Green, frugal, sustainable, simple, healthy, happy... No matter what we each call it, we come together here to support and learn from each other.
We are preserving our planet with our lifestyles. We are creating sustainable communities for our children. We are living the lives we want to live. Please join us!
Accomplish Your Dreams You made goals or resolutions for 2010. You have life-long goals, ambitions, hopes, dreams… So no more excuses - I challenge you to follow through and DO IT!!
10,000 Steps Challenge That's the general number of steps needed to maintain a healthy cardiovascular system and help keep your weight in check. With environmental and emotional benefits to boot, let's start walking!
The Green Your Insides Challenge For your family and our planet, start greening your own home!
|
According to a Reuters article yesterday, “43 million US households plan to grow their own fruits, vegetables, berries, and herbs in 2009, a 19 percent gain from 36 million in 2008.“ Are you seeing an increase where you are? At our neighborhood sustainability meeting this month, we had a guest speaker come teach about container gardening – and as a result, our meeting grew three times its normal size!
Also, I’ve heard seed companies are overloaded with orders. Very exciting to see people taking it into their own hands. If you see someone who’s thinking about growing their own food, give them a few resources, encourage them to participate in a challenge, and help them any way you can!
Check In, Everyone!
Please check in and let us all know what you’re up to in your garden. Are you germinating seeds? Have you planted out yet? Are you preparing for summer or winter in your neck of the woods? Tell us all about it!
If you’ve written about your garden recently – or gardening in general – please feel free to link to your post here.
And thank you for your responses to our last check-in. I’ll create a list of all the great seed-saving resources we’ve talked about and put them in the next seed-saving post.
Who Are We?
So far there are 135 participants signed up for The Growing Challenge: From Seed To Seed, and we’ve reached nearly 200 participants in The Original Growing Challenge. Together we’re an awesome support network for learning new things! Welcome, everyone who has recently joined. And if you haven’t already, please join us in taking a new step toward sustainability by growing your own food from seed to seed.
New participants of The Growing Challenge From Seed to Seed are in orange at the bottom of the following list, and new participants of The Original Growing Challenge are listed here. Let’s visit, support, and learn from one another!
- Jules, The Garden of Plenty, Melbourne, Australia – zone 9-10 (Aust. 3)
- Jena, Married To The Farm, Caro, Michigan – zone 5
- Amanda, You Reap What You Sow, South Central Pennsylvania – zone 6-7
- Jen, Toward Arcadia, Michigan – zone 5-6
- Deb G, Bee Creative, Pacific Northwest – zone 7
- Greeen Sheeep, Wisconsin – zone 4
- Kory, Kicking And Screaming, Central New York – zone 5
- Abbie, Farmer’s Daughter, Connecticut – zone 6-7
- Margaret, Margaret’s Ramblings, Nottingham, England – zone 8
- SusanB, Southern New Jersey – zone 6b-7
- Karin, Fleecenik Farm, Central Maine – zone 4
- Kelsie, Hobbit’s Feat, Kentucky – zone 7
- Monica, Northern Ohio – zone 5-6
- Jen, Aaron-N-Jen: Living Life Simply, Iowa – zone 5
- Di, Path To Greendom & World of Yardcraft, Southern California – zone 10
- TomB, My Simple Home Garden, Central Massachusetts – zone 5b
- Judy, My Freezer Is Full, East Central Iowa – zone 5a
- Julie, Towards Sustainability, Newcastle, NSW, Australia – zone 9-10 (Aust. 3)
- Dina, Hip Chick Chronicles, Portland, Oregon – zone 8-9
- Alana
- Milkweed, Milkweed Diaries, Swannanoa Valley, North Carolina – zone 6-7
- Melanie J, Ember’s Lighthouse, Jacksonville, Florida – zone 9a
- Risa B, Stony Run Farm, Western Oregon – zone 8
- Maureen, Fotos By Meg, Central Valley, California – zone 9
- Amy Crump, Crump Family Blog, Chapel Hill, North Carolina – zone 8
- Rob, Rob’s World, Burien, Washington – zone 8
- The Rachface, This Evolutionary Life, Virginia – zone 8
- Janice, Going Off Da Grid Janice, California – zone 8-9
- Green Bean, Green Phone Booth, Bay Area, California – zone 9
- Daphne, Daphne’s Dandelions, Winchester, Massachusetts – zone 6
- Briel
- Jimmy Cracked-Corn – zone 5
- Lisa, Domestic Accident, Southern Coastal Maine – zone 5-6
- Hannah, The Purloined Letter, Takoma Park, Maryland – zone 7
- Suzan, Scrub Oak, Rocky Mountain southern foothills (6,700 feet) – zone 4
- The Cheap Vegetable Gardener
- Onemotherslove, What’s He Up To Now?, North Central Texas – zone 8
- Red Icculus, Red-Icculus.com – zone 5
- Jocele, Knitting On Call, Idaho – zone 6-7
- Matt, Florida – zone 9
- Sara, Mama Craft, Canada – zone 3a
- Tyra, Tyra’s Garden & The Greenhouse In Tyra’s Garden, Vaxholm, Sweden – zