I’m doing an unofficial Green Thumb Sunday. This is–probably–an F2 hybrid cherry tomato, meaning I saved the seeds from a cherry tomato that Eric’s mom’s friend grew in her yard from a plant purchased at Anderson’s, the local general store, so that plant was almost certainly an F1 hybrid and that would make this an F2 and completely unknown as far as its characteristics goes. But I was a biology major and I couldn’t resist the idea of raising F2s. I repotted the tomatoes and eggplants today and discovered that both my F2s (I also saved some from a conventional tomato) are much smaller than the heirlooms I’m raising. But they seem to be developing just fine; we’ll see how they go.
As part of repotting, I’ve put about half of my plants under my SAD lamp, the full-spectrum lamp that my dad sent me a couple of years ago when I was having a rough time emotionally and it happened to be fall, so he thought it would help. I don’t know whether it did or not, but I love the lamp, and I hope that that half of my plants love it too. I just don’t have room on my windowsills, not until some of these plants get adopted.
I’m not as attached to these plants as that sounds, though. I discarded several that were spindly or too small and added them to my compost bin (a little plastic bin with lid I got on clearance at Kroger, not nearly as cool as The Inadvertent Gardener’s new composting acquisition) as well as most of the oregano–I really shouldn’t have sown all those seeds at once. I’ve saved about six of the plants, and they’re tiny but I hope they’ll survive. I’ve started some parsley (only a few seeds!) in the old oregano pot. Next week, I start cantaloupe and squash and cucumbers (assuming they get here in time) and zucchini. And once the yard has recovered from yesterday’s snow (!!), I’ll get out there and see whether the peas and onions survived.
Seeded 
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April 17, 2007 at 6:34 pm
JLB
Well, what was the verdict on the onions and peas? I was pretty glad for the cold frame when that crazy storm blew through. The snow and ice was so wet and heavy it bent the hedges down! Amazingly, the daffodils seem to have failed to notice the snow storm, and are still blooming happily. š
You’re much better than I with the sproutlings… I have a hard time with “thinning”… I know it’s the right thing to do, but all those sprouts look so happy and beautiful! š Which to choose?
My fence goes in tomorrow, and then, come rain or snow, those beans and peas are coming out to climb!
April 17, 2007 at 9:27 pm
Jenny
They’re all alive. I’m very happy. š The snow wasn’t as bad here, I think. I have daffodils too, small ones with bent heads, that I think need dividing to perk up–based on my extremely limited knowledge of bulbs, of course.