Well I have to admit I expected to open this to find a meal of groundhog, probably sous vide. Which led me to google and find out not only are they in fact edible, but they’re the same animal as woodchuck. Who knew!

How much ground would a groundhog hog if a groundhog could hog ground?

So it seems I’ve got all the materials needed to make the sprouting box, but I wouldn’t know what to do with it. I suppose I’ll just once again live vicariously through your gardening photos.

Happy sprouting!

..... and since Punxsutawney Phil's accuracy rate is less than 40%, you'll probably have those little plants in the ground sooner rather than later!

Where is the "groundhog" vs. "woodchuck" line, I wonder? Have linguists made a map of it, like the ones that show where people say "soda" and where they say "pop"? Here in eastern PA it's always groundhog. I never heard them called woodchucks until visiting in New York state. New Jersey natives, please weigh in.

Post when you get it up and running. Curious where and how you will mount the fan. I use my dehydrator. Works great. My micro toms and peppers are just coming up. Probably the worst 5-8 days of the entire growing season....waiting for those pups to show up.

I might need to add another fan....but it works so far. I also use it for drying saved seed.

LOL! FOAS! I wouldn't mind catching and SV one of those fury guys. But here people poison their yards.

The system is working very well.

I have four boxes inside, with room on the top for sprouting micro green..

The components are small, a fan and a low temperature light for heat.

Each box holds 36 cells and each cell for two tomato seeds, a total of 288 seedlings if 100% of the seeds sprout.

Very difficult malabar spinach started in three days.

Some peppers

some greens

My newly constructed greenhouse is ready for the seedlings.

dcarch

So this is all about starting seeds "quickly". Of course, once they start, they're in the box with no light. So they die. You can't think of any other ways to start seeds quickly? Whoa. Geez. Just put them in a warm place. Of course, if you do them under lights, the lights will keep them warm. Throw an insulating layer over the setup, and make it as warm as you want. If you want to start seeds without lights in a warm place, the top of your fridge will do nicely. Precision? What for?

No wonder this is posted in a cooking forum. What you're doing is gently cooking seeds.

Dan, I think that dcarch moves the seedlings to his greenhouse/shelf set up when they germinate and just begin to grow, he doesn't leave them in the box after they start to grow.

We discuss all kinds of food here, including the growing, the processing, the shopping, the preparation and the consumption of it! Welcome to the Cooking Forum, where some of us grow what we cook, and we cook what we eat.

I have heat mats that I put under the pots when I plant my seeds, and I cover the trays with plastic wrap or plastic domes. After that the only light they get is from the wall of east facing windows on my front porch, but they manage to grow anyway.

Annie

Growth chambers are very common. Projects keep dcarch out of trouble and off the streets. : ).

Heat mats are 20 bucks. My preference. Big ugly thing, NIMH, (not in my house) but interesting how it will work for seedlings. Should be fine for most.

My one cent about micros and shoots. In our cooler NEast climate, think of it as you do your outside in-ground garden. Most don't like the heat. Even for germination. I do give one of my salad mixes some time on the heat mat but most thrive without.

Five years now and second year growing all winter, I'm finding no need to speed up germination as they are 6-12 days from seed to table. My kitchen is 66-67º consistently as is my grow room downstairs. For example I have 5 pea varieties. Peas go in the garden early, as soon as the soil can be worked. Hate wet feet but thrive in cooler weather....

We went through 8 trays Super Bowl Sunday, (bunch of goats my friends are. lol)

The radish, daikon and red rambo, is a fast one. Lower left in the pic. 7 days. Still great at 10-12. My mustard mix is slow at 12-14, sunflower 10-12. Buckwheat 5-7...etc

Peas and sunflower are fine out of direct sun. Keeps the stems tender. Popcorn shoots are best never seeing light similar to endive. Loves heat, etc....

Not for me. My seeds start just fine on heating mats under lights and since not all seeds sprout at the same time I'll never have leggy seedlings

I normally start my Chocolate Habanero seeds in February indoors, but since I'm going on vacation, I'm going to wait until I get back in March. When I start them in March or April, I start getting chilies in October, but the plants produce well through January. Habanero seeds need quite a bit of warm to sprout, but as soon as they sprout, I move them to pots outdoors. All I use is a box with a plastic lid, and I put this box in the art studio under the skylight. I tried this with some guananaba seeds I found in some juice I bought at the farmers' market, but those seeds never sprouted - I think they were perhaps too old. Anyway, I already have a fruiting cherimoya tree, and that is close enough.

I have no problem getting tomatoes to sprout when I plant the seeds outdoors, and I've gotten a lot of volunteer tomatoes in my back yard in the past. Right now I have volunteer dill and cilantro that I need to harvest soon.

I put a couple of beets in water in my kitchen window to grow some beet greens, but they are growing very slowly. I guess I'll give them to my neighbor when I go out of town.

