We started a lot of seedlings, and we mean a lot of seedlings. We didn't know how many would survive, or how many plants we would need of each variety to produce enough yield to eat over the summer and into the fall. Instead of purchasing a ton of new seedling trays, we:
One option we found online was newspaper pots. Not only do these use on-site materials, reusing a material that would otherwise be recycled, but they can go straight into the ground. The thin layer of newspaper breaks down, and makes the transplanting process less stressful for all involved. We used this source from Dave's Garden to create ours. We found other ideas that involved some origami folding which in general seemed more complicated. We did use paperclips to hold the edges of the pots together which we easily removed during transplanting (and reused on our seed packets). What DIY seedling planters have you made for your garden?
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Remember the seedlings we started? This is them a few weeks later. Overcrowded, probably a little stressed out, but still exciting. We wanted to share what we probably will (and won't) do the second time around. What we won't do again...
1) Skipping starting seeds in flats. We thought we could get away with saving the extra time, but flats are a great idea, and its obvious to us now why they are listed in the instructions of every seed packet. By planting multiple seeds into small-ish pots first, we ended up having crowded seedlings, making it hard, and sad, to separate and destroy some of them. It also became incredibly hard to water with them all so crowded. We had to cut a piece of tubing to pour water through to deeply water each compartment without drenching the foliage. 2) Planting 14 varieties all at once. Maybe we'll try this after we have more experience. Too much to keep track of and worry about. 3) Starting tomatoes, and other heat loving vegetables, way too early. Roger Swain in our Master Gardener course told us to WAIT a few more weeks to plant tomatoes, peppers, etc. We didn't listen, and our greenhouse transplants already hit an almost freezing week. These plants don't like temperatures below 50F, so if you won't have space for them inside as they grow, wait until mid-April to start indoors in our climate (Zone 6), and transplant outside in mid-late May. 4) Using potting soil alone. Although it has produced great results, we are going to try and mix our soilless mixnext time. ------------------------------------------------------------------- What we will do again... 1) Starting seedlings indoors. For very little $$, we were able to set up ideal growing conditions (at least with light) without worrying about pests or other environmental stress. 2) Planting stuff we really really want to eat. Even though the alpine strawberries we planted are TINY and won't provide us with fruit for at least a year, it is something we are looking forward to, and don't mind taking care of while it grows. 3) Redundancy. We finally got around to transplanting the crowded seedlings into larger pots - mainly to end our stress of possibly killing them all if we didn't thin the herd and give them some much needed space. We chose the three strongest plants of each variety for a 1 gallon pot for the greenhouse and small pots to stay indoors. Any additional seedlings we planted directly into the soil. It's like an experiment - some will remain in controlled light and water conditions, others in the semi-controlled conditions of the greenhouse, and some we planted without even worrying about hardening off (the last bit maybe not the best idea, but worth a try). We finally started our first seedlings that we are trying really hard to keep alive. We started several seedlings over the fall and winter, alongside house plants that came as orphans, gifts, or impulse purchases, but none of them survived. We're going by the rule that its o.k. to kill a plant 3 times before it actually grows so we don't feel so bad about ourselves (although it still does hurt when things die on our watch). Where did we get the seeds? We purchased seeds from Bountiful Gardens, Baker Creek and various garden stores we've stopped in over the last few months. We even saved some pepper seeds from the farmer's market last year. We put together a long list of local and organic seed suppliers on our resources page if you are looking for more ideas. How did we decide what to plant and when? Months ago, as the first step in any permaculture design process, we articulated our goals. We wrote down what we wanted to eat and why to make sure we didn't take on too much to manage. Sure we still bought some seeds that we probably won't plant this year, but referring to our goals constantly allowed us to ask, do we even eat artichoke? Let's not plant it right now. Based on our time and experience constraints, we aren't able to create a permaculture paradise with hundreds of varieties in one season, especially our first. We mapped all of the seeds we bought out on an excel sheet (in total 54 packets!) to track what conditions they like, how long they take to germinate, and when we should plant them in our climate. There are so many apps and websites out there that tell you what to plant when, but we've found some conflicting information on average last frost dates and what we should be planting, so we've gone mostly with seed packet directions, our best guess, and a general sense of what other folks we know are doing. If we can't start to trust our instincts now, then we won't be able to learn from our mistakes. Out of all of the sites we've found though, we like best what Mother Earth News has put together. Some need to be cold-stratified... What does that even mean? We didn't know this process even existed before now, but the seed packets came with pretty clear instructions (Bountiful Gardens even provided a more detailed info packet to go with it!). We started cold-stratifying some shrubs and trees in the fridge several weeks ago, and they're about to come out tomorrow! We stored them in damp cotton balls and marked them with names and dates in plastic sandwich bags. We didn't soak overnight in water which some people recommend, so we'll see how well they do when we put them in some soil and get them warm. Some seeds need to be scarred in addition to cold stratifying, which was noted on the seed packets too. Some should be started indoors to extend the growing season... Two weeks ago we started tomatoes (3 varieties), jalapenos, tomatillos, asparagus, strawberries, peppers (3 varieties), kale, scallions and eggplant (seeds we identified as priorities in our goals) in seedling starter kits we bought for about $5. We decided not to start them flats and then have to transplant them, and went right for small little containers that we soaked in a bath of water and a little dish soap filled with organic potting soil. We made labels by cutting up a sour cream container and writing permanent marker. Pencil works too since the lead won't degrade. We followed the instructions on the seed packet as best we could when planting, scarifying if we needed to, paying attention to depth and spacing, although we found ourselves questioning if we did everything right. This is probably normal but we made it a point to go with it. Everything can't be perfect, especially the first time around. What do we use for grow-lights? We put the seedlings inside on a shelf underneath fluorescent lights approximately 3" away from the top of the soil. We bought shop light fixtures for $12 and installed one warm and one cool bulb in each fixture for about $9 for a pack of 2. The ideal is to have one 2700k - 3000k bulb (warm) in the red spectrum which promotes flowering and one in the 5000k to 6500k bulb (cool) in the blue spectrum which promote overall green plant growth (this information can be found on the package). What we've done to keep them alive...
So far we are getting so excited watching life emerge that will soon become a food source for us, and I think that excitement transfers over to them. The kale has been the most exciting, since the seedlings look super strong and powerful popping out of the soil. We are almost surprised that they are growing so well considering how semi-stressed we were planting them, wondering if we were doing everything right. We've done a full water once a week, and gently mist the top when they seem dry. We've had a pretty good germination rate and haven't added any fertilizer. We do test the water for pH before adding it since they like a slightly acidic pH of around 6.8 (just under neutral). We have highly alkaline tap water from the municipality where we live (upwards of 9), so we have been adding General Hydroponics pH down to adjust it. We've thought of lemon juice as a more 'organic' to bring the pH down, but we already have the stuff the aquaponics system, so went with onsite resources. Next steps... Transplanting into the design... |
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