Tomatoes, Peppers, and Eggplant - 3 Weeks Later

On December 29th I planted tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant into seed pots.  I always plant those crops from seed at this time of year and raise indoors until the chance of frost is minimal.  This year I also planted some broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage seeds since the hard freeze back in November killed those seedlings in the garden.  So, to plant, I put two seeds per pot, labeled each container, watered and waited for germination.  After the seeds all germinated, I moved them inside and placed beneath a grow light.  (Really it is just a shop light with two fluorescent bulbs in it.)

Let's check in on the plants now that we are three weeks down the road from plant date.  Here are the tomato seedlings:

Probably this weekend, I will thin these out, breaking the two seedlings apart and planting each in its own larger pot so that they don't get root-bound before it is time to plant in the garden.  Now that they have their 'true' leaves, I've begun to water with fish emulsion diluted to half of its recommended application dose as I don't want to burn them.  I want to give them some nutrients to feed on.

You can see my amateur grow light apparatus below.  Nothing fancy.  The light is positioned just a few inches from the seedlings so they don't get too "leggy."  We keep the soil moist throughout the day.  Each day we turn the lights off for 10 hours.

The Cole Crops are below: Several varieties of broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage.  Since this photo was taken, I've separated the cole crop seedlings to allow for only 1 seedling per seed pot.

The peppers and eggplant always germinate slower than the tomatoes.  In the bottom left below, you can see some jalapeno peppers growing.  In the bottom right, there are some eggplant just sprouting.

We will continue to baby these seedlings until it is time to carefully transplant them into the garden soil after hardening.  Speaking of hard, it is hard to imagine that spring is not far away.  The Farmer's Almanac tells me that the last Spring frost is March 2nd.