Week 4 (05/08-05/14) - Transplant, New plants, Newly bought plants

I have been moving some plants from the starting tray to individual pots (or rather, cups) because they are started dying in the tray~ All the containers are self-watering containers that I made out of one 3oz dixie cups, two 18oz cups and stripes cut from Alex's boxer (very good wick!) Oh, yeah, also, I watered them with Hydrogen Peroxide solution (1 tbsp 3% H2O2 to 1 gallon water) after transplanting. 


Green Beans - those were the first to be transplanted (probably about a week after planted) because they were growing sooooo fast, and the roots were wandering everywhere in the seedling tray. It's really joyful to watch bean plants growing while they others are still baby looking, made me feel so achieved. Anyways, as you can see, the biggest leaves (first set) are actually 1.5 leaves. I DID NOT tear off the leave!! It was born like that, I know, weird, right? But what really bothers me is those spots on the leaves, looks like the green surface got chipped off, leaving membrane... And both of my beans are infected. I have searched everywhere without figuring out what is wrong. The only thing I can think of is that I took them out on the balcony one day for about 1 hr, they may get something from the tree right next to our balcony... but I can't figure out what kind of disease it could be. Also, those are Contender Beans, supposedly disease resistant! If anyone knows what's wrong with my beans, please please let me know~

Green beans 05/13 (Day 20) 

Tomatoes - some of them were placed in paper towels on Apr 17th then planted into peat pellet after germination, some were in peat pellet on Apr 23rd, but they are really just the same to me now. The only difference is I transplanted the 1st bunch on May 4th into Miracle-Gro moisture control potting mix with no amendment, and transplanted the 2nd bunch on May 9th into normal potting mix with perlite and vermiculite. I think they could have got bigger by now had I transplanted them earlier. The 1-2 weeks before transplanting, they where all just kind of stopped growing, with the sprouts of the first set of real leaves. I had dug them out of the peat pellet before I transplanted. Also, I had buried most of the stems under the soil, because tomato stems will turn into roots if buried. 
Bell Peppers - not much to say about them, just steady growers, that is, once they germinated. transplanted into moisture control potting mix on May 04. I removed the peat pellet for most of them, for the rest,  the roots had made their way out of the net, so I just potted the whole peat pellet so that the roots won't get disturbed.

1st bunch tomato  05/10 (Day 24) and bell peppers (Day 20)

2nd bunch tomato 05/10 (Day 24) - you can see they are pretty much dead as compared to the 1st bunch

Tomatoes altogether 05/12 (Day 26) - they have been pretty happy since being transplanted into my homemade self-watering containers

Bell peppers looking good 05/12 (Day 22)

Rosemary - the only 4 rosemary that actually germinated and survived (I think 60-70% germinated, then more than half died) have been growing super super super slow. Still, I should have transplanted them into potting mix after they germinated, but instead, I waited until 05/09, when most of them has already died in the killer peat pellets.

Rosemary 05/10 (Day 24)

Garlic Chives and Green Onions - they germinated very well, they survived very well, very hardy little guys, I was too lazy to transplant them though....

Cilantro - i think i may kill all of them and restart 

Cilantro 05/13 (Day 20) & My first herbs (Day 24), leggy looking....

German Thyme - this will show you how black my thumbs are!!! I bought them from Lowe's, picked the best looking one (they looked so vivid!!) came back home, transplanted them into an 8.75" pot with moisture control potting mix, the next day, they are very very sad looking. I did some research, and realize that moisture control soil is not good for thyme at all. So, I transplanted them again. This time, I made sure the potting mix is light weighed and well drained, with no extra fertilizer, and I separated the three thyme plants, loosened the root ball, sprayed roots with H2O2 solution. They looked great the next day, i was really happy with my efforts, but then, as time goes by, they started getting droopy again, and showed some brow leaves... eventually, one of them is almost completely dead.

German Thyme 05/10 the day after transplanting, it looked great - too bad that didn't last long

Basil (Supermarket) - well well well, they've caused me enough trouble... needed bigger pots, got aphids, just never happy! I transplanted them again, from the old cheap dollar tree soil to moisture control potting mix, separating all of their roots this time - which probably killed most of them. And, 90% died the next day, haha. So, here is its last living picture right after transplanting...RIP

Basil 05/10 - just a memory now

And here's some newly bought plants: 1 oregano and 4 jalapeno peppers. Alex and I were at Lowe's Garden Center trying to get some free trays or pots, and the lady there told us to go to this local nursery where she used to work at, she said they always give away nursery containers. So we went there and got twenty 5gallon containers for free. The owner is a super nice guy. We felt bad for not buying anything... so I picked up an oregano (even though I don't really like it) and a 4-pack jalapeno peppers. 

Jalapeno - they had aphids!!! I should have examined them closer before buying them. Luckily, after killing 5-6 these little suckers, I haven't noticed anymore of them. But they have been growing slowly (if at all). 

4 Jalapeno Peppers 05/10

Oregano - it is definitely root bound, but I haven't transplanted it yet. I want to put it in the thyme pot, but don't wanna disturb the thyme when it's still weak. I may want to grow it with my rosemary together, but the rosemary plants are still just sprouts... And, opposed to what I have learned, my Oregano is actually happier when I water it often, otherwise it became really droopy (spoiled??) 

Oregano 05/12 sitting on the thyme pot, just watered

Besides those, I have planted some new seeds - basil, cherry tomato, and cucumber.

Basil - So, my first bunch of basil failed, but not my dream about endless pesto!! I decided to restart. This time, I directly sowed them into a small windowsill box (made into self-watering container, already inserted wicks) with some parsley on 05/10, they sprouted in 2 days. So far so good

Basil 05/13 (Day 3)

Cherry Tomato - i used to think they are useless - coz  we mainly use tomato in hamburgers and meat sauce, until I see the price of 3 bucks for a handful of cherry tomatoes in the grocery store. lol. Sowed 4 seeds in self-watering container, all 4 germinated - but 1 of them got stuck in the seed coat, another one was born with 3 seed leaves?!

Cherry tomatoes 05/14 (Day 4) - 3-leave seedling?!

Cucumber - well, I bought the wrong seed - I wanted salad cucumber, but bought the pickling cucumber instead....I'm just stupid~ maybe will plant some new kind later. Right now, there's 4 sumter cucumbers, all germinated

Cucumbers 05/13 (Day 3)

Well, that's it for now, I'm tired~~~