CARE OF SEEDLINGS

 After a few days, to a few weeks you should have sprouted plants (seedlings), place them in a place that provides warmth and gets plenty of light. Seedlings need 12-14 hours of light each day to grow strong and healthy. Most of us do not have a greenhouse, so a sunny, south facing window will suffice.

 If you don’t have that option, you can use inexpensive fluorescent lighting to do the job. I built a plant stand out of PVC pipe, and installed wire shelving for the plants to sit on, then hung fluorescent fixtures (shop lights) with small chains. If you use this option buy a cool white and a warm white bulb for each fixture, to provide the proper type of lighting for the seedlings. It’s very important to keep the light within 3 inches of the seedlings to provide maximum light to them. If you can’t lower the light, you should raise the seedlings by putting something under them. But I can’t stress enough how important this is. If the light source is to far away, the seedlings will grow spindly and weak.

 Also important is the need to provide enough water. Use your finger to check the medium, if the soil feels damp to the touch, no need to water, if it feels dry, add some water. Your seedling vessel should be in a tray or some type of pan, pour the water in it and let the medium soak it up. After 10-15 minutes the remaining water should be removed, as you don’t want to waterlog the soil. (A turkey baster comes in handy for this). Over watering will cause damping off which will kill the seedling in a very short time, sometimes overnight.

 After a couple of weeks you will notice the plants start to get their first “TRUE LEAVES”. This is when I start adding a weak fertilizer when watering. As I said in an earlier article, there are many brands available, select one and use half of what is recommended by the instructions. For example, I use Miracle Grow, the recommended amount is 2 tablespoons to a gallon of water, I use 1 tablespoon.

 As soon as you feel that your seedlings will not be harmed by frost, move them to a sunny location outside, or to a porch, driveway, etc…, to start getting them acclimated to living in the real world. It’s very important that you DO NOT put them into full sun at first. The seedlings can get sun burnt and would be a major setback for them and you.

 At first let them sit in full sun for 30 minutes to an hour. Increase this time by 30 minutes for a few days until you feel they will be ok with being outside. Remember to protect them if a cold snap is expected, by covering with newspapers or an old sheet, drop cloth, or something suitable. Bring them inside if you are in doubt, just don’t let them freeze.

 When the plants reach 3-5 inches tall, it’s time to transplant them into separate containers to allow room to grow. If left to long crowded together, the seedlings will compete with each other to get the maximum amount of light, in the process shading their fellow siblings and causing them to get spindly.

 Using the same soil less medium used for planting, DRY FILL (no water added to the medium) whatever container you choose, to within ½ inch of the top (I have used peat pots, styrofoam cups, etc.). Take your vessel of seedlings and place the whole thing into a pan of warm water. This will make the job of separating the seedlings from each other much easier. Gently start separating the seedlings from each other, once the medium has absorbed enough water this will be very easy to do. Don’t worry, seedlings are tough little dudes, you will see that they come apart quite easily with a gentle pull.

 Take each seedling, with the root lying along your index finger, and burrow a hole with your finger into the medium, in the new container. You want the top of the seedling just sticking out at the top of the medium. Give the container a few gentle shakes to settle the medium around the seedling. Now is the time to water the transplant, don’t wait until you’re done transplanting as the dry medium will suck all the moisture out of the seedling. Continue transplanting until all have their new home. You’ll probably notice the plants looking poor for the next couple of days, this is caused by the stress of transplanting, but the seedlings will recover very quickly. Remember to keep them watered very well during this period. Place the transplanted seedlings back in to their sunny environment and watch them grow.

Starting Seed

Seed Starting Video

 So you have decided on what kinds of plants you want to grow, purchased your seeds and are ready to get them growing. You will need to gather some:

·         Soiless medium, soil can hold pathogens that can harm your seedlings. There are many brands available at your local Wally World or gardening center, just about any will be fine. I tend to avoid any that have time released fertilizer, as seedlings need none until their first true leaves. You can also make your own medium, as I do, by mixing 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 pearlite and 1/3 vermiculite. It makes for a light, fluffy mix that holds moisture for the seedlings. I also use the same mix when transplanting after the seedlings are about 4 weeks old.

·         Containers, you can plant in just about any container you want, I use empty butter tubs, cottage cheese containers and I especially like small pastry containers (these have a top) made from clear plastic. Punch several holes in the bottom of these vessels with a sharp object for drainage. You can also buy the peat pot types at your garden center. I have found that this type can get pricey if you’re starting thousands of seeds, like I do.

Whatever vessel you use, make sure it is clean and dry. If reusing, clean and let sit in a bleach/water solution for a few minutes to kill any pathogens.

Now place whatever soiless planting medium you have chosen into the vessel, up to ½ inch or so from the top and lightly pat it down with your hand. At this time I like to water the medium, as it comes very dry from the store. Before watering, make sure you have your vessel sitting on a tray, or something, to prevent the water from running everywhere. Place your seeds on top of this medium, leaving about ¼ inch between seeds. It’s not critical if some are a little more or less, just give them a little room to spread out as they come up. Now lightly cover the seeds with more medium, you just want enough to cover the seed, not a lot, and again lightly pat the medium down. At this time I like to water again, until I see some water coming out of the bottom of the container. Now, loosely cover the vessel with plastic wrap (like you use in the kitchen) and set it somewhere warm and out of the way, like the top of your refrigerator. Some people use heat mats or other sources of heat to keep a warm environment for their seedlings, but I have never had any trouble sprouting seed at room temperature.

