Leggy Broccoli

Bless my little broccoli. I think they got the feeling they weren't quite planned...so they grew and grew and grew. They grew so fast, and with my lack of knowledge I didn't know to get them into the light quickly so they have turned out rather tall, which is apparently not a desirable trait in a broccoli. Still, they seem healthy, of all the things I have planted they are certainly the most enthusiastic and I love them for that. I've been researching it, and it seems that you can replant the seedlings deeper in the soil to fix the problem, so that's what I've done. Here's the before and after,

The long and the short of it

There's life, Jim!

You won't guess what's happened. Well, actually you probably will - but my broccoli has started coming up - there's actual plants growing! Half of my seed tray is full of tiny green and white shoots. It started yesterday, and there was only a few, but now most of the tray has one or two little plants coming up. I feel really proud!!

However, the tomato side of the tray is doing nothing at all. Should tomatoes take longer? I'm seeing a slight flaw in my plan of planting two different vegetables in the same tray. So I've put the broccoli side out in the light and covered the tomato side with a folder to keep it dark.

I have taken to checking the tomato side of my tray morning, noon and night for any sign of life. I'm speaking encouraging words to it, and trying to start a little friendly competition among vegetables. Here are the little broccolis (or is the plural of broccoli just broccoli?) in all their tiny glory. I'm chuffed.

Aren't they splendid?!