The most important discovery of the past two weeks has been that the home made (DIY) propagator i designed and constructed in October/November 2014 gives just as good results as the commercially available one i have been using for the past couple of years.
The impatiens have developed well over the past few weeks. Although the percentage of seeds that germinated after sowing was quite poor, probably less than 50% the seeds that did germinate are now healthy young plants that will need to be thinned out soon. | This clearly shows the benefit of having the aubergine seedlings on the propagator over the past few weeks. The seedling on the right was left on a self watering tray in the greenhouse just a few feet from the one on the left in the propagator. |
I am particularly pleased with the progress of the tomato seedlings on the DIY Propagator as their progress is just as good if not better than those on the commercially produced propagator(top right of picture.) In fact the plants on this propagator have developed so well that they have a curve in their stems as they were pushing up against the roof of the propagator! I have left the propagator cover off and hopefully the stems will straighten up over the next couple of days. | These are the aubergine seedlings that were left on a self watering tray over the past two weeks but had no direct underside heating as in a propagator. They have developed a little but not hugely as can be seen of the two aubergine seedlings in the lower part of the photograph on the left. The lessons learned from this simple experiment, heating most definitely helps the seedlings grow during the colder weather,( already a known fact) and most importantly from my point of view, the home designed and made propagator provides just as good results as the commercially purchased one. |