In 5-10 days, you should see the seedling coming up. As soon as you notice that the majority of your seeds have sprouted, remove the covering from your vessel, to allow air to get to the plants. Then move the vessel to a sunny window or a place you have prepared with as much light as you can give them.

Keep the medium moist to the touch, not waterlogged to avoid damping off. I have seen whole trays of healthy seedlings die overnight because the soil was too wet. I like to “water from below” by pouring water in the tray the vessel sits in and let them sit in the water for about 5 minutes to absorb enough water.

 After a couple of weeks you will notice a set of “true leaves” develop on the seedlings, at this time I add a little fertilizer to the water. There are many types available, such as Miracle Grow, Peters, etc…, just read the directions and remember to go lightly to avoid burning the seedlings (I use only half of what the directions tell me).

A Few Words About Plants & Seeds

A Few Words About Plants & Seeds

Before planting seeds you should determine WHEN to plant them. Frost will hamper

your efforts if you do not time the starting of seeds correctly, so determining when

your Average Last Spring Frost Date (ALSFD) is vital.

Go to National Climatic Data Center to find the State you live in. A PDF will show

all counties in your State, with your Spring & Fall Frost dates. Use this date to

determine when to start your seeds by counting back the number of weeks your

seedlings should be at time of planting in your garden.

Time to Seed                                                                                              Tolerance

Before                                               Germination                  Growth             After

Last Frost           Plant Types                  Time (days)               Rate            Hardening

__________________________________________________________________

VEGETABLES

10 weeks               Broccoli*                   6-10                     medium                good

10 weeks               Cabbage*                  6-10                     medium                good

10 weeks               Cauliflower*              6-10                     medium                good

10 weeks               Head lettuce              3-5                       medium                good

7 weeks                 Tomato                     6-10                     medium                none

7 weeks                 Eggplant                    7-14                     medium                none

7 weeks                 Pepper                      7-14                     medium                 none

4 weeks                 Cucumber                  4-6                        fast                      none

4 weeks                 Cantaloupe                4-6                         fast                      none

4 weeks                 Squash                      4-6                         fast                      none

4 weeks                 Watermelon               4-6                        fast                      none

Using the chart above, take the Average Last Spring Frost Date and count back by the number of weeks listed, to determine when to start your seeds.

There are basically two types of plants:

• Indeterminate, this type of plant continually produces fruit & continues growing until conditions no longer support the plants ability to sustain itself.
• Determinate, grows to a “set” size, produces all its fruit at once and then dies.

So, if your purpose is to say, grow enough to can or “put up” for future use, determinate types may suit you. For instance, you may wish to grow enough tomatoes to make sauce with. The fruit will mostly be ripe all at the same time, making it timely to produce a large amount of sauce at one time.

Indeterminate types keep producing fruit throughout the season and will out produce determinate types over the season. In fact, this type will produce until you basically stop picking fruit or no longer take care of them.

After determining what “type” of plant you want, you then can select if you want to grow Open Pollinated or Hybrid plants.

Open Pollinated plants are plants that produce fruit (or vegetables) that the seeds of, will grow to be just like the parent plant. Saving seed from these fruit will keep producing, with reliable results, the same fruit over and over again.

There are many open pollinated varieties, which have been handed down from generation to generation, which can be called Heirloom varieties. Many of which are the parents of the great number of “modern” plants we enjoy today. A number of tomato plants I grow every year in my garden are varieties handed down from the 1800’s, such as the Brandywine and Cherokee Purple.

Hybrids, on the other hand, are crosses of different plants, to obtain different characteristics. These are specially bred for, say, disease or drought resistance.

The seed from Hybrid plants will not grow to be (true) or like the parent plant. Saving seed from hybrid plants will not work out for you, as you never know what you’ll end up with.

Preparing Your Garden

Now that you have picked out a place for your garden, its time to prepare it.  Remove any debris from the garden, and stake it off. Put stakes at each corner of the area and run a sting or twine around the garden. You now have an outline of the area that will be YOUR Garden.
Now you need to loosen the soil. Till the soil several times, if you have access to a roto tiller. If not, you’ll have to use a shovel. This will take some time, but is one of the most important things you will do for your garden.
Start at one end of the garden (keeping your back to the garden) dig a shovelful up and lay it outside the string at the edge of the garden. Continue this digging across the width of your garden. When you finish you’ll have an open furrow (trench). To start the next row, keep your back to the garden and dig into the soil. Turn this shovelful upside down into the open furrow. Doing it this way will put the sod below the soil, where it will end up decomposing. Continue in this fashion, always turning the sod upside down into the furrow. After you have dug the soil out of the last row, bring the soil from the FIRST furrow you dug and place in this one.
After a few days, chop up the clumps with a hoe or shovel, as well as you can. Do this several times, in the next few days. If you have the time, do a shallow spading of the area again. This will reduce weeds and keep the soil nice and crumbly.