CAAH and the First Seedlings:
The click of the door closed the Anthropology lab for the weekend. Earlier, my stomach fluttered as I planted one, two, sometimes three seeds into each flat. Cherokee Mustard seeds and Red Russain Kale seeds were small like the beads you buy in tubes at the craft aisles, and could only be brushed with a thin layer of soil so that their stringy stalk could push through easily. These were the seed bank’s first seeds of the New Year to be planted. I sprinkled them with water from the sink, and placed them under the grow lights on the counter.
Monday morning and the door opened to a peeping of green over the flats. The Cherokee Mustard was living with the small square of land- in three days, it had risen from the Earth. What spirit! Do these small leaves already have a snap of mustard spice inside?
Transferring Tomato Seedlings:
The transfer of seedlings is a difficult matter, it isn't just one of those everyday things. If you pull on young leaves they are likely to sever and if you yank on new stems then the root ball may break, stuck in the dirt. Tomato seedlings aren't root zombies like Bermuda, able to live in a lopped off state. Carefully dish the seedling up with a spoon, using a broad circular motion that scoops up the dirt that the roods could be ling to. Keep the plant whole. Put it in a big pot and cover it with dirt to about an inch below the lowest leaves. Ahh! now you can make sure the growing plants have sun and water every day!
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