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Seed Starting for Annuals and Vegetables
For good seed starting, take a sunny windowsill, mix in a dash of soil, water and plant food, top with a few seeds and let stand for a month or two. Following this or any other simple recipe, there is no reason why any gardener can not "bake" a few seedlings for the garden. Seed starting most annual plants is easy and this activity makes a wonderful family project that delights small children as well as their gardening parents. I suppose non-gardening minds will ask if there is a similarity between the delights of small children and the delights of gardeners and I am pleased to be able to answer in the affirmative. These similarities are why there are no old gardeners although you may see older people gardening. The first step in seed starting is to choose an appropriate container and while gardening magazines promote a variety of things, I use flower pots. They work well, hold enough moisture to prevent excessive drying out and are relatively inexpensive. Most of us have a few lying around the place so they aren't hard to come by or expensive either. Clean them thoroughly; there is no sense starting good seed and have them die because of bacteria from old soil on the pot.
I use an artificial soil for my seeding because it is sterile, and weed free. Few things are as frustrating to find the plant you have been nurturing for several months on your windowsill is in reality a large weed with no redeeming floral graces. That's experience talking. If you want to use potting soil, put it into the pot leaving one half to one inch of space between the soil top and the rim of the pot and then slowly pour boiling water into the pot until the water runs freely out the bottom. Let the soil cool before seeding. Once the soil is cool, sprinkle the seeds over the top of the pot. This is the first time you can make a small mistake so do this task carefully. Space the seeds out. Do not lump them into a single area, also try to leave at least one half inch between each seed. Now I know the seed package has three gazillion seeds and you can only fit 25 seeds into a pot but don't let temptation override your common sense; if you overseed, the seedlings will not grow properly. It is much better to plant several pots than overseed. Also, excess seed will likely store for another year if it is kept dry and cool so they don't have to be used up this year. Overcrowding seedlings leads to disease and weak spindly plants that are not much good in the garden. I note that with excess seeds, there is no reason why the smaller gardeners among us can not be given their own pot for seed starting. (Marigolds make the best and easiest plant for small children as they are easy, fast and fairly tolerant of over-loving) Once sown, seeds like uniform moisture. While there are a few exceptions to this, gardeners can lightly cover most seedlings to create pockets of moisture around their seeds. Lightly cover does not mean deeply bury. While many garden seeds such as peas and corn can grow through one half inch of soil, if a small geranium or petunia seed is planted that deeply, the gardener might just as well put a grave marker on the seed pot rather than an identification tag. With the exception of the seeds such as pansies that demand full darkness for germination, I cover my seeds so that they are just hidden, with no more coverage than necessary and certainly no more than the width of the seed. All I want to do is ensure a uniform moisture level around the seed for uniform seed starting. While home gardeners can use artificial soil to cover seeds, I tend to use vermiculite as it lets light into the seed and holds moisture well. Pansies and other "dark" germinators that demand darkness for germination get covered slightly deeper with potting soil. Once covered, I stick a plant marker into the pot to tell me what's in there. The older I get, the more plants I grow, the more determined I am to label every seed starting pot. An unlabelled pot is a forgotten pot. Cheap labels can be obtained by cutting up tall margarine or yogourt tubs and using indelible magic markers for writing. Using water soluble markers is only asking for disappointment as they will fade away in sunlight or melt away if wet. Use pencil – it makes a long-lasting impression on wood or plastic. Now that the seed is sown, covered and marked, we have to ensure adequate soil heat. Unlike perennials that often germinate in cool soil temperatures, annuals want a warm soil temperature to ensure germination. Soil temperatures of 72F are common in the trade for obtaining good results. Note that soil temperatures are usually 10 degrees cooler than air temperatures. While sunny windowsills will warm up nicely during the day, they are much cooler at night. Find a good warm place for the seeds until they germinate. Some gardeners use the top of an old, yet working frig to take advantage of the heat generated by the compressor. Check whether the top of your frig is warm. I now use a small heat mat that provides an even constant temperature for my seed starting efforts. Once the seeds have begun germination, they can and should be moved to a cooler spot and given as much sunlight as possible. This light is critical for the development of the plant and must be provided either by an unimpeded south facing window or a combination of window and grow lights. Plants without adequate light grow tall and spindly as they stretch out in search of this light they require for energy and growth. And this is how you win the seed starting game. For what to do once you have the seeds started, click here.
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