They grow up so fast

The saga of the seedlings continues. I planted them with some trepidation and placed them on the seed-starting table. This table has two slots for the trays on which the seed trays live. I had the trays on the lower slot, so of course the fluorescent light was too high above the seedlings. But I reasoned that I had about a week before buying additional chain became necessary.

Not so - some of the seedlings emerged immediately and became leggy almost overnight. So yesterday, I was measuring the amount of chain needed when light dawned. Why not just move the trays to the higher slot, where they would be close enough to the light? You see why my career choice has never included anything the slightest bit mechanical.

Easy enough, but when I tried to hook the light to a higher link on the chain, there came a pop! and a burst of light, and the light fixture went dead. Could it be the ballast? After two new bulbs, these meant especially for gardening, and then, when they still didn't work, a new light fixture, the seedlings should at last be a bit happier.

Moral of the story: my lack of faith in my own mechanical abilities (or even common sense, I'm afraid) is fully justified.

 

Here are the seedlings just emerging...

 and here they are reaching up to the light. The fact that my hand-scribbled lists of which seeds were planted in which tray, and in which order, have inevitably gotten mixed up in the course of all of this just means more excitement later, when I try to figure out what the heck I have actually been growing.