6 Seed Starting Tips

  It’s that time of year now! For some of us, at least. Time for seed starting! Huzzah!

 There’s something so awesome about nurturing a plant from seed to harvest, that I never buy plants anymore, if I can help it.

  But starting seeds can be a frustrating and sometimes fruitless task, so I’ve put together a few tips to make the whole thing easier and more likely to produce good results…

 Get The Right Trays-

    Recycling rocks! I think it grand when I hear of people using soda cans, milk jugs, newspaper, and other creative ways to make their own pots- and I used to be among them. I’ve spent [wasted] more time rolling newspaper pots than I’d like to consider. Probably made a thousand of the things; but when you come down to it, having nice dimensional seed starting trays with individual cells is sooo much nicer. 

    A friend of mine has turned me on to 200+ cell trays, like this one. They are very helpful in several ways-

•   They make very efficient use of space, especially for seeds that are less than easy to germinate. Drop one seed per cell, and even if only half come up, you don’t have your greenhouse or window or whatever overcrowded with flats or pots filled with seeds that never germinate.
•  They water easily from the bottom, They only need to stay in a shallow pan of water for a little bit before soaking up enough water. You can water quickly this way without worrying about displacing the seeds or beating up young seedlings
•   It makes transplanting a snap, just pull the plug out by the stem of the plant. You don’t have to worry about it messing up the neighboring plants’ root system.

 There are disadvantages, of course. For one, you have to transplant them fairly quickly, since the cells are small and shallow and the plant become rootbound in no time….Also….well….maybe that’s the only disadvantage!

  Afterwards, you can transplant into regular 3-pack seedling containers. Like what your tomato plants from the garden center come in. You can usually pick up a slew of them on ebay for a very cheap price usually.

 Speaking of Watering From The Bottom- this is also a helpful tip. Watering seeds or seedlings from the top via a watering can or even a spray bottle can displace dirt, or beat down the leaves, which can potentially stress or even break the young plant. Not to mention it takes a few gazillion pumps of a spray bottle to adequately water a tray. Shallow trays can be watered from the bottom up by simply placing the tray (as long as it has drainage holes) in a container full of water. A plastic tub big enough to fit stardard sized trays can be picked up from a store like Dollar General or Wal-Mart inexpensively. The process can be sped along with already-sprouted plants by tilting the tray in the water and letting it run over the top

Get The Right Seed Starting Mix, Then Mod it Out

   I’ve personally given up on soil-based seed starting mixes, at least for the present. I used to mix compost, garden soil, and liberal quantities of vermiculite, but I decided the results weren’t worth the effort of mixing it and started buying soiless commercial stuff. Not that it can’t be done, and you can save money, and you certainly don’t have to listen to the crap about heating the soil in the oven to ‘sterilize it’. Give me a flippin’ break.

   Most soiless mixes I don’t like very much. Usually the peat is not fine enough, and perlite is obnoxious (those hard white pieces), and it dries out way to fast. I personally like Redi-Earth. Good product overall, stays wet much longer than most others.

   However, like all soiless mixes it has no nutrient value for the plant. Plant don’t start needing nutrients until they get their first true leaves, but you’re going to probably keep your seedlings in pots until long after that, so you need to mod out your starting mix with elite fertilizer products! Especailly nitrogen-rich ones that won’t “burn” the youn plant. Here’s a few ideas-

•  Compost
•  Driend cow manure
•  Pelletized chicken manure (this stuff rocks hard)
•  Kelp Meal
•  Feather Meal
•  Blood and Bone Meal

 Using Worm Castings in the Mix

   Worm castings are actually known to increase the germination rate of seeds when included in the mixture. I have heard that 20% (or one part casting, four parts everything else) worm castings in your seed starting mix is best. Worm casting can be hard to come by if you don’t have a worm bin. I do [nah nah!]. If you don’t, you may want to look into making one or buying one- it’s a great way to make your compost all that more extraordinary! I frequently include worm castings in my mix, and while I haven’t done any scientific controlled studies in a lab coat, it does seem to do the trick nicely.

Keeping an Optimum Temperature

 Different types of seed germinate better under different ranges of temperatures, some of them being quite high. Most seed packets have this information, or it can easily be found online. I really recommend hopping over to Johnny’s Seed and requesting a catalog. Each type of vegetable in it has a chart that shows the optimum germination temperatures. Some are suprising- for instance, cabbage is shown to have an peak germination at 86 degrees F. And cabbage is a cool weather crop!

  Paying attention to temperature is important. Heat mats are sold in all garden supply stores or catalogs, and they work well, but they are an investment, especially if you need to heat multiple flats. Other homemade solutions work as well, such as a little ‘seed oven’ box that’s heated by a lightbulb or heat lamb. More on this in a future post.

Get a Hand Sower

Small seed can be a pain to sow individually. Lettuce, broccolli, leeks, all tiny seeds that make life difficult..

Heirloom Acres Seeds sells a hand ‘Dail-A-Seed’ sower for a couple of bucks. It works amazingly well. You turn the dial to adjust the gate for different seed sizes, and holding the thing flat in your hand you tap it with your index finger, and the seeds come out through the spout. There’s a trick to using it, and it takes a little practice, but in the end it’s just as good as a professional vibrating hand seeder.

  Anyway, I thought I’d throw this few tips together that have helped me in my seed starting journeys. Hopefully they’ll help you!