Seeing the Light

By Mwillis
Last Sunday I sowed my tomato seeds. The timing was deliberate. I was away from home for work purposes from Sunday evening until Wednesday evening, and I didn't want Jane to have to cope with supervising a load of new seedlings in my absence. Exactly on cue, the first of the seeds germinated overnight Wednesday / Thursday.

Tomato "Gardener's Delight"


What this means is that many of the chillis must now be evicted from the Growlight House to make way for the tomatoes. Again, I had thought about this in advance, and I had delayed sowing any tomatoes until the chillis were (mostly) big enough to take their chances on a windowsill. So now I have to juggle the whole lot, progressively exchanging chillis for newly-germinated tomatoes.
This is my tomato-germinating arrangement:

The Growlight House now has a mix of the two types:

Likewise the windowsills now play host to a mixture of the two.

I will soon be planting more potato tubers, which will free-up some more windowsill room.

Chilli "Calico", with potatoes chitting in the background.


Not all the chillis are ready to be moved from under the lights yet. Some of the later-sown ones are still very tiny, like this "Blondie" one:

A few of my chilli seeds didn't germinate (or haven't yet), so I sowed another batch, of which one or two have come up. Variations in temperature and humidity can make a big difference. My chillis mostly start their lives in our airing-cupboard, and whilst the heat in there is nicely constant, I don't think it ever gets hot enough for the liking of some chilli varieties.