it never dawned on me until today that perhaps the reason why there's a difference between the nasturtiums growing on the top shelf compared to the ones growing on the bottom shelf is because they might be two different varieties.

it seems more and more evident that possibly the plants growing on the bottom shelf will be bigger because their light shines with more lumens per square feet. however, there are some evidence that point to 2 different varieties, maybe even more.

some nasturtiums have reddish mottled spots on their stems, while others are completely green. the ones with the red spots are more compact and have flat leaves while the green stemmed variety grow skinnier and taller with broader leaves. the spurs on the red spotted variety are white, while the green variety are yellowish-green. checking the package that the seeds originally came in, it said they were a mix (although it didn't specify which varieties). looking back, not all the seeds looked the same, some were bigger, while others were smaller and dark. the smoking gun was a photo i took last night but didn't quite connect the dots yet. for some reason the nasturtium growth wasn't consistent: shorter varieties - which i thought were a result of the type of lights i used - were appearing on the bottom shelf using brighter bulbs, and likewise the assumed taller varieties from the bottom shelf were showing up on the top shelf.

in other news: i saw a parsley sprout! so now i can officially call it: it took the parsley 9 days to germinate.

in the evening i transplanted some cilantro seedlings. not all of them survived but it was easier to throw away the bad ones because they were obviously inferior and wouldn't have survived very well if left to grow.

in the late afternoon i went with my mother to get some groceries. i had the leftover asparagus chicken for dinner and made some mashed sweet potato mixed with chipotle peppers (it was a recipe i saw on good eats). it wasn't bad, but even though i only used a single sweet potato, it still produced more mashed potato than i'd normally eat. i ate it all anyway, just because i didn't want any leftovers.

while all this plant growth is happening above the surface, there's a lot that's happening below ground that i just can't see. i was a bit curious and looked around the sides of the plastic cups for signs of the growing roots. sure enough, there they were. it's kind of scary to see how long the roots are already, especially the nasturtiums, which are growing so fast they could be considered weeds.

later in the evening i took a bath, recharging myself with some hot water to hopefully last me throughout the rest of the night.