If At First You Don't Succeed, Try Again

Do you remember when I posted Starting Seeds In Eggshells?

Although my first time trying the project, I totally sounded like I knew what I was doing... after all, I did my research...

                               I gave step by step directions...

                                                   I even posted pictures to go with the directions.

Well, guess what?

                 I failed!

                         I failed miserably!



The seed packets said sprouting would occur in 3 - 10 days...

Day 3...nothing

Day 4...nothing

Day 7, one week after I planted those tiny precious seeds with such high hopes...nothing

Day 10...still nothing!

I gave it a couple more days...

                                            ...nothing

                                                      ...zip

                                                            ...zilch

                                                                    ...not one sprout.

My green-thumbed Mom said I probably planted the seeds too deep.  I'm sure she was correct!

Looking back, I probably didn't keep the soil moist enough either.

And, it probably didn't help that the sun didn't peek out of those clouds for days.

Stubborn Determined to show that you don't need fancy lights or heat mats to start seeds indoors, I tried again.

I used the same prepared eggshells, just dumping out the soil and adding fresh.

I barely put an indent in the soil, planted 2 to 3 seeds and lightly, as in barely, covered the seeds with soil.

I keep the soil more moist than before...keeping a spray bottle right by the egg cartons.

I rotate the cartons between two windows, catching as much sunlight as possible.  It's still Spring though - cloudy and rainy days can't be avoided.

Look!

Day 3...Do you see that tiny purple sprout?

It's the scarlet kale!

I jumped for joy...

              I did the happy dance...

                         I squealed with delight...

                                     I talked to that little sprout...

                                                   And of course... I took a picture!

That was just the beginning!

That tiny kale sprout looks like this now.

And everything else?

Everything sprouted...

Every single eggshell has at least one sprout!

I will probably be planting the kale in the garden soon with their siblings that are already sprouting out there.  ;-)

I will most likely transplant (and possibly thin out) the tomato plants into something larger...we still have a couple weeks before we can safely plant them in the garden.

So the moral of this story...

If At First You Don't Succeed, Try Again!