Weekend Forecast: Mostly Fluorescent and 65

Spring has sprung early in Boston and by now I think it is safe to say that we got off easy this year. The snowblower we reluctantly bought after shoveling 80+ inches of snow last year only got one lap around the house and our daffodils began poking their heads up a couple of weeks ago.Spring however came even earlier to our basement, thanks to a new grow light recommended to us by family friends in the medicinal marijuana business:http://vimeo.com/38705351We have tried to plant early in the past to get a jump start on the season, but we had mixed results and managed to grow as much mold as anything else.So this year, we added more light, tried a different soil mixture (equal parts sphagnum moss, vermiculite, and compost), abandoned bottom watering and stuck everything in the basement where it is warm and dry.  And so far so great.  Everything (minus some stubborn rosemary) is thriving. We have been thinning ruthlessly and yesterday we transplanted our best students into bigger containers:Here is a closer look at our spring roster:Our MVP (most valuable plant) - The Hillbilly Potato Leaf TomatoSage (which if you haven't tried fried, you must)Leeks and Onions (the most boring plants in the world to photograph)Basil (something I thought we could never have too much of, but this year we might be testing the limits of that statement)Red Bell PeppersAnd the all-important Canon Eos Mark III, recording the hourly growing action (because That's how we do 'round here!).We have planted more outside - carrots, beets, spinach and lettuce - and the stuff under the cold frames has just begun to emerge.  The carrot and beets have yet to reassure us we didn't plant too early (see Dina planting in the snow and the rest of our winter sowing here).So now we wait and try not to spend too much time in the basement obsessively watching the seedlings grow.PS - For those of you who watched the time lapse and wondered what that yellow box was that Erik was messing with, well it was his attempt to re-invent (read: overcomplicate) how to water plants.Before designing this year's planting system, Dina and I went back and forth about the benefits of top watering vs. bottom watering.  We were hesitant to bottom water because we wanted to avoid having standing water around to promote mold again.  But one of Dina's concerns about top watering was the problem of all the little seeds getting displaced by the heavy water pouring from a watering can.  So I decided that devising a rain machine that would slowly percolate water over the soil was essential.  After far longer than I'd like to admit, some scrap wood, a sheet, and the plastic grid from a fluorescent light here is what I came up with:Fill the top with water and viola! - rain!Once I finished demonstrating my creative and constructive genius and removed the apparatus, we noticed a few dry spots. So Dina gingerly watered them with the watering can and . . . well, it worked just fine (and with much less setup.)  Watering can: 1  Magic Rain Box: 0.But all was not lost.  When put under the plants, the watering system became a perfect aeration tray and hopefully it will simplify moving plants around when we are hardening everything off.We're pretty thrilled with our results so far so if anyone else is starting up soon and has further questions about our methods (or wants some extra tomato plants), we're happy to share.