Start your Vegetables!
Hey everyone, it’s time to start your vegetables! Before it is too late, get your ducks in a row to start vegetable seedlings indoors. To have a truly organic vegetable garden, you need to start your own veggie seedlings. Here’s how to do it.
Seed Starting Supplies
To give your seeds the best start in life, you need some the following supplies. You don’t necessarily need all of them-you basically need something to start the seeds in and something to hold the seeds while they are starting. Something to help keep the humidity in is also necessary. Here are some options.
- Seed tray. You can get pre-assembled seed starting kits that have a tray, growing media, and a cover. Depending upon the number of seedlings you want to start, you may want to get a few of these for ease of gardening.
- Growing media. Basically, you need a very lightweight soil to start seeds in. If you can find specific seed starting mix, you should be able to find potting mix that is lighter weight than something like topsoil.
- NOT peat pellets. There is no way that I can consciously recommend peat pellets for organic gardeners. That makes me sad, because I have many a fond memory of starting seeds in peat pellets in dixie cups on the window ledge of my classroom window. Peat is not a renewable resource. It takes thousands of years to form in bogs. So, they may be convenient, but they aren’t organic-in the sense that an organic gardener will want to promote sustainable practices.
- Biodegradable seed pots. There is a fun way you can make these on your own. There are pot-turners you can get that help you make your own seed starting pots out of newspaper.
- Humidity control. When you germinate seeds, you need to be careful that the seeds stay moist, but do not succumb to fungus. You will want to use a cover to keep the humidity in. You could use a piece of saran-wrap or a hard plastic cover. So that your seedlings do not end up suffering from damping-off, as soon as your seedlings have sprouted, remove the cover you have used.
Starting Seeds: The Process
A couple of notes about starting seeds. These won’t apply to every plant, but will work for the majority of seeds you need to start.
- Always read the instructions on the seed packet. If the instructions say “don’t cover the seeds,” DON’T COVER THE SEEDS!
- Always moisten the growing media before planting the seeds. A lot of growing media for starting seeds can be a little bit difficult to thoroughly wet. If you wait until after you plant the seeds to completely wet the mixture, you might overwater the seed.
- Add some heat. The chemical reactions that happen inside the plants are faster, the warmer the temperature. A mat that goes under the seed trays that can be adjusted, temperature-wise can speed up the germination process.
- Do NOT feed the plants. Seeds have everything they need to sprout and grow. The first set of leaves (not the first true leaves-the first two leaves that appear (one for plants like corn)), are already inside of the seed. Adding fertilizer can potentially dry out the seedlings, which is the opposite of the conditions you want to create for the seeds to germinate.
February 24th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Nice post, Katie. I’m garden-planning my brains out and chomping at the bit to get growing. And true, to be a real organic gardener, I should start my own seeds. But I have two adolescent cats and no practical growing space in my apartment. So I’ll be supporting local organic growers by buying their seedlings.
April 5th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
another tip for natural seed starting is to sprinkle ground cinnamon on the top of the soil once the seedlings emerge. This helps to prevent damping off. I tried this trick this year and so far haven’t had one casualty. (Last year I had quite a few). Great blog!