Starting Seeds

"Food is the first wealth.  Grow it right and you feel insanely rich, no matter what you own."
                                                                       -Kristin Kimball in The Dirty Life
       

Garlic

Spring has finally sprung in my corner of the world.  The snow has melted away, the crocuses are blooming, and the peeper frogs are peeping their hearts out.  The garlic that I planted last fall has begun to send green shoots out of the straw that blanketed them through the winter and the rest of the garden beds lie waiting for new life.  Three weeks ago, I combed through the seed catalog from High Mowing Seed Company in Wolcott, Vermont and tried to restrain myself.  With over 650 varieties of organic seeds, I was tempted to order way more seed than my little garden plot could sustain.  To keep from getting carried away I chose fruits and vegetables that I knew we liked to eat;  chose varieties that would grow well in our unique growing conditions; and chose some that we could eat at harvest time and others that we could freeze, can, or otherwise preserve for later.  A few days later, when the seeds arrived, I divided them into three stacks:  seeds that were cold-hardy with instructions to plant directly in the ground as soon as the soil can be worked, seeds that do best when started in seed cups and transplanted after all danger of frost has past, and a pile for the seeds that are best planted directly in the ground after all danger of frost has passed.

I began with the stack of seeds that like to be started in seed cups.  This included four varieties of tomato, Clemson Spineless okra, Early jalapenos, Honey Nut butternut squash, Primax cabbage, Belstar broccoli, Pickling cucumbers, Tomatillos, King Of The North bell peppers, Caribe cilantro, Genovese basil, and Italian Flat Leaf parsley.  Most of them suggest somewhere between 4-8 weeks of growth time before transplanting.  In this region, the magic date when the frost danger has passed comes on Memorial Day weekend.  That gives me about 8 weeks from my planting date to get them sprouted and strong with the help of some indoor grow lights and some outdoor miniature greenhouses.  I picked up a bag of potting mix from Vermont Compost Company and pulled my planting cups and trays out of storage.  I save the planting cups and trays any time I purchase seedlings since they can be stacked together and stored easily.  If you don't have any on hand, you can use egg cartons, empty yogurt containers, or any other reusable containers.  Just remember to poke a few holes in the bottom for drainage.  You can even find instructional videos on you tube that show how to make them from newspaper.  I like to pour all of the potting mix into a bucket, pre-moisten it, then fill each seed cup with the mix, compacting it lightly.

The seed packet will give instructions on how deep to plant the seed and I generally like to plant two seeds in each cup.  If both sprout, I pinch off the one that looks the weakest.  Once all the seeds are planted and labeled, I placed them under an indoor grow light.  These indoor growing set ups can often be expensive, but I found this one in a Gardner's Supply outlet and someone had returned it without packaging or instructions, so I was able to get it at a very reasonable price.  It has a metal frame and a tray below the frame that holds the seeds.  The full-spectrum fluorescent light fixture hangs from the frame on adjustable cables that allow the light to be raised and lowered as the plants grow.  These bulbs don't produce too much heat and use very little electricity.  The ideal temperature for seed germination is between 65-75 F and they like to have at least 10 hours a day of direct light.  It is also very important to keep your seeds moist, but not to over-water.  I like to use a spray bottle so that I won't over-water and the gentile mist doesn't disturb the fragile seedlings.  Before I had an indoor grow light to get my seedlings through the first few cold weeks, I kept the seeds in a sunny window.  I found this method satisfactory except that the plants did tend to become leggy and if I didn't rotate the trays frequently, the ones that weren't directly against the window would lean and bend toward the light.  If you are lucky enough to live in a region where there isn't snow on the ground in April, you can skip this step all together.

seedlings under the grow light

mini greenhouse holding last year's seedlings

Once outdoor temperatures warm up into the 40's and 50's,  I take the seedlings outside and place them in my miniature green houses.  These handy little hot houses were a given to me as a going-away gift from my former co-workers and on a recent 45 degree day, the thermometer inside the greenhouse read 80 degrees.  Each one has three tiered shelves and each shelf can hold two full trays of seeds.  The frame is covered with a clear plastic cover that can zip fully closed for maximum heat, or can be left open and tied back to allow ventilation on warmer days.  Before I had these, I made a cold frame out of old windows.  I posted a want ad to my local group on freecycle.org for four windows and someone who lived nearby responded that they had four to give away, so I picked them up, screwed them together into a cube shape, and made a floating shelf that hung from wire from the top edges so that I could put two trays of seeds inside.  There are lots of DIY instructional videos available on the web that give lots of ideas for making your own cold frame and if you utilize resources like freecycle, you can make one at little or no expense.  Whether using a cold frame or a greenhouse, make sure to install a good thermometer so that you can keep an eye on the temperatures. I have cooked entire trays of seeds by failing to monitor temperatures and failing to vent the greenhouse or cold frame when the mid-day heat was at it's peak.

this season's seedlings in the mini greenhouse

Once that stack of seeds was planted, I moved on to the stack of seeds that are cold-hardy with instructions to plant as soon as the soil can be worked.  These included six different varieties of lettuce, Bloomsdale Long Standing spinach, Cherrybelle radishes, Megaton leeks, and Conservator shallots.  I began by preparing the soil in each garden bed.  A tiller is on my wish list, but since I don't have one yet, I tilled the soil by hand with a shovel.  Next, I added a 5-gallon bucket of our compost to each bed and turned it into the soil.  I then raked the soil level, staked and labeled my rows, and planted the seeds according the recommended depth and spacing indicated on each packet.  Finally, I mulched each row with straw that came from the chicken's winter bedding.  They got fresh straw bedding for spring, and their old bedding makes a great blanket and weed deterrent for my new seedlings.

newly planted rows with straw mulch

The third stack of seeds will have to wait until Memorial Day.  Meanwhile, most of my seedlings have sprouted and will need adequate light, water, and warmth over the next few weeks.  I always plant a few more than I will actually need because I inevitably lose a few.  If I get lucky and they all survive, then I have a few extra seedlings to share with friends.  It would probably be easier to buy all of my seedlings from someone with a greenhouse and a greener thumb than mine, but it is certainly less expensive to do it this way and I never tire of the miracle that is a seed.  It never ceases to amaze me that I can plant a little tiny seed in a plot of dirt and fast forward a few months to a basket full of fresh vegetables.  To borrow another line from Kristin Kimball, it is as simple as this:  dirt plus water plus sun plus sweat equals food.  There are few things I find more satisfying.