A Little Outdoor Planting and a Boring Excel Spreadsheet

I have so many onions that I am running out of room. I only got through setting out the red onions (includes 2 rows and 6 shallow pots). I still have the yellow ones to find a place for. The leeks will also have to wait until I get some time to put them out.  I have placed them back outside as of yesterday as the previous week was barely pushing 40 during the day.  The next week looks to be mostly in the 50's during the day and around the low 40's in the evening.

I was fearing the cold and wet weather rotted the peas I had planted but I rummaged around a bit and saw one sprouting along the fence. Hopefully a few will come up. Nothing else that I planted has emerged. I planted spinach and lettuce at the same time last year as I did this year and they came up so I am hopeful that I will get the same results. Mid March may be pushing it. I should find the weather from last year to compare.

In the same day, I also planted more herbs and flowers:

Thyme                Dill (Boutique and Katie's Dill from last year)         Siam Basil
Cilantro              Purple Prairie Clover                                              Rosemary

I lost a few plants from Dampening-off, the most effected occurred in the Rosemary which is finicky to begin with. I used the remaining seeds in this latest round of planting. I also had a problem with the Japanese Eggplant I purchased taking a very long time to germinate (I mean weeks...) I figured that this maybe because the temperatures were not warm enough so I placed all the seed (plus new seed) under an incandescent light and heat mat 24 hours a day. I also purchased Louisiana Long Green Eggplant which germinated under these conditions in about 3 days. I am guessing that different varieties germinate at different rates. In the end, I ended up with about 5 Japanese Eggplants per a whole packet of seed (packet weight unknown).

Because I have started many many more plants and have lost the will to document them (which happened last year as well). I have come up with a solution I hope will help. I have created an excel document that tracks the temperature, humidity, seed type, number of plants, and % germination rate of each type. Hopefully I can keep track of these things with a little more ease instead of dreading the amount of time it takes to compose a post on this site.

This week I also re-potted the first batch of tomatoes and peppers into larger solo cups with drainage holes I made and used last year (rinsed with low % bleach solution).