Spinach Sprouting and Dill Planted in Large Containers

Not long after planting my alyssum this week I noticed that my spinach seeds were beginning to sprout.  I didn’t think they would sprout within a week of planting them, but I am not complaining.  This is much better than having them not sprout at all.

The earlier they begin to grow the faster that they can get to a good size before planting them outside.  Since they sprouted sooner this means that they will be planted in the ground much sooner or at least until I can work the soil.

Not all the pots that have spinach seeds have began to sprout, but a good majority of them have at least one or two seeds growing.  There are a few that have several seeds sprouting and soon I will have to thin them out to just one plant per container.

Here is one with several that are sprouting at the same time.

Now that my spinach plants are showing signs of life I decided to take the time and plant some more flowers.  Dill was next on my list after alyssum and not only is it a good flower, but you can also use it as an herb.  Not only can you benefit from the flowers but you can use the leaves or the seeds as an herb for various meals.

I like to plant them the same exact way that I plant my alyssum seeds and using large plastic pots is a great way to grow them.  I will admit doing it this way will produce them to flower faster, but this is the main reason that I grow them in the first place.

If you want to use them mainly as an herb, then I would recommend planting them in small pots like any other vegetable or fruit seed.  This way they will not flower fast and go to seed too soon.  You will be able to benefit from the leaves much longer as long as you keep harvesting it.

For my reasons I use large containers and plant many seeds into each one.

In each hole I add several seeds of dill so that way I have an entire container full of dill.  They won’t begin to flower in the container because I will be planting them in the ground before this happens and from their they should grow quite well.

Instead of putting them in the windowsill I decided that I wanted them to start growing as soon as possible and the best way to do that is with fluorescent lights.

So far this is all I have done this week and I plan on adding some more plants to the lights and windowsill.