I've never seen a groundhog, but I thought the prediction was for six more weeks of winter - not six weeks of freezing weather.

Nice greenhouse dcarch! Never heard of heat mats... I sure feel dumb, and they'd be so useful for starting my flower seeds and tomatoes. When we replant our garden I'll be checking out the heat mats at the very least. Nothing begins to grow here until April/May, even my herbs, which I do still have. They are gone until we start warming up - still have 20 degree temps here.

I love your Greenhouse, DC! Your insulated box reminds me of when I had a vermicomposting bin outside. We made a large plywood box, put my big rubbermaid bin with the worms inside, and put sheets of styrofoam all around between the wood and the bin. Before putting the lid on the bin, I filled it with lots of vegetable scraps and maple leaves so they could munch, and also create heat.

Lots of straw on top of the bin and a window pan for a lid on the wooden box.. Come spring, they were alive and kicking.

In the old kitchen (pre-remodel) I started seeds on top of the fridge. Didn't need a heat mat. New kitchen has a built-in, so that's no longer possible. The garden shed has a free standing fridge that we used in the temporary kitchen during the remodel. Since the shed isn't heated I put a small heating mat on top of the fridge.

Thank you everyone!

What I am doing is to come up with a system so that I can have a constant supply of home grown vegetables year round, winter to summer, in a tough z6 area and a cold (65F) house. I am tired of what is available in stores.

I used heat pad for seed starting once but it almost burnt down my house. Besides being a poor heat source for germination, I found out that they are fire/electrical hazards.

There are many component to my system, And I don't have a lot of storage space for all of them. So the important considerations for each are, in addition to good functionality, portability, easy for assembly and dis-assembly, and easy transportability. :

1. Seed start box - temperature adjustable, accurate to within 1 degree F. Multinational. Disassemble time 2 minutes, assemble time 4 minutes. light weight 3 lbs? easy storage.

2. Grow light chamber - HID and LED grown lights, 4' x 12' of mirror plastic space. All components fit inside a small box after seedlings are moved to garden or green house.

3.Cold frames - 4'w x 8'L x 2'H. I have a total of 8. Obviously they have to be taken apart when the weather is warm, otherwise they will take a huge amount of room for storage. Each takes 5 minute to take apart, and 10 minutes to re-assemble.

4. Greenhouse - A very difficult design and built for my needs. The greenhouse has to be removable otherwise I will need to pay higher property tax. It has to be insulated, all removable panels must be interlocking to prevent leakage, they have to be light weight and strong. So far, it is a success. Temperature outside 20F, inside 78F. We have had 4 or 5 major wind storms, no damage, dis-assemble in 10 minutes, re-assemble in 15 minutes. There are hidden bright LED lights throughout inside for night time work..

-----------------------------------

Yes. What I have done is for my own particular situation. I agree YMMV.

dcarch

dcarch, I'm in awe. You've put time, thought, and effort in everything! I know all that you've built is a lot of work, as is breaking it down for warmer months - but the benefits you reap outweigh the work. I admit, I am incredibly envious! We had to tear our small garden apart to cut down old trees, re-do our drainage system, and later will add a small patio for the grill - and we'll re-landscape.

At some point (most likely won't happen for 2 more years) I'd love a better organized garden, an area for seed starting, and a very small diy greenhouse - that's a lot of wishing for us as our yard is small (we live in the 'burbs now). Oh, and a composting area if we've room.

May I ask everyone here, what do you think of drip systems for a garden? Yay or nay?

2MD, This greenhouse project totally surprised me. As I mentioned, I keep my house around 65F, but the greenhouse gets to be around 75F and higher, so I have lunch in the greenhouse and sometimes work outside in there with my laptop, all when outside is below 20F!

A few years ago I bought all the components for a drip system, but Interestingly, after a few years of building up my soil, last year I never had to water my garden too often. So I have not done my drip system yet. I may not do it this coming season either, because I am building a solar electric fence system. I got lots of critters here who want to share my garden goodies.

A drip system is very useful, but it has to be very well constructed. Imagine if something breaks, you will be paying a huge water bill or have a lot of sun dried tomatoes.

dcarch

.

dcarch, as you know, I'm always wanting something. Right now it's cold frames, a green house or hoop house, a raised bed for strawberries and one for horseradish. Oh, and a couple dozen saskatoon bushes, another pear tree to replace the one which died (maybe I should make that TWO more), bee hives and a tiller for the tractor. (grin)

2many, a drip system is very useful, works well and saves water without watering where it's not needed, flooding the garden or wetting leaves. Just make sure it's maintained to avoid the problems dcarch mentioned.

Annie

Yeah Annie, a strawberry patch is so nice to have. Just go out and pick a few whenever you are in the mood. The problem is those nasty slugs. Birds and squirrels are easy to deal with, but slugs!

