Succuss at Last!

FINALLY, I have been able to germinate my lettuce seedlings!

It seems these are very tender beings and they didn't like being buried underneath the vermiculite so it was on to Plan B.

The vermiculite was damp and absorbing water from the little tank below so I laid a single layer paper towel over the vermiculite and dampened it.The lettuce seeds were sprinkled on top of the paper and covered with another piece of damp paper towel.And there they sat- and sat- and sat- until a couple of days ago when I noticed that they were germinating under the paper towel.

Yesterday, I removed the top towel and this evening they are showing every sign of sprouting leaves.

Lettuce seedlings on damp paper towel on a vermiculite seed bed

It seems we might be on our way with these lettuce.

I tried to grow  baby spinach greens in this seed bed earlier on without the use of damp paper towel and they didn't germinate. I think I will try these again and see what happens.

The second set of bean plants are thriving and are just starting to throw beans. I think that the change in diet for these plants is helping.
The tomatoes are sort of standing still and the rocket doesn't seem to have made much progress this past week.

Week 3 going into Week 4

I went away for the weekend so this has taken a little longer to photograph. However, its been worth the wait as while I was away, the first beans appeared on the first bean plant. It looks like more beans will be appearing on the other plants very shortly.

Here are some photos:

1st bean plant with its beans

2nd bean plant with the embryo beans.

The first plant has only produced two beans so far but I suspect that more will be following but the second plant has a LOT of potential beans on it.

The tomato plant bottle produced  a great clump of plants which sort of just sat until the end of last week when one seemed to take off. I'll be watching this one with interest.

Tomato plant starting to show some promise

The rocket plants got to a point of growth and have just seemed to be sitting.

When I took a look at them this afternoon, some of the plants seemed to be showing a bit of activity.

The most disappointing has been my lettuce seeds planted in the ice cream tub. Nothing has come up so far so I might have to add some more wicks to the tub.

I have changed the liquid fertiliser from my mix to a commercial mix as of today and it will be interesting to see if it makes a difference. If there isn't then I will go back to my mix.

Its essential to feed the plants once a week and to check water levels in the bottles.

I am seriously thinking of using bottles to plant basil, given the amount of basil pesto we use in this house. Pesto is ridiculously easy to make- if one has the basil.

Week 2 - Bean plants

Remember those bean plants from last week?
This is what they look like this week- 

 I am a bit disappointed though. The lettuce seeds haven't come up yet and the rocket and tomato seedlings don't seem to be doing anything.
Maybe the lettuce seedlings need more water.

Before I left on leave for a week, I filled that green bottle right to the top with water. That water level has hardly dropped.