A new approach to starting seeds
Nothing is a brighter spot at the end of winter than seeing the beautiful, colorful seed catalogs come in the mail.
Picking out the seed varieties you want to grow in your garden, be it vegetable, flower, or herb, is always exciting. Sometimes, seed companies write up descriptions that include the history of the variety (Prairie Road Organic Seeds is really good at that). Often, descriptions tell us how to best use the variety, or how well it stores (Victory Seeds does that very well).
My grandfather and I used to pass seed catalogs back and forth before seed starting season began, and it was fun to see which ones caught his eye. My husband and I share seed catalogs and have a lot of fun discussing which seeds to order, or things that we would like to try in the garden.
A different perspective is valuable when planning, starting, and growing gardens!
Something we discovered for next year’s garden was…peanuts. New varieties that are more tolerant to our northern latitudes crop up every year, and if started inside, we could grow peanuts even up here!
Most of the seed catalog is filled with gorgeous pictures of the plants.
But the back of the seed catalogs are often rather intimidating. That portion showcases the tools of the trade, both in seed starting as well as the later, gardeningoutside part.
Seed starting, like
duck hunting, sewing, baking, and just about anything you could imagine all have something in common.
There are a lot of things you could buy to make it easier or faster or more successful, but most of those things are not necessary at all.
Really, all that’s needed to grow vegetables, flowers, and herbs from seed is a pot (and if that pot has holes in the bottom, something to go under the pot to prevent water from dripping out), the seeds, a fan to keep them from getting thin stems, and a light.
One of the more expensive parts of seed starting is the light. However, ‘grow lights’ are not necessary.
Plants need between 400 and 700 nanometers (wavelength) of light for photosynthesis. Since many lightbulbs don’t have that specific measurement on the packaging, most ‘daylight’ bulbs are suitable for plant growth. For instance, mine are 10 watt (or 800 lumen) ‘daylight’
bulbs, and they work perfectly well. Those are the same bulbs that are in the rest of the house’s light fixtures. Expensive grow lights are not necessary!
And the fixtures are just the circular metal ones that are often used with heat lights for chicks- something our local hardware store has in stock any time of the year.
Trays to start seeds in are fairly inexpensive, but they are often specialized and also take up a lot of storage room when not in use.
Seed starting trays are fairly shallow, and require some sort of clear lid to keep the moisture in. Something just like that is a clear plastic clamshell container, which is hinged so the lid can’t be misplaced. While those are a lot smaller than the seed starting trays, this year well over 150 tomato and pepper plants were started in six clamshell containers that measured 5 inches square by 1.5 inches deep. With an oscillating fan on them (that most of us already
have in our houses for the summer heat), those tomatoes and peppers are among the strongest and healthiest I’ve started yet!
Once they get too big for the clamshell containers and need a bigger pot, this is where it’s really handy to have the knowledge of the older generation.
My grandpa always kept the little plastic pots from when he bought something at the greenhouse, so I’ve kept that tradition- and they’re just the perfect size for potting up seedlings.
Boot trays fit very well underneath those pots, and that way, watering can be done from underneath to promote root growth.
And from another set of grandparents, when I was in need of dirt for my plants, they pointed out the gopher mounds in their yard last fall.
Pocket gopher mounds are big, soft piles of beautiful black dirt, and when mixed with sand, make a perfect medium for potting up seedlings.
Bye, bye, bagged dirt!
Plain old dirt would work to start seedlings too, but growers are in the habit of using bags of seed starting medium because it's sterile, and there's less risk for fungal, bacterial, or viral diseases affecting the seedlings. Also, other seeds in the dirt (like weed seeds) could germinate and be difficult to distinguish from the veggies at first. If you want to use dirt, The Farmer's Almanac suggests baking it in the oven at 200 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes, until it reaches 180 degrees. That's a good idea for seed starting, but for potting up, it isn't necessary.
Something else that plants really like is being fed. Now, I don’t mean cooking up a big pot roast just for the plants, but if you do cook up a pot roast with vegetables and don’t add any salt or spices (good pot roast doesn’t need spices anyway!), then the juice left over from
that- if you don’t plan on making gravy- is a wonderful, all-natural plant food. My celery plant that was brought inside last winter loves being fed with roast juice, and it also appreciates the water from boiled vegetables (again, without any salt or spices added). Once the water cools down, mature plants just love it.
Starting seeds is easy and extremely enjoyable. Directions on the backs of the seed packets often direct the grower on how deep to plant the seed, and if it needs any special care (like light) to germinate.
Or, if you're saving your own seeds, a good rule of thumb is that for as wide as the seed is, plant it twice that deep in the dirt.
Seed starting doesn't require special gizmos or gadgets- just a bed of dirt, some light, and water. And, of course, time. Those are the tools of a gardener; the only tools you need.