I think whiteflies have attacked my seedlings. :(

I wintered over a pepper plant.  When I moved it outside this weekend, I noticed a bunch of little white flecks of something around the area where the pot was.  I didn't think much of it.

About two feet away, my vegetable seedings are on shelves next to a window.  Tonight I noticed that some of the cilantro, parsley, leek, and pepper seedlings are starting to look rather unhappy.  The leaves of the cilantro and parsley are getting pale, and they have very pale spots on the leaves.  The leeks are just droopy - so maybe they have another issue going on.  The peppers also have the pale spots, but their overall color looks OK.  

After running a few internet searches, I found a picture of the litle white specks that were apparently living on the overwintered pepper.  They were identified as whiteflies.  

The overwintered pepper is now outside.  It's not coming back in.  

I guess tomorrow I need to go look for whitefly traps.  I read somewhere about spraying infected plants with neem oil or diluted soap.  I'm a bit wary of this - they're just seedlings!  But if the bugs don't go, the plants will probably die since they cause leaf loss, and seedlings don't have many leaves to lose.

*sigh*

It's late, I guess I'll sleep on it.

I didn't plant my potatoes today because it's going to rain for 2 days and not be particularly warm.  (The high temperature tomorrow is supposed to be 50. Gah!)  I thought the potatoes would not appreciate being dumped into already soggy ground, chilled thoroughly, and then rained on again for two days.  Hopefully it will be warm and sufficiently dry next weekend.

I need to replant the carrots, definitely.  After I described how I planted them, my mom says I planted them too deep.  I was supposed to scatter the seeds, then scatter a thin layer of dirt over them.  Raking 1/2 an inch of dirt over them with a hoe was not a good plan, it seems.  Live and learn.

Also on the live-and-learn front, all of my oregano seedlings shriveled up and died in their nursery pack. They dried out too much, I guess.  I'm still trying to decide if I want to replant them or not.  If I ever do get around to planting oregano again, now I know that they need to be kept with a baggie or some other humidity-hood over them so that they won't dry out.  The other plants are fine, but the oregano seedlings were also pretty tiny and fragile compared to the others. 

The coleus and nasturtium in seed batch 2 sprouted today.  I have a bajillion chamomile seedlings - OMG!  I am NOT looking forward to transplanting them all.

I mulched all of my shrubs today after learning that there really ought to be some sort of DMZ between the shrub and the weeds when a weed-eater is involved.  One of my hydrangeas got an accidental trim today.  Whoops.  Anyway - while mulching, I discovered the first signs of life on the crape myrtle and beautyberry - so they'e not dead after all!  Yay! :D

I wonder when/if the lilac is actually going to bloom.  It looks like it has buds, but it's looked that way for several weeks now, I think.  Eh, it's still a cute little shrubbery even it isn't blooming yet. :)

Three days after being transplanted, one of the oregano passed on to the Farplane.   Eh, that's not bad.  The next great danger the seedlings face is when I finally put them outside to start the acclimation process.  I'm waiting at least a week for them to get their roots established in their new little homes before I subject them to that.

The second batch of chamomile is coming right along.  A few tulsi seeds have sprouted.  I'm starting to think that I have bad luck with shiso - which is unfortunate, because it's one of the herbs that I'm not likely to find in nurseries around here. Poo.

I'm wondering at what point I should just replant the carrots and onions.  I have some more carrots seeds - I ordered some about a week ago.  I might have to go scrounge up some onion seeds, though.

The alyssum has already sprouted.  I planted it 2 days ago.  Wow.

The transplanted seedlings have all survived their first 24 hours, so that bodes well.  I was worried that some of them would be irreparably droopy today from the shock.
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OK, I guess that IS a bit of a sensational headline. :P  I've been at Carraba's drinking tasty, tasty wine.  We got home while there was just enough light for me to see the garden.  I threw an old sheet (the one I ripped ribbons off of  last year to make tomato ties) over the mustards.  The sheet also covered the areas where I planted onions and chard.  The carrots and chrysanthemums haven't sprouted yet, and are at the mercy of the elements.

I guess they really weren't kidding about the last frost date being around April 15.  I was hoping to cheat a bit.  Meh.

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Well, the little dudes are living in new homes now. :)  It took me an hour and a half to move them all! Argh! 

I'm not really  a fan of transplanting seedlings from the initial pot to nursery packs, but I haven't thought of a better way.  I tried starting the pansy seeds in nursery pots, but that turned out being pretty wasteful.  

