Iceberg peas

This morning I made an interesting discovery about the peas.  The peas have been slow to come up and I thought they just were taking their time starting.  Nope.  They've been toiling away below the soil building long white roots.  The soil they have been sitting in has been consistently moist, I believe, so I am not sure why they put so much effort into the roots.  Certainly the pea sprouts are much, much more substantial than the other sprouts so perhaps they need a strong root system before a stem like that can emerge.  Or maybe we planted them too deep and we would have seen growing patterns like the other plants if only we had given them less earth to plough through.  

Either way, the roots are screaming through the bottoms of the coir pots and so the peas need potting on.  One of the pots has roots through the bottom but no sprout at the top.  I now have faith that it'll sprout.  I put half of the sprouted peas into bigger "pots" (yogurt containers with holes poked into the bottoms), but then had to stop because I ran out of potting soil.  Hopefully they'll like their new homes  and won't mind being jostled about.  Cutting the pots apart required some serious hacking on my part.  I'll need sharper scissors next time.

The new pea pots and the beets have been moved from the downstairs windowsill up to the bedroom windowsill in an admission that there really isn't room for everyone.  I see our dresser gradually getting covered in potted plants, too.  We're going to need window shelving.  We have been meaning to put some in in the kitchen for a while.  It would have a double advantage because not only could we grow fresh herbs right where we need them, we could also block out the late evening sun which usually blinds us as we're cutting onions for supper.

On that cheerful note, I say that there seem to be chives now, too.  

Don't see them?  Yes, there is plenty of perlite in the pot to distract you, but the chive sprout is the green thing on the left of the pot.

It's still very small, but there is definitely a sprout and there are actually others, too.  It's good news.  I was starting to worry that they would never come out.

The basil is also a certainty now, but it's very odd-looking at this point.  Not what I'd expect basil to start life looking like at all.  It's sort of hairy-looking.  I think I can be forgiven for wondering if it was just the pot becoming mouldy.

I will add that this has been a great education about my camera.  I have a lens which is good and bright and clear (but not expensive) and a lens which doesn't let in much light that the camera came with, but which is the right size for the magnifying lenses.  In the very bad, crappy-weather light today the magnifying lenses can do nothing to save the situation and all I get is the aberrations in the cheap lens.  The beautiful bright lens produces images from far away of such quality that I can crop them and magnify the image and it's still good.  Note to self: either get magnifying lenses the right size for the bright lens or get a much better telephoto lens.