Local Harvest Gardening

Hey all,

I'm excited to share that gardening season has officially begun in my house. I started my summer leeks!

I'll have them inside under a light once they germinate in 10-14 days and will keep them there until they get to about 8 inches tall. I am hoping this will be on or about April 3 (when I put my first carrots in the ground).

I'm planting leeks because a) potato leek soup and b) they help to repell carrot rust fly. This will be my first year growing them. And I am growing Lancia coated organic from WCS.

Cool! One challenge with seedlings that spend much of their early life in a transplant tray is that they run out of nutrients over time. Watering will eventually leach out water soluble nutrients and we need to find ways to replenish the fertility.

One way to do this is by using your vermicompost extract. Some people use other organic fertilizers such as algae fertilizer. These organic fertilizers often contain less nitrogen than the synthetic 'miracle grow' fertilizers so it's important to use them consistently when watering.

Do you have other organic ways of keeping you seedlings happy?