Baby Pictures!

The blog neglect is a reflection of a bit of garden neglect.  No worries, the babies in the coldframe are still getting their daily inspections.  The weather, and life have me behind with bed prep though.  I'm behind on getting peas and beets and lettuce in the ground.  I have some lettuce starts in the coldframe though, so I'm not yet in terrible shape.

The plants in the frame are thriving.  The tomatoes have been in there since the first week of March.  They are still getting a light bulb for heat at night.  The lowest temperatures they saw was 44 degrees.  They were fine with it.  Last year, they got purple leaves when exposed to cold.  This year nothing.  This year the challenge has been making sure they get enough nitrogen.  I used Fertilome when I potted them and was a little worried about it because of the would chips in it.  The worry was warranted.  This years crop has needed fertilization every two weeks.  Last year I did it only once using different potting soil.  I fertilize with Neptune's Organic Fish and Seaweed 2-3-1.  I dilute it to half its recommended strength to be safe and bottom feed only.  Its a fertilizer that isn't so great for indoors.  It reeks!

The size variation in the tomatoes is pretty interesting.  I'll post on that tomorrow.  So far disease wise, things are good.  I noticed a bit of leaf spot on one of the eggplant leaves and nipped that off.  Otherwise, so far so good.  Here's a picture of most of the plants in the frame.  The back wall is so high, I've found that some of the plants have benefited by raising them up off the ground to get them higher in the frame.

Here's a closer look at some of the peppers and the eggplants (left).  Both are ready for potting up.  I'm going to get the lettuce and spinach in first so I have more room in the frame.  Are these happy looking plants or what?!