Sprouts on My Windowsill

I have a LOT of things I want to grow this year, bags and bags of seeds. I came to the conclusion that only way I will get them all planted is with an early start, so that is what I did. I acquired a few little flourescent lights to extend the daylight at both ends and started planting at the end of January.

The first things I planted were canna lilies and tomatoes. You can read about growing cannas from seed in a previous post entitled "Early Spring Seeding". 


These are some of the canna seedlings. Looking good and getting big!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also planted peppers, a few red brussel sprout seeds (only three sprouted) and ground cherries a few days later. These are the peppers and red brussel sprouts now.

These are the ground cherries. I think I will put all of these into individual pots soon. I found a large number of 4" pots in the cold frame when I opened it this morning. I must have quickly stuck them in there last fall. I will be planting more ground cherries this year, probably many rows of them. I want enough to can for pies all winter and a large batch of wine. I grew a small amount last year but didn't eat many of them. I used them mostly for seed.


These are the other brassicas I have growing. They will all go directly into the garden as soon as it is workable, hopefully by mid April. I intend to grow a lot of broccoli and cabbage and use a combination of BT and BE on the cabbage worms.

I have two containers this size of broccoli, also shown are cabbage, bok choi, and red cabbage. As you can see, brassicas all look alike as seedlings so it is important to label everything.

These are my sweet potato slips.

They were grown from these sweet potatoes that I started rooting in water in December. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My edoes are doing well. You can read about growing edoes in a previous post "Edoes and Elephant Ears".

 

 

 

 

 


 

These are my chichiquelites (Garden Huckleberry). I have read that they are close in taste to a blueberry, a bit more sour, but I can always add more sugar to pies. I am hoping to get a lot of berries for wine and pie making all year. I may have to concentrate on collecting enough seed this year and grow many rows of them next year.


The large globe onions are doing well. They will go into the garden with the brassicas as soon as it is workable. They need a drink which I will take care of right away.

 

 

 

 

I also have chives and garlic chives growing. These will go out with the onions into the herb row. 

 

 

 

 I have a couple of just sprouted cilantro seedlings in the pot from the grocery store. I planted some seeds in with the growing cilantro. The plant did not survive but the seedlings are coming up. I did not realize they had sprouted so quickly and had them covered in heavy plastic out of the sunlight, so they are leggy and will need more light than they have been getting. 

 

 

 

 

These are primula seedlings outside in the flowerbed, only yesterday freed from snow cover. They are so hardy! 

 

 

 

 

This is another one in the garden, amidst the green sweet williams. This one has buds on it already! When I saw this, I put the group I had growing indoors, outside on the porch to start hardening off.

I was adventurous this spring and planted four bird of paradise seeds. One sprouted and is growing. It's about 6" tall now. 

I have both white and lilac daturas growing in here. There is also one tiny 'Black Magic' heuchera seedling about 1/4" high. 

 

 

 

 

Among the seedlings I also have some of last year's dahlias, cannas and callas. 

This is a dwarf white canna that I grew from seed last year. It bloomed the first year from seed! I grew it indoors all winter on the windowsill. It was looking a bit tattered when the new spring growth started. Now it looks pretty good.

I have a lot more flower seeds yet to plant. I am trying to plant something every day in an effort to get everything planted. I don't know if I will make it or not. The ground is thawing and the snow cover is dissappearing!

Edoes and Elephant Ears

Edoes are a member of the colocasia family, as are taro and some elephant ears and they are similar in appearance. If you like those big, tropical leaves in the garden or pond, you can get them by growing edoes, or so I have read. I first heard about edoes on a pond forum many years ago but didn't see them in the grocery store until more recently. The roots are a common food crop in many tropical countries but that doesn't mean you can eat all taro roots. There are several different members of that family and not all are edible. These, apparently bake like a potato with more flavour and are good with sour cream and butter. Sounds interesting.

When I read about edoes and saw them in the grocery store, I thought it would be an inexpensive way to grow that beautiful, big, tropical plant in my garden or pond. I have always loved the look of the huge elephant ears my grandmother used to grow in her garden. I like taro in the pond too.

The edoe roots are not expensive in the grocery store. I bought one in the fall of 2008 and put it in the basement with the other tender bulbs, waiting on spring to plant it. A mouse ate it. This year I bought a couple of them in January and planted them. I have also read that you can buy taro roots, even black ones, as food in specialty oriental grocery stores for very little money, but I have not followed up on that.

I put the pots on the kitchen floor near the door with my other early potted dahlias and left them. In January, when I planted the edoe bulbs, it was very cold and, since my basement is unheated, my kitchen floor is icy. The other plants in the picture don't seem to mind the icy floor, but I know that colocasia bulbs need heat to sprout and having had elephant ear bulbs before that didn't sprout until July, I didn't expect much.

After they sat there for a few weeks, it occured to me that I could move them to my plant window upstairs where it is very, very warm and they might do better, so I moved them up there. Today there is growth!! I am so pleased!

This sprout is coming up from the side of the pot. I planted them on their side because I wasn't sure which way was up, or down and didn't want to plant them completely upside down. I figured that sideways was a

safe bet.

I am looking forward to having these beauties in my garden. I have read that elephant ears like shade and do well there so I planted a few bulbs, that I got in a trade, in my shade garden last year. They didn't sprout until July and never got more than a foot tall. I was very disappointed.

This year I started them early and will put them in the sun. Sometimes people say that certain plants need shade, but those people usually live in much warmer climates. Plants that like some shade down there usually do well up here in the sun.

I read that brugmansias prefer some shade too, so I put some in shade and some in sun last summer. The ones in the sun grew to be twice as big as the ones in the shade and were the only ones to bloom, so I take this shade stuff with a "grain of salt". (I don't know where that saying comes from and have no idea why it means that.)

Here's a brug bloom from last summer:

I have a shade garden that gets some sun in the late evening and I have one the gets sun only in the early morning so I am always on the lookout for true shade plants that are big and interesting.


Eddoes are also known around the world as Arbi, Taro, Nampi and Coco Yam and are used in Indian, Chinese and Caribbean cooking.

Colocasia and alocasia are very similar in appearance but it is the colocasia that like the water. The alocasias do not, so before you put what you have in the pond, make sure you know what it is.

I have also seen yucca roots for sale in the grocery store and might buy one of those for the flower garden too.