How to start seeds

If you want to have a considerable garden and don't want to pay a fortune for plants, you'll want to start with seeds. And if you don't want your seedlings to die (by the way, only a few of the tomato seedlings went to the happy garden in the sky. They're recovering nicely.) You'll need to give them a good start. Here's what you need:

a. Dirt. But not just any ole' dirt. Go with a seed-starting mix. There's lots of moisture-holding peat in seed-starting stuff. More on that later

b. A tub of some kind to mix the dirt with water. I used a bin that once contained spinach. Since I went through this process several times this spring, it was handy to just have a tub with a lid and not have to start from scratch each time.

c. A seedling tray or peat pots.

d. Seeds.

e. Plastic wrap.

f. A way to label the plants.

1. So, the first lesson that I learned is that you can't put dry starter soil into the pots and try to integrate the water into it. Peat needs to soak up the water, or else it just rests on top. So you'll want to pour the water into your tub and stir it with the dirt. There's enough water when you can squeeze the mix into a ball with your hand, but the ball easily breaks apart if you poke at it.

2. Pack this into the pots. Too tight, and the roots won't have room. Too loose and it'll compress after you water it. Also, don't fill it all the way to the top, or the water will run off when you water.

3. Fluff the top of the soil and put the seeds in the soil as deep as it says on the packet.

4. Gently press the soil down again.

5. Label! Don't assume that you'll remember (unless you only planted one thing) or that you'll be able to tell them apart. (new seedlings look very similar)

6. Cover the tray with plastic wrap. This increases the temp and humidity, which encourages sprouting. When the seedlings are tall enough to touch the plastic, remove it.






Some things to know:
- Keep the medium moist. The best way to water seedlings is to put water in the base of the tray or pan and let the water wick up through the dirt.
- White, spidery looking mold is pretty common in new seedling trays. I've read that it's harmless (the peas I planted came out fine, despite their moldy-start) but if you don't like it, you can use weak chamomile tea to moisten the soil. I started a tray of ground-cover plants with chamomile tea and there was no mold. Sweet.
- As soon as you see anything green, you'll want to give those little guys sunlight. Some seeds grow really tall really fast in search of adequate light. I think when that happens, you've ruined your chances of enjoying that crop (this happened to my Brussels spout and cauliflower).
- You'll want to give your budding plants SMALL doses of the outside world when it is warm enough and they're big enough. (See previous post.)

Now, you have a dilemma. Because unless you want a CROP of tarragon, you probably have 80% of your seeds left in the packet. You can:
a. coordinate with a friend before hand to only buy half of what you want to plant each and then swap.
b. save them for next year and expect them to lose 80-50% of their likelihood to sprout.
c. donate them to a local seed library, if you live in a big city that has fancy things like that.
d. wait till the weather warms up and toss them in a neighbor's yard and watch their surprise when tomatoes grow up out of nowhere.

And to further discuss seeds: if your plants come from an "open-air" germinated plant (or heirloom) you can harvest seeds from the plants you grew and not need to buy seeds next year! I have no experience with this, though. Google it or wait till my lesson in the fall. Happy planting!