Gardening Notes: Indoor Seed Starting
I can't believe it's almost time to start planting indoors again. Seems like
a good time to look back at last year's methods and make a few plans for this
year.
My big innovation last year was a jury-rigged heat mat. I had some very
low wattage Christmas lights sitting around, so I thought I would see what I
could come up with. Tried a bunch of different things before settling with
some trepidation on stuffing them in a double-sized strawberry
container. On that I placed a metal cookie sheet and then on top, more
recycled containers with peat pellets in them. Fire hazard, you say?
Yeah, like I said, nervous. But to my amazement those lights barely put
out any heat. Even after they'd been on for a couple of hours, you could
open the container and touch one and it barely felt warm. Certainly not
hot enough to melt any plastic or otherwise cause any shorts. But just
warm enough to raise the temperature in the enclosed containers on the metal
tray by 5-10 degrees. And that was apparently just what the seeds wanted,
because they sprung up a lot faster than I'm used to. Signs of germination
in 3-ish days in most cases. Nice!
Ah peat pellets. I love how easy they are to deal with indoors.
Just soak in water and done. Considering how not-thrilled I am about
having potting soil on my kitchen counter, falling on my floor, clogging up my
sink, etc, it's almost a no-brainer.
And if I was just going to put plants this size out, they would be perfect.
But our season is short, and I need to put out bigger plants. Which
means before it's warm enough to chuck them outdoors (or do any potting
outdoors, not that I think my downstairs neighbors like dirt raining down
through the cracks in my deck to theirs any more than I like it in my
kitchen) I've got to mess with dirt anyway. A little dirt in the bottom of
a cup then plunk a peat pellet on top, not a big deal, but still.
But before you know it, they're starting to outgrow those cups too.
Sigh.
So this year, I'm leaning towards just going with the bigger 6oz yogurt cups
to begin with. Maybe this will also stop me from overplanting, and
resulting in a vast tangled jungle of overcrowded plants (see above!).
Because if I start with the big cups to begin with, I will know exactly how much
room I have available for good sized plants. As opposed to the boundless
optimism about my ability to bend the laws of time and space when starting out
with wee little peat pellets. I'm considering putting regular potting soil
with fertilizer in the bottom of the cup and then seed starting mix at the
top. That way, as the plants grow bigger and start needing the fertilizer,
they'll be able to reach it. And I won't have to repot 3
times. Sounds good in theory. We'll see if my patience for dirty
tasks in the kitchen is up to it.
The other thing I did last year for the first time was winter sowing. I only had a 25% success
rate, but I think that was largely due to my choice of seeds. Also, I
found that slits cut in the top of the strawberry containers and even the big
vent holes that come built in where not sufficient to let in water. It
would be raining like crazy, and that soil would be bone dry. I guess the
slits were not wide enough, but you would think the vent holes would have
worked. And because they were just set on the deck, the water didn't stick
around long enough to be absorbed up through the drainage holes. So I had
to do a lot of manual watering in the cold, which I didn't like too much.
Still, it's a neat idea and I'm game to try again. I had my first sprouts
(golden alyssum) on March 15th last year, so I better get on that. I have
a few out already, but I'm not confident about the design. I used the 32oz
yogurt cups and then cut off the bottom of a soda bottle and stuck it on the
top. The bottle neck might let in enough water, but then again, maybe
not.
ETA: After re-reading the overwintering tips on-line, I'm reconsidering. The point of the holes at the top seems to be more about letting moisture out than in, so maybe the problem was that I had too many holes too early. In which case the soda bottles should be fine. I guess we'll find out!
Now if Target and Dollar Tree would just set out their seed displays so I
don't have to make a separate trip to Home Depot...