It's Seed Starting Time

In fact it is almost three weeks later than I normally plant tomato, pepper, and eggplant seeds.  Those seeds take longer to germinate, so usually on January 1st, I plant those seeds ensuring that the seedlings will be of good size when I transplant them directly into the garden rows.  We were vacationing around the first of the month and to be honest, I've kind of been dragging my feet in not getting the work done.

This weekend the weather was absolutely beautiful.  The stellar weather was just what I needed to get some chores completed - planting seeds was one of them.  I lined a tray with some little plastic seed pots that I saved from back when I used to purchase my plants.  Then the next thing that I do is mix up a bleach/water solution and spray the little plastic containers.  The idea here is that the bleach will kill any disease on the plastic that may weaken the germinating seeds or young plants.

Sterilizing the seed pots

Then  I fill the seed pots with some seed starting mix.  It is light and easy to work with and doesn't seem to pack.  That is important when separating the seedlings to re-pot later on.

Filling the seed pots with seed starting mix

I'll get my seeds out and plant two seeds per seed pot.  I'll plant the seeds on either side of each seed pot.  I use an old plastic fork to smooth out the soil and cover the newly planted seed with seed starting mix.

Planting 'mater seeds

I plant 12 different varieties of heirloom tomato seeds.  Each row in the tray is planted with 2 seeds. This means that if all the seeds germinated, I would have 12 seedlings of each heirloom tomato varieties.  The germination over the years has held constant at around 95% each.  Once finished planting all the seeds I enlist Benjamin and his friend's help in watering the soil over the newly planted seed. Hopefully this will help provide moisture to the seed and spur germination.

Watering the freshly planted seed

I also planted 6 different varieties of peppers and two varieties of eggplant. Benjamin and his friend were eager to help and I was glad to have them lend a hand.  I was teaching them that you wanted to simulate a rainfall - not too light, but not too heavy either.  My grandfather helped get me involved in planting a garden and hopefully I can help pass on a love for the land and growing things and these boys will "catch the fever" and pass on that love to their kids, keeping the cycle going.  Savings accounts are paying less than the rate of inflation and many companies are cutting dividends or cutting people.  It is nice to know that investing time in your kids is, in a sense, a solid investment with solid returns.

Simulated rainfall

When everything is planted, I put the two trays of planted seed on top of the freezer in our utility room.  For some reason it stays nice and warm above the freezer and this helps raise the soil temperature and assists in helping the seeds to germinate.

Warming the soil

I'll also cover the soil with plastic wrap.  I find that this holds the moisture in the soil and that definitely helps with germination.

Covering the try with plastic wrap to lock in soil moisture

One more thing I do is that as I plant, I label each row with the seed variety.  You can figure fancy ways to label the seeds.  I normally look for a quick, cheap way to do the job.  In this case using a Sharpie marker, I write the seed variety name on a strip of freezer tape and place it on the side of the container to denote which seeds are planted on each row.

Labeling the names of the seeds

Now it is just a waiting game.  I keep the soil very moist each day by spraying water over the soil and then re-covering with plastic wrap.  Then I check the progress each day.  Once they start to sprout, we'll take a deeper look at the different varieties I've planted this year along with the germination percentage for each seed variety.