The problem with transplanting seedlings is the danger of snapping their stems or ripping too many of the roots off.   Poor little dudes - I hope I didn't break any of them.

And now I am going to go try to get all of this dirt out from under my fingernails ...

Oh - I did remember to plant the nasturtiums.  I almost forgot, but I spotted them before I'd finished putting all the transplanting supplies away.  Those seeds are huge!  They're only slightly smaller than an M&M.  

All of the transplanting work took place inside since it's weirdly cold again.  Oh well - the mustards that are outside are tough, and the others haven't sprouted yet.   It's a good thing I did do the transplanting inside - it was well after dark when I finished.
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Today I planted more seeds.  Some of them are repeats of batch #1.

• Platycodon (balloon flower) var. Mariesii  - 10
• Alysum, Aphrodite Bold Mix - dunno, seeds are very small!
• Coleus, Wizard Mix - 10
• Chamomile - tiny seeds!, second planting
• Aka Shiso - 12
• Tusli - tiny seeds, second planting
• Dill - didn't count these either, second planting

While planting the flowers, I noticed that the seed packets said MUST HAVE SUNLIGHT TO GERMINATE.  Huh.  Since I didn't get great results with the chamomile, tulsi, or dill that were trying to sprout in the dark, I decided to put them in the sun this time, too.  

I also planted Swiss Chard (Rainbow Five Color Silverbeet) and chrysanthemum greens in the garden.  The carrots and onions still haven't sprouted.  Apparently, I was supposed to be watering them. Oops. *sheepish* 

And I have some nasturtium seeds soaking in water.  Apparently you're supposed to soak them in water overnight.  I found that out when I read the back of the seed packet this afternoon. :P  Oh well, so they'll get planted tomorrow ...

I have potatoes to plant, too.  I'm waiting until the dark of the moon, which is next weekend. 

And the batch 1 seedlings need to be transplanted.  I wanted to give the newer sprouts time to get their stuff together before I move them, but the older ones are starting to topple over under their own weight.
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Most of my little seedlings are happily growing in the dining room window now.

The leeks are quite strange.  They don't have two little seed-leaves like all of the other seedlings.  They're just tiny little stalks.  The stalk pokes out of the soil with a sharp bend in it, and then it gradually unfolds and straightens out.

I have to replant some of my seeds.  Only two of the Amish Paste tomatoes sprouted.  I also only got two dill sprouts.  When I checked yesterday, only a few chamomile had sprouted.  None of the catnip came up. ( I think I didn't get a good germination rate on them last year, either.) I also think that we might need more than four tulsi plants - assuming that I actually do make tea out of them this year. 

I think that I may have covered the seedlings with too much dirt.  I'm actually worried about the same problem for the outdoor seedlings.  

Regarding the outdoor seedlings, I think I saw some mustard sprouts when I looked yesterday, but I'm not sure.  There are little weeds sprouting too, so it's hard to tell.  When the sprouts (hopefully) appear in a mostly straight line, then I'll know that I'm definitely looking at mustards. :P  I just slogged out in the rain and looked, and I'm fairly certain that there are mustard sprouts.  They have two leaves, and each leaf is kind of heart-shaped.  Without the point bit on the end. Each leaf has a dip in the middle like the top part of a heart.

I'm not sure I like this whole direct-sowing thing.  I've been batting around the idea of planting plants that are supposed to be direct sown into starter containers that are outside and somewhat sheltered.  That way I'd know how many seedlings I'm dealing with and can then transplant them, and the seeds would sprout in regular outdoor conditions - so there would be no need for acclimating them.   Now I'm concerned that I'm going to have bedraggled patches of veggies with lots of gaps instead of evenly planted rows. *sigh*

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Some of my indoor seeds have already sprouted!  Here's what is up already:

• leeks - 3 of 20
• Lollipop tomatoes 3 of 5
• tulsi - 1 of 8
• Amish Paste tomatoes 2 of 8
• Gold Medal tomatoes 8 of 10

The Gold Medal seedlings look like especially robust little seedlings.  The leek seedlings are strange-looking - there's no sign of leaves!  They look like tiny little naked stalks. 

This afternoon I planted Dragon carrots, Red Wethersfield Onions from Monticello, and Southern Curled Mustard.  It's supposed to rain here for the rest of the week, so I decided that I'd better go ahead and plant the little dudes while I can.