This morning there were several tomato seedlings that were bumping the top of the propagation trays; four Bradleys and one Lemon Boy. Since I've waited too long before and ended up with an etiolated mess, I thought I'd get the first sprouts out of the trays on the floor and up closer to the lights. If this works, I'll end up with plants that aren't so leggy to start with. Perhaps next year I can rig up lights near the floor so that the auxins don't go nuts. The problem presently is that I can have good light OR proximity to the heated floor, but not both.
I got a coffee press with some fancy filter discs from Darryl a few years ago. As luck would have it, the filters fit perfectly in the bottom of the Target "Solo" cups I've been using as pots for the last few years. I usually drill four or five holes in the bottom of the cups and bottom water them in Rubbermaid Roughneck containers. Putting them in these containers allows me to move them in and out easily when it comes time to harden them off before setting them out in the garden -- keeps them out of the wind, too.
This morning, there were about a half dozen of the Jalapeno Ms poking up from the flat of 16 Jiffy-7 pellets. A few hours later, there are at least ten of them up; I'll probably pot them up late tonight or in the morning so that I can put another batch of seeds in that flat. It's really the easiest to handle and the wrapped peat pellets make handling the plants a relative breeze. I only ordered a hundred Jiffy-7 pellets this year, but I think I'll set up to do all my propagation with them next year.
Here's a shot of the plants from this morning in a tote with a piece of mylar over them to keep the humidity up. I keep them in the bathroom in the shop until they have true leaves on them and then move them into the shop kitchen near the east windows. This is how I've done it for the last few years and it seems to work pretty well right up until I get too many plants to handle, which is usually at about the 400 mark. Once I get the greenhouse built, I won't be limited to what I can move around -- I'm guessing that I'll be able to handle a couple thousand plants at at time if I can figure out how to keep bottom heat on all the flats concurrently.
I got a coffee press with some fancy filter discs from Darryl a few years ago. As luck would have it, the filters fit perfectly in the bottom of the Target "Solo" cups I've been using as pots for the last few years. I usually drill four or five holes in the bottom of the cups and bottom water them in Rubbermaid Roughneck containers. Putting them in these containers allows me to move them in and out easily when it comes time to harden them off before setting them out in the garden -- keeps them out of the wind, too. 
Here's a shot of the plants from this morning in a tote with a piece of mylar over them to keep the humidity up. I keep them in the bathroom in the shop until they have true leaves on them and then move them into the shop kitchen near the east windows. This is how I've done it for the last few years and it seems to work pretty well right up until I get too many plants to handle, which is usually at about the 400 mark. Once I get the greenhouse built, I won't be limited to what I can move around -- I'm guessing that I'll be able to handle a couple thousand plants at at time if I can figure out how to keep bottom heat on all the flats concurrently.
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