Final day in first round

Slight delay in passing the baton (pot!) due to team travels


A second set of leaves is growing at the join of the first leaves on all shoots although the 'runt' still only has one first growth leaf



Time to pass the responsibility to Andy !
Good luck, plenty of sunshine and not too much water ?!

Day 9

Left on windowsill all day - again, no water added because the soil surface still felt slightly damp.




All fine until an enthusiastic cat stuck a large paw onto the largest seedling and bent it flat. I carefully tried to stand it up but it didn't want to...

...so I've resorted to a matchstick crutch in the hope that it recovers.

End of first week

Thirteen of the fourteen shoots have now split to create 2 leaves. On the fourteenth - the last one to appear - which is distinctly the runt, it looks like its trying to grow a new leaf but its a bit black.


The seedlings vary in height from about 1 to 2 inches. The soil is still slightly damp to the touch so no extra water today.

Early start

First thing overhead view


and side view - all seems to be going well


Very bent over in afternoon so back into west facing room for evening sun at 6:30pm


Turned round


Nearly upright at 10pm and bit more water added - moved back to front window sill

Twisting this way and that

First thing in the morning, all going well


But by evening when got back from work, definitely leaning over a bit much.


I thought I should try to straighten them up by turning pot around and putting back into the evening sun at 7pm:

By 10pm, nearly back to vertical and back onto front windowsill

14 seedlings, growing on a wall

First thing in the morning, all 14 seedlings now growing up

Looking a little dry so added ~200ml water


Definitely seem to be aiming for the sun by evening



Thought it was time to measure progress - ~3.5 cm for the tallest little radish...how high do they grow before harvesting ?

Growing

Twelve seedlings in the morning so left on the windowsill for the day


In the evening, they're all straining towards the window to catch the light (on the left) so I turned the pot round...and realised there were now 13 !


Time for some more water - about 250ml using a measuring jug, carefully dribbled across the surface of the soil...with my trusty assistant watching on

Life !!

I dutifully brought in the pot from outside last night and put it back on the front windowsill for overnight. When I checked this morning at 8am before leaving for work, no sign of life, but by 6pm, to my huge excitement and relief, ten little seedlings have popped their noses out of the soil and are stretching for the sky !


Good thing too as at lunchtime I'd been second-guessing my selective planting strategy especially after some random googling had brought up phrases such as "sow a pinch" rather than the individual seed approach I'd taken.


A little gentle watering with a spray bottle followed by pouring a bit more on - trying not to drown them but also bearing in mind the need for a "reasonable supply of water"


Finally I feel worthy of the text blogger inserts with each photo "parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully" - now to keep them growing !

Day 3

Still nothing to see but at least the cats haven't dug it up. Here's what it looked like at 9am


and at 12:15pm I moved it so still in the sun on the windowsill


Since its another glorious sunny day (22C), at 2pm I moved it out into the back garden to get some full on sun for a few hours

Day 2

7am, not much to see.


I kept the pot on the windowsill so it would get sun all morning.


A hot hot sunny day up to 25C. I gave it a little drink at about 3:30pm - spray with a water bottle but then added a bit too - about a cup.

Then a quick check and a photo last thing at night...still nothing to see

Planting

Feeling a little nervous about how this project will go...no idea how to plant radishes so gone for a "give them lots of space" approach in hope each seed will come up but so they don't interfere too much with each other.

First things first, I read through the instruction book and looked at the pot, soil, seeds and bag. Figured that filling the pot would (if past experience is anything to go by) be a messy job so out into the back garden on a glorious sunny evening.

Water-logged soil can be a problem, particularly in plastic pots and since no holes in the bottom of the pot, reckoned I'd better add some gravel in case I (we!) over watered.


Then I added all the soil - and squished it down by hand till quite firm.


I wanted to make a little hole for each seed so I poked my finger in about a centimetre deep with about an inch between holes - hadn't really planned how many but ended up with 14 'homes' and popped a seed into each


A light covering of more soil over the top...


then after a quick check from the supervising cats, Tigger and Dibley


time for a gentle watering


back into the nice green bag for easy transport


and then I brought the pot back inside and put it onto the windowsill in the front room where it would catch the morning sun.