First attempt at growing, well, sorta

This is my first successful (to date) attempt at growing anything.
 
Last summer, I planted some seeds and kept them in my kitchen bay window. Those seemed to start off well, but I wasn't so great at watering them and they died off pretty quick. I tried again in the fall and experimented with self-watering and bottom heating, but i forgot to poke drainage holes and my seeds rotted (three times). I got fed up and finally talked to someone about my problems (yeah, I'm stubborn).He recommended a soilless potting mix containing peat, vermiculite, and a small amount of perlite, then mix it 1:1 with some more perlite. Thoroughly moisten the mix, surface plant the seeds, then cover with 1/4" of perlite.
 
I put the mix into well-draining seed starters, then put it onto a warming mat. Here are my results so far!
 
From left to right The tomatoes were the first to sprout, and the peppers followed two days later. The grow light was added a few day after the peppers started to come up. I've been using a very weak fish emulsion fertilizer mixture also.
 
Yesterday I had a bit of a scare though. Over the past several weeks, our temps have held steady in the 70s with the occasional 80, but yesterday the temps jumped up to the 90s. When I came home last night, I found one of my tomatoes slumped over. After my initial panic, I decided to thoroughly soak the soil and let it drain, then I realized that they plants were still sitting on my warming mat! I unplugged the warming mat and prayed to the gardening gods and slept it off. When I woke up this morning, the little sprout had perked back up again! Phew!
 
We are expecting some high temps again today, so gave the plants another good spray this morning before going to work. I hope I'm doing the right thing because I'm flying by the seat of my pants now.
 
Any suggestions would be appreciated!

yeah they are really stretching for that light... you sure you have enough light?

Best of luck to you this season. Lots of great knowledge to be found here

juanitos said:

yeah they are really stretching for that light... you sure you have enough light?

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Not exactly sure because I'm a total noob when it comes to gardening. What I can say is that the pic doesn't do the light justice. It is very bright and about 12" from the top of the plants. The center is definitely brighter, but I try to reposition the light every couple days to make sure they are getting equal treatment.

do you have updated picture?

The buckets are some tomatoes I transplanted over the weekend. These were planted at the same time as the peppers and were the first to sprout. It took them about a week or so before their growth rate took off. They were about 7 inches tall with about 3-4 sets of leaves before I transplanted them. I buried most of the stem so they look a little puny in the 5 gallon buckets.
 
Tomatoes
 
As you can see in these next couple pics, the grow light is very bright although there is a brighter central cone.
 
Peppers 1
Peppers 2
 
I planted them in a 50/50 mix of perlite and a potting mix containing peat, coir, and vermiculite. I've been watering them with a very weak concentration of fish emulsion. So far they seem healthy (as far as I can tell), but the growth has been VERRRRRYYYY slow. They are probably only 1/3 the size of the tomatoes.
 
When I pulled the tomatoes, they roots still had plenty of room as they had only taken up about the top 1/3 of the soil. At this point I'm not sure if I should keep the peppers where they are for a while longer, or transplant them. 

something I like to add to that soiless mix is a very moderate addition of worm castings. Though, yours look great without.
 
edit: I forgot, I use crushed pumice instead of perlite (only because perlite crushes over time and I reuse my soil)

mrgrowguy said:

something I like to add to that soiless mix is a very moderate addition of worm castings. Though, yours look great without.
 
edit: I forgot, I use crushed pumice instead of perlite (only because perlite crushes over time and I reuse my soil)

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Thanks for the tips. To show you how new I am, I had to look up worm castings... . I didn't know it was something that could be purchased.
I may take a stab at composting also, once I find the time that is.

I like composting. What I do is I don't throw away any cuttings or trimmings. Anytime I cut leaves, branches, or even a whole plant down, I chop them up by hand with some scissors into a prepared bucket for this.
 
My prepared bucket is just a 20-gallon blue bucket with rope handles, the kind you would throw a keg in with ice - from Lowes or Home Depot (got mine at Lowes for ~$7). I popped a lot of drainage holes, filled it half way with old soil from some used pots and added a few organic additions (mostly worm castings and a tiny bit of humic acid/azomite dust). From there I just add in my cuttings as I go.
 
But mainly, I just chop my plants up and mix them into the compost soil/bucket. After a lot of plants-worth of leaves and branches have been added, I let that bucket sit and ferment until next year.
 
I then take that bucket and dump it over the rest of my old soil, add in a few more recharging additives and mix with shovel. Good to go for the next run

juanitos said:

do you have updated picture?

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Here are some pics I took this morning.
 
Pic 1
Pic 2
Pic 3
 
At this point they're about a month old and have been sitting under the grow light for 16 hours a day in my garage. They are getting a very weak concentration of fish emulsion through with a spray bottle, and it's just enough water to keep the soil moist.
 
I'm probably not doing myself any favors by comparing these to my tomatoes, but I'm just not sure what to expect. I guess what I'm asking is, when can I expect their growth rate to speed up?