My town doesn't allow chickens and I don't want to use poisons. so my raised bed will be electrified.

May be strawberries pairs well with fried escargots? LOL!

dcarch

dcarch, when I saw the lounger and table in your greenhouse, I just knew you were spending some quite and quality time there! When you say building up your soil, I’m assuming you meant improving? Perhaps I need to move a compost higher on my list of wants.

You have heirloom tomatoes! And so organized! What’s the heart on the Kosovo mean? Your garden must be gi-normous!

dcarch and Annie, thanks for the mentions on drip systems. The comment about huge water bills and dead tomatoes will not be forgotten! I am a newbie, and went the soaker hose route… wasting water, it flowed out no matter how slow I kept it, and those little sprays hit to many lower leaves, killing some of my plants. Never again. It’s all been torn out.

Critters. The bane of gardens! Groundhogs, rabbits, opossums, skunks, deer (yep, even in the ‘burbs – we live close to the mountains), birds… We had to put chicken wire 12” out from the garden under the soil and 2’ high to keep the ground critters out.. then the birds began to destroy our veg’s. DH built a fast frame and we covered it with heavy netting (and despite reading horror stories, the birds seemed to understand not to fly into the netting). Next garden will be the same, but more thought out (trying to lift netting with bags, buckets, and armfuls of veggies is impossible!).

Slugs… hate ‘em. They killed all my seedlings last summer. I will raise the seedling beds in our next garden plans, but I’ve no idea how to rid ourselves of slugs!

We had wild blackberries growing amongst the trees we pulled out this fall. I put up a ton of seedless jam! Blackberry cobblers, blackberry pies.. yum! DH says if I plant blackberries I have to mow so he doesn't get caught in the thorns! I want raspberries, but they don’t seem to grow well here (7a).

"----When you say building up your soil, I’m assuming you meant improving? Perhaps I need to move a compost higher on my list of wants.---"

Very simple, My way. Works for me - All kitchen scraps, meat and fat, 100%, are roto-tilted into soil, not composted. All garden leaves, roto-tilted into soil, not composted.

Large bones, pulverized, 100% tilted into soil, not composted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUn3SCoCFFc

All wood from chopped down trees, burned in fire pit. All ash incorporated into soil.

--------------------------------

Slugs - Using adhesive backed stained glass copper foil to surround raised bed wood frame, powered by 12v battery, 100% effective. Forget about beer traps or poisons.

Similar to this idea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtdCBWeL4SQ

------------------------------------------------------------

You have heirloom tomatoes! And so organized! What’s the heart on the Kosovo mean? Your garden must be gi-normous!

Kosovo is a tomato of the heart variety. Good size, sweet, very few seeds. My favorite.

dcarch

Sorry, dcarch, I'm absolutely not eating slugs, not even fried and with strawberries. I seldom have a problem with them in the garden, thankfully, as my garden is in full sun. A couple of years ago I found slugs on the cabbages and was taken aback, it's the first time that's ever happened. It hasn't happened again since, thankfully.

I have copious amounts of cow manure for the garden and most of my food scraps are consumed by chickens, dogs, cows, something. The small amount of compostables I have left are either tossed into the compost barrel or, if it's "working", I dig a trench right in the garden itself. Materials are added to the trench and covered and when the garden is tilled in the spring it's all tilled in, along with the layer of manure, the straw from last year's mulch, whatever grew voluntarily since last year. Now, since we installed a pellet stove, I've been saving the ash, that'll go on the garlic first as it'll appreciate the alkalinity, and then on the corn in the spring.

Annie

dcarch, you are a fount of knowledge information!

RE: Slugs… amazing! Yep, tried the beer traps years ago and realized it was a formal invitation to all slugs. Figures, someone who’d build a removable winter greenhouse on a back porch (that also serves as a sun room in the winter) would come up with such an easy and foolproof way to repel slugs (not to mention your neat seed starter box!)

I’ve never had the room for heirlooms, but when we rebuild the garden I’m looking into growing Kosovo’s : )

Annie and dcarch: RE: Compost. That easy? Thank you both! I didn’t know meat scraps could be used. I do know how lovely manure is for the garden. We’ve no area for a burn pile, sadly.

2many, I have very few meat scraps, as they are consumed by the dogs or the chickens. Even fat goes to the chickens in the winter, they need the extra fat for heat. I wouldn't toss meat bones in there, I'm afraid of what they'd do to the tiller, but I don't balk at egg shells or unbleached coffee filters from the Chemex or fish bones. Just be sure to have a deep trench if the neighbors dogs or marauding racoons or coyotes or whatever can reach your garden space, a couple of inches isn't going to be enough.

https://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/simple-composting-methods-zmaz90jazshe

Annie