A week ago I was sharing the first steps of our 2020 plant nursery. It all started with the usal combo of randomly-picked seeds, cotton pads, water and hope that something would come out of it. Well let's say that this has so far worked perfectly fine and I had to move forward faster than expected. The radish seeds have showed their extreme will to live, and bloomed after less than 24h in their wet cottons. Tomato seeds followed 2 days later, but they are taking their time, which is also nice to see.
What I surely did not expect is that all seeds are now growing into potential individual radishes and tomato trees, and obviously staying on cotton pads was not the plan either. But what do you do when you barely have soil left from the previous year to move the baby plants to their next house - knowing that the hobbies and plants shops were closed until this week? Well, again, you freestyle. To proceed, I have first used the stone hard-soil I used last year to plant the melons. As they died quickly, I figured they would not have destroyed the soil that much (for instance compared to the 2019 tomato trees whose roots I believe have settled very deeply in their section). I removed the dead plants, and decided to revitalize the soil.
First, I added a lot of water to make the stony ground be as soft and wet (almost liquid) as possible It took some time and efforts, but it worked. And because I have totally no idea what I am really doing, I have added a little bit of fertilizer, and 2 table spoons of used, grinded coffee powder (if it works for roses, why not for my experiment?). I mixed it all, then wet and filled our little biodegredable pots.
Based on how many baby plant have been growing on each pad, I had to either place an entire cotton on the soil (as roots and plants were too tangled to risk a chop), or cut and split then the little guys onto different pots.
Since then I have been watering them quite a lot, to keep the pots and cottons systematically wet, especially as we do get a lot of sun in the afternoon.
And you know what?
1. The baby plants seem to be doing fine, and some are already growing their second leaves. It's a good sign and I am getting attached to them.
2. I am having a lot of fun, and while this was just an experiment at first, I now want to make sure the little guys thrive.