Starting Seeds Indoors
It’s March, and for those of us gardening in Goshen,time to decide what plants we will be starting inside. Most of us have gotten our seeds by now; if not, local garden shops are well stocked. Starting plants early, gives you a head start on those vegetables and flowers that require a longer growing season, and it may prolong your production season. You can find ‘Maturity Dates’ or ‘Dates ‘til Harvest’ printed on your seed packets or in catalogs. These dates are estimates, varying with region and altitude, based on soil temperatures between 65 and 80 degree F. Many of us here in the hills, don’t see these temperatures until late June.
The main question to consider is, ”When do you hope to transplant these early seedlings?” We’ve found June 6th is a pretty safe bet. This means grabbing your calendar and counting backwards 6 to 8 weeks; first week of April. Will your garden spot be free of snow and ice, reasonably warm, and dry enough to have tilled the soil? You can usually buy yourself 10-14 days using ‘black tarp’ in a select area, but healthy plants will catch up, even if transplanted a bit later.
Seed starting can be very simple. First, you need a good soil mix. You can make this with your own garden soil. After preparing a mix of ¼ builder’s sand, ¼ compost and ½ sifted garden soil. Be warned, soil comes with weed roots, insect eggs, and bacteria. To eliminate these, your soil mix can be ‘baked’ in an oven or heated in a microwave to an internal temperature of 180 degrees F and allowed to cool overnight. Using your own soil mix facilitates transplanting adaptation later. However, this takes some advance planning, as well as the extra work. Some may find it easier to simply purchase potting soil at a nearby garden center.
Before selecting containers it is important to determine which seeds really do need to be started early. Generally, we limit ours to Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplant, Sweet Potatoes, select herbs and flowers. For the above mentioned vegetables, 2 ½ x 3 ¼ in peat pots or larger or ½ pint milk cartons with drainage, work well. For herb and flowers, wooden flats, at least 5 ½x7 ½ x (2 ¾ in deep) or cardboard egg cartons are best. As all these containers must have good drainage, a catch tray is needed. Note: Peat pots must be soaked 24 hrs before use.
Young seedlings enjoy 14-16 hours of sunlight. At our latitude we’d need to wait until late April to start our seedlings, providing your window or greenhouse gets full sunlight. So, the use of fluorescent or ‘grow’ lights is optimum here. Initially they should be hung 6-8 inches above your seed trays (many are hung with adjustable link chains that can be adjusted as seedlings grow). Most seeds, especially those we start indoors, will not germinate until soil temperature is maintained at 70-75 degrees F. Use a heating mat or cable, if you cannot maintain this temperature. After germination, seedlings will do fine at 55-60 degrees .
We usually plant 2 seeds, per pot, and use the toilet paper method (laying out the seeds on toilet paper about a quarter’s width apart) for herb and early flowers in flats, using a premoistened (8 hrs) soil mix. Seeds should be planted about 1/3rd in. deep. I like to use tweezers in planting smaller seeds, and then lightly brush soil over them. When a set or a flat is finished, we cover them wiith plastic wrap to keep them moist. Most seeds will sprout in 7-10 days. Peppers may take a couple weeks. Some herbs and flowers might up to three weeks. Check daily. Upon sprouting remove the plastic covering and place trays under lights or in a sunny window. If using natural sunlight, turn containers when seedlings lean into the sun. A light breeze will strengthen seedlings and dry the soil. Cull. Allow the young plants to wick up water from the bottom of the trays rather than watering from the top, add a 50% dilute fertilizer to the mix, weekly. Fish emulsion fluid is recommended, however, when we tried it, a ‘coon family found our greenhouse, got inside and had a field day ripping our seed trays apart looking for fish!
