The next steps after potting up
As the North Dakotan winter finally move on and spring temps, warm sunshine and the little green seedlings poking their heads out of the dirt in the house are such dear sights to behold.
Those plucky veggies and herbs have been watched for a few days to a week (or even a few weeks- some herbs and hot peppers tend to take their time). And now, they're finally here! Now what? Germinating seeds don't often require light, although some, like petunias, moss roses, and celery do.
So for the most part, no light is necessary until you can see the green shoot coming up.
Then it's time to break out the lights.
At this stage, uncovering the seedlings is best. Starting pots or flats covered with a clear lid helps to keep the moisture in, and you won't have to water the seeds until they germinate.
But once the green is visible above the dirt, uncover those trays. With no air circulation, mold growth can occur very quickly- and that’s pretty detrimental to seedling health.
Even if you see mold growth, don't despair! Just uncover the trays, turn on the lights, and get some air flowing. Under moving air and light, mold disappears and so does any problems it might be capable of producing. The plants will be perfectly fine.
Light positioning is pretty important in the first few weeks of a seedling's life. It might take some finangling, but hanging the lights about an inch above the little sprouts will prevent them from getting leggy, reaching for the light.
My setup looks anything but professional: Grandpa gave me his miniature greenhouse, which is just four metal mesh shelves on a plastic tube frame. It also came with a coat of plastic around the entire thing, but I removed that as it was very unconducive to good air flow.
So the top shelf is the germination shelf. The little clear clamshell containers sit up there, closed tight, until the plants peek out. Then, the clamshells get opened and the lights are hung from the greenhouse 'roof' by ribbons tied in such a way that they can be undone and moved up as the plants grow.
Once the plants outgrow their little clamshells (which doesn't take very long) it is then, time to pot them up.
Those small plastic pots saved from previous greenhouse purchases are perfect vehicles for the growing veggies; especially once they're mostly full of a dirt and sand mixture to promote healthy drainage.
The full pots are placed on boot trays, which make watering from below nice and simple, and catch any drips. And the rest of the shelves in the little greenhouse are filled, one tray to each shelf.
Each shelf also needs a light. The lights I use are not special grow lights (those are crazy expensive and unnecessary). Rather, a visit to the local hardware store produced the circular metal light reflectors often used in conjunction with heat lamps for chicks. With a plain old 10-watt 'daylight' bulb, my plants are always perfectly happy and healthy.
And last but not least is the air movement side of things. Young plants are a big fan of moving air, and oscillating fans that we all have for sticky summer days are the perfect solution. That type of fan can often be angled up or down, so it can be pointed in the correct direction to rustle the plants as it oscillates by.
Watering when the dirt is dry but not before helps keep plants watered but not too damp. If plants start to look wilted, give 'em a good drink.
Checking the soil is the easiest way to know when to water: Just stick your finger in the dirt.
If it's wet or damp, the plant's fine for a few more days.
Knowing how to grow seedlings is the most important part. But it’s interesting to know that nearly all of the vegetables (and flowers, and herbs) that we grow in the garden belong to the same large group: Angiosperms.
There are five main groups of green things that we would consider plants:
• Algae, which are tiny plants that float on the water.
• Bryophytes are mosses.
• Seedless vascular plants, which we would recognize as ferns.
• Gymnosperms include conifers and other plants with ‘naked seeds,’ meaning that the seed is found exposed (like in a pine cone).
• Angiosperms, the huge group of flowering plants, includes basically everything we’re familiar with as a plant.
It’s a pretty good bet that most common vegetables grown in our gardens are angiosperms.
However, not all angiosperms are the same.
Have you started garlic or onion seeds? And then tomatoes or peppers?
The little onion peeking above the soil extends only one tiny green hand, reaching for the light. It does not later branch into leaves.
But tomatoes extend a little sprout…and then they branch into two leaves.
That’s because tomatoes (and peppers, and squash and beans and basically everything except onions, corn, and garlic) are dicots.
‘Dicot’ is short for ‘dicotyledon,’ just as ‘monocot’ is a shortened version of ‘monocotyledon.’
A cotyledon is the seed leaf. If a little sprout has two leaves, it’s a dicot. If it has one, as in onions, garlic, and corn- then it’s a monocot. Corn actually belongs to the grass family, Poaceae. Onions and garlic are in the Alliaceae family.
Both mono- and dicots are beautiful parts of the garden and delicious on the table!
And it all started with a little cotyledon. Isn't creation wonderful?