Bio-Dome-mesticated

I'm sitting in my creepy garage/basement. It's the kind of place where, in the dark, people would be backed in to corners by people with hockey masks and chainsaws.

And speaking of creepy, I've got little seedlings creeping up the sides of my bio-domes towards the bright lights streaming down from the basement ceiling.

Last year, I worried about how far I should have my florescent grow light from the surface of my seedling trays, the amount of water my plants soaked in and whether or not I would be attacked by Creatures of Darkness (much like the R.O.U.S. of Princess Bride) when I visited them in the basement.

This year, I found the perfect "lazy" solution and I cared just a little less.

It's working out GREAT!

Don't misunderstand me. I'm up and down my basement steps two or three (dozen?) times a day.

(Because I love to press my face up against the plastic lids of my seedling domes and imagine I can actually see them growing with my naked eye...)

But this year, I think I've finally found a set-up that grown the plants by itself.

There they are. My little seedlings, sitting inside a happy, humid environment.

I've got over 50 tomato seedlings growing in their little cells. At an average of 35-60 pounds per plant, that's..... uh... a lot of tomatoes. (hey, I'm a gardener, not a mathematician). Maybe I shouldn't have ordered all of those other varieties to be shipped in plant form later this spring...

 

I've also got peppers, herbs and squash.

This little fella is a Prudense Purple, one of the fun varieties I got from the Seed Swap. (see earlier post)

And that little green bump in the soil is a squash plant getting ready to pop out of it's sponge.

Yes, sponge...

 I bought these Bio-Domes last year from Park Seed on sale at the end of the season. BEST pre-garden tool I've ever spent money on... They have foam inserts with pre-made holes that you fill with "dirt sponges." The sponges soak up the amount of water needed without drowning the seed. It's practically idiot proof. And I say practically, because if in several blog posts, I show you a field of dead tomato seedlings, you can't accuse me of being a liar.

I put a heating mat under the domes, though if this winter weather in spring keeps up much longer, I may violently sweep everything off the table and climb on the mat myself.

 Instead of worrying about grow lights and light spectrums, blah blah blah... I put up cheap, clip-able painters lights and set them on a programmable timer that mimics the light cycle of a normal day. It wakes up the plants every morning, even when I'm snuggled under the deep recesses of my heavy down comforter.

My plants have never grown this fast and this "non-dead" and "non-struggling" looking.
Like I said, practically idiot proof....

Oh yeah, those fun things hanging above my seedling station? My dried gourds from last year.
But that's for another post...

And yes, I may be 20-(er, ummm)-fivish or eight...

But I'm still afraid of the Creatures of Darkness. When they run across your hand with a thousand little legs, you tend to fear that which is more powerful and bigger than yourself.

Even if they are smaller and weaker than you...

What's growing in your basaement? And more importantly, did you INTEND to grow it there?
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