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Home > Blogs > Farm Life and Local Harvest > Archives > 2010 > March > 17
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Starting Seeds
With this recent advent of spring & crocuses and daffodils and tulips popping up, some of the winter stir-craziness has subsided. However, if you haven’t already started seeds (for things that want a head start when you plant them in the garden), you still have time. Most tomatoes and peppers and many flowers recommend planting the seed 6-8 weeks before transplanting outside - if you start now, you’ll be right on time - if you’d started much earlier, and didn’t have the best of setups, you might be growing skinny, leggy seedlings, rather than thick, hearty ones!
The basic steps to planting seeds are pretty simple - I’ll give you a very brief outline here, but see the attached handout for more detail.
- Choose which plants to start indoors. Use seed packets or the internet to figure out “days to maturity” - how long before you can start harvesting fruit! Most warm weather crops get planted around May 15 in our area of Ohio.
- Choose & clean a container, add (sterile), moist potting soil
- Place seeds on top of soil & sprinkle a light covering of soil over them
- Label seeds with variety name & planting date
- Place containers in a warm spot to germinate/sprout (sun is not important yet)
- Keep soil moist but not wet
- Seeds sprout above the soil level (1-3 weeks)
- Move them to a sunny (south/west facing non-drafty window) or under a fluorescent light
- Provide 12-16 (ideal) hours sunlight per day, and darkness the rest of the time! It’s possible to grow seedlings without fluorescents, but easier to get tall leggy seedlings
- Keep seedlings moist but not wet
- Transplant up to individual pots, if desired, repeat steps 7-9
- Fertilize only after seedlings have first true leaves. Use a flowering houseplant fertilizer as often as once every 2 weeks, at half to one-fourth the recommended strength. If you don’t have ideal light, go easy!
- For about a week before planting in the garden, get seedlings used to a harder life - water less, keep cooler, fertilize less, then move to a semi-sheltered area outside, then work them up to full sun & wind. Then plant!
Park Seed has a really nice set of “Know Before You Grow” information, tips about various types of vegetable and flowers.
