My indoor plants continue to do well. In a few days I will begin the process of hardening them off to get them acclimated to the outdoors. I planted three coleus outside already, if they do well with the cooler nights then hopefully it will be safe to begin this process. The plants that are alive and did well: petunias, impatiens (some look better than others), pampass grass, coleus, moonflowers, caladiums. The plants that are alive but did not do well: Maiden pink Dianthus, foxglove, Purple Prince zinnia and Victorian mix dahlia these last two are barely alive and I probably will not put them in the flower bed. The plants that germinated but didn't live are Miniature Hollyhock and another dianthus.
The Purple Wave petunias are blooming and they look pretty healthy considering the issue I had a few weeks back with the leaves turning a purplish black color. I think I was watering too much. I watered less, removed affected leaves and the problem was resolved.
My Moonflowers are really beginning to vine now. I have the trellises ready and waiting for them.
The gnats are becoming a problem, for some reason they are swarming around the impatiens. Kitty likes gnats and that is becoming an issue too. So far she has behaved very well with the exception of digging in the container that had my just planted elephant ears in it. What a mess that was! I should have taken a picture.Next year I would like to use the grow lights for overwintering a few things and some propagating. I will also grow a few of the things that did well, (not as many coleus) from seed and try my hand at winter sowing outside.
Did you use regular shop lights or spring for the expensive grow lights? Plastic cover? Can you tell us more about how you started this project and what you used for starting your seeds? There are various ways that people use and it's interesting to see what works for others.
ReplyDeleteBetty, thank you for visiting Robin's Nesting Place and for upir comments and questions.
ReplyDeleteI used one warm light and one cool light in each fixture. I did use a plastic cover and it helped keep things from drying out so much. On the side of my blog is a list of topics I've blogged about if you check out Indoor Growing System, you can see pictures of the plastic in place. It was a large and think drop cloth.