess is it probably is not a good practice and my little gardening experience tells me it can only encourage bacteria growth on where the seedlings touched. I also noticed my seedlings were getting leggy (hence they were able to reach the dome ceiling). So I took the cover off that day and it's been off since. About the leggy part, a "leggy" seedling means the seedling is not receiving enough light - hence leaning in any direction trying to reach the source of the light but the result is a thin, very thin, stem.

I also watered on Day 10 after noticing some peats had lighter brown on the surface (most were still moist to the touch when I gently squeezed the pellets).

Day 9 since planting.

Day 10 since planting.

On day 10, it was so sunny in the afternoon and we were actually in the high 60s outside. It definitely was warm so I took the tray out at around 4pm in our covered patio, on a dark brown table that was just soaking up the sun at the time. I only left the tray there for about half an hour. The whole time I sat by it. Really, I... just...sat...by it. Like a hawk watching for any sign of the wind and signs of bugs. I know, I may have overreacted a bit but I didn't want to risk any of them suffering from bugs and wind. I actually put a food cover (about $1 from Daiso, bought in Japan) over the tray while it was outside as an extra preventative method to give a bit ease at mind. That same night and the next day, I used the same cover to cover the seedlings (nothing touched the cover) as a shield for the seedlings, in case of any toying attempt from Lulu.

Day 11 since planting.

On the night of day 12, I made a very flimsy dome with plastic food wraps because I needed the food tray to cover another plant which Lulu has chewed on (my poor succulant). I used 6 wooden sticks as stakes, though nothing penetrated the tray because I do want to reuse the tray for other seedlings. To hold the sticks, I just tucked them between some pellets and the tray. So each stick is "sandwiched" between a pellet and the tray. The hardest part of making this fake dome was wrapping the plastic while carefully not to touch any skinny seedling. I used two sheets. One was wrapped horizontally and the other vertically. It took a couple attempts to get it wrapped the way I wanted to while leaving enough room for growth (so the seedlings don't touch the fake dome ceiling too quickly). It's not fully enclosed as you can probably tell by the picture. The sides can easily be opened so I can check the pellet for moist level (by hand).

Day 13 since planting

For the time being, the plastic acts as something to protect the seedlings from Lulu (she seems to dislike plastic wraps). I'm actually not certain she will play seedlings but she has chewed on my basil plants and flowers before, so I'm not risking it. It is not a perfect dome, but I think this will do until the grow light arrives and then I will move it to our spare bedroom (which is actually a cooler room, but it's out of the reach of Lulu). The spare bedroom has an east facing window, not great for growing seedlings due to lack of sufficient sun light but that's where the grow light can come in handy. The grow light is nothing fancy. Has a stand and a fluorescent light. I ordered it on Amazon for $44 on March 4. Once the grow light arrives, I'll start documenting how it affects the seedlings (thinking to do a control and experiment test too 😏).

Day 13 since planting

Hubby laughed so hard at my "fake dome" when I finished making it and called him over to genuinely ask for feedback. He just laughed and said my creativity and imagination have surpassed his expectation of what I'm willing to do with plants. Well, that's a wrap. I'll update the swiss chard seedlings at the end of this week.