TIL: Don’t underestimate the superpowers of grow lights for seedlings
Today, my friend Sarah sent me a picture of some broccoli plants I gave her about three weeks ago. At that time, the seedlings were but wee babes that I “thinned out” (maybe a week old?). Here are her seedlings, which have been living on top of an aquarium and–more importantly–under a grow lamp for the past three weeks.
Meanwhile, the original seedlings have been sitting on my kitchen counter by the window. I thought this would be enough sun (it’s fairly sunny, with the caveat of “for Seattle), but I guess not.
While Sarah’s plant is just about ready to go off to Plant College (the raised-bed garden), mine are still stuck in their awkward Middle School phase. They’re tiny and awkward, and if they were humans, I imagine they would have lots of zits and opinions on Justin Bieber and followers on Insta.
All the plants were Ferry-Morse Organic Calabrese Broccoli. (Note: I have no affiliation with Ferry-Morse except as a customer, but I like their seeds).
A few of my seedling trays have been living under a lamp that’s actually designed & bought to eliminate Seasonal Affective Disorder, or “SAD.” This is pretty endemic in the Seattle in winter (and undoubtedly lead to a lot of really annoying Emo music, but I digress).
Being very new to gardening, I’m concluding based on this limited data that we should all …
..use grow lights to plant seedlings.
Because, as it turns out, plants really like light, so our kindergarten teachers were all right.
And this concludes my TED Talk.
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