The Grow Log

Walked out with three packs of sunflower seeds, 54 peat moss pods — 4x4 — three trays to hold 18 pods each, 16 dry quarts of Espoma Organic Seed Starter, and seaweed extract.

The owner didn’t think I needed the seaweed extract. He was happy to sell it to me regardless. I appreciated the honesty. I bought it anyway.

Then lunch with Derek. Derek is quiet, thoughtful, the kind of guy who listens more than he talks. Good lunch. Good conversation. The kind you don’t rush.

After that, the grow supply shop — also Cape Alder, different building, different energy entirely. This place moves product for serious growers. I am not a serious grower. I am a retired guy who read one book, did some math, and apparently needed three and a half hobbies. This is one of them. The gentleman behind the counter was gracious about the distinction. Patient, even.

Came home with a Gavita LED Clone Bar, a timer, a 7” clip fan, and two heat mats to keep those seedlings nice and warm during the preseason.

The future draft class of The Twelve Roots is currently sitting in paper seed packets on my kitchen table.

I laid it all out and took a picture. Seemed like the right thing to do.

The Gavita is mounted. The fan is clipped. The heat mats are in place and tested. The peat pods are soaked and sitting in their trays — twenty of them, three trays, enough room to spare.

I’ve been calling the basement corner where all of this is happening Prospect Field. It felt right. It’s not a big space. It is exactly the right size.

Growing twenty and drafting fifteen leaves five in the bullpen. That’s the plan. Extra coverage if something goes sideways early. It won’t. But the ledger accounts for it.

The room smells like wet soil and new plastic. It is not unpleasant. Seeds go in Monday. May 5. Cinco de Mayo. I picked the date for the calendar symmetry and I have no regrets about that.

Everything is in position. There is nothing left to set up. There is only waiting, and then planting, and then whatever comes after.

Twenty pods. All three varieties — Mammoth, Autumn Beauty, and Sunspot. One seed per pod, pressed to depth, covered. Heat mats on. Timer set. Fan running low.

It took about forty minutes. I worked through the trays in order: Mammoth first, then Autumn Beauty, then Sunspot. Labeled each tray. Wrote it in the ledger. That’s the official record. This is the unofficial one.

It’s quiet down here. The light from the Gavita is steady and warm and slightly orange in the way that grow lights are. Nothing looks like anything yet. The pods are just dark wet circles in their trays.

The draft class of Season 1 is in the ground. That’s how it starts. Nothing about sunflowers is fast. That’s sort of the point.

Draft Day is May 10. Five days. We’ll see what they look like by then.