Gardening Funny!

[bentlaj11]

Sooo, it was beautiful outside yesterday (today it snowed!), and the almanac (thanks to the post below!) said it was a good time to start some seeds. We (my 3 y/o, 1 y/o and I) got everything together and went outside to get them started. My 3 y/o helped me some, but mainly dug around in the yard (he loooves his shovel/digging holes). I had everything done, but decided to start another tray of bell peppers. Then my neighbor came home, and I went over to say "hi" and talk a bit while keeping an eye on my 1 y/o who was close by the steps. Turns out I should've been keeping an eye on my 3 y/o. I came back to all the seed packets ripped on and "planted" in 1 tray. So, now I'll be growing a tomato-jalapeno-bell pepper variety. And, that was after I read about keeping the bell peppers separate in the garden from the jalapenos to prevent cross pollenation..haha.

So, any advice?

[Macky]

LOL @ the kiddos!

You're fine. Your plants will be fine. They'll grow the tomatoes and peppers they're supposed to grow. There will be no tomato-jalapeno-bell mutants. The genetic make-up of these plants is already decided. *IF* your peppers manage to cross-pollinate with the help of a few insects, the only thing impacted will be the seeds. This isn't a concern if you don't plan to save them. If that's a big deal to you, chalk this year up to experience and fork over for a couple new packets and start again next spring.

Peppers and Tomatoes both typically self-pollinate. If you take a look at the flowers, they don't open wide to expose the stamens and pistils. Usually, each flower pollinates itself. Obviously some cross-pollination occurs because of insects, but primarily, they self-pollinate. Maintaining separation in the garden is only paramount for people striving to keep a pure line of seed.

Now, in something like corn, where the seed *is* the primary part that we eat, you will notice the effect of cross-pollination in the harvest that you consume that same season and in the seed saved for next year.

If you pay attention as the seedlings start to put out their first true leaves, you should be able to tell the pepper seedlings apart from the tomato seedlings pretty early. Transplant them each into their own little pots and let them grow some more. You may be able to tell pepper varieties apart if they're remarkably different. A purple pepper usually has leaf veins tinged with purple or red, which can help tell it apart from a green bell, for example. Same with the tomatoes. There's a lot of variety in the shapes of tomato leaves that you don't always see until you grow a few side-by-side and take notice.

[bentlaj11]

Thanks!! I'm just working on actually getting something to grow, so saving seeds will be something way down the line for me. I thought I should be able to tell the tomato plants apart; it was the pepper plants that had me worried. Good to know that cross-pollination isn't a concern. I'm so excited to try gardening again. I'm sure there will be lots more fiascos