My Tips on Starting Seeds

Fair Warning – These tips for starting seeds which I am about to share are different than
many which you will see from other garden bloggers. – growing plants is a
science and seed starting in particular, can be complex, as much as it can be
simple.  I want to share my most helpful
tips with those of you who might be planning your vegetable gardens. In our world of Pinterest and pretty pictures of egg shell pots with mini moss gardens, when it comes to seed starting, there are no guarantees – seeds cane be fussy, young plants can die practically overnight from fungus, and even malnutrition. When it comes to starting your own food crops or even flowers – please, don’t mess around – seed starting is serious business, and I am about to share with you my best hints and tips to help you achieve greater success.

Seed starting can be fun – especially if
you are a new gardener, and even more so if you have your kids helping you. I know many moms treat
seed starting as a craft, but rather than make it an art projet, seed starting can also be an opportunity to teach science,
or, a valuable lesson on ‘how-to-do-things-right’ – a skill we often forget in our disposable, DIY culture of superficiality and sound-byte practices. One cannot rush seed starting, one cannot cheat, since seed starting IS science – it’s a biology lesson waiting to happen.

To make things easier for you, I designed this poster showing the basic seed-starting facts for a few of the most common vegetables. Save in, pin it, or print it out to use as a guide.

Before I start, I like to do a little ( or a lot!) of research about what conditions the seeds which I am to sow, may require. Even for
experienced gardeners, starting seeds successfully and growing them on requires some
do- diligence.  Search on-line, and use the most informative sites such as your local county extension service, plant society forums and university sites rather than most blogs, at least at first. Later, you may want to visit a few of your most favorite and trusted blogs to see if there might be something that was left out of the techy information.

What I am trying to help you avoid, is something that we all do when given a stack of seeds – that is, to in the interest of time, just tear them all open, and sow them in any old soil, and water them. This may work for the easiest of seeds such as beans and tomatoes, but we all learn as gardeners, that even the most challenging seed can be germinated – all you need to know, is what the particular species which you are sowing, requires – environmentally ( temperature, moisture, soil). 

I will  admit to you all, that even I with over 40 years of gardening experience, find seed starting as perhaps the single most challenging skill when it comes to gardening – it’s where I still have much to learn ( that is, until I try grafting!).

I say this all because I see many phrases advice being shared on-line such as like “just
plant the seeds in dirt and water, and stand back”.These broad statement are generalized, and they are not only misleading, they are often wrong.  The entire plant world grows from seeds, and almost each one requires something different culturally. The goal here is to achieve optimum results – not just a few seeds germinating. Often, a shift in soil temperature just while germinating may make all the difference in the world.

This snapdragon seedling not only needs clean soil, and cool temperatures while it is growing if it is even going to compete with the ones found at nurseries in the spring with thick stems and dense growth due to rooting hormones and plant growth regulators, it will also need a good dose of iron – something petunias also need.

Some seeds come from plants that grow in tropical climates in South Africa or South America (melons and cucumbers) demand soil temperatures near 80º F, but then again, so do many cold weather crops that you may think need cold soil in which to germinate – cabbage and broccoli come to mind.  Other plants such as those from central America (tomatoes, zinnias and Dahlias), benefit from light, or surface sown, yet need to be covered with cardboard to block out any light 0 such as Scabiosa. With your garden hosting plants from all over our planet, from South East Asia, China or even from the dry mountainous areas of Turkey. I like to think of seed starting as managing a zoo – where every animal comes from a different environment, penguins to jungle cats, and each need different stimuli and environmental conditions in which to grow properly. 

I know, I know – I need to order new labels! I can now master many hard-to-grow seeds, such as these Primula sikkimensis, but I am not above cheating when it comes to my perennial seeds – see that packet on the right? It’s  from Jelitto seeds, and one of their pre-chilled Gold Nugget Seed collection. No need to refrigerate, just sow and grow – and in no time, one can have hundreds of fall-blooming anemone plants.

My 10 tips for starting seeds.

1. Use proper containers for optimum results. Use deep seed pots for tap-rooted veggies like Artichokes, or wide pots for fibrous rooted veggies like celery. People – Enough with the up cycling when it comes to producing the finest vegetable seedlings.

It may make you feel good to recycle white plastic yogurt containers, toilet paper tubes, egg shells etc. ( and I’ll admit that it might be a pet peeve of mine and that there may be nothing wring with using yogurt cups or egg shells to start seeds)-  but there are other things to consider – mainly, excellent root growth ( sometimes difficult in white or transparent plastic pots without the use of root hormones) and what about plants that need deep root runs? 

2. Find out what the optimum soil temperature should be for your seeds to germinate – remember, it’s different for each type of plant that you grow.

3. Once your seeds have sprouted, then find out what temperature your seedlings need to grow at – as this is often different than the germination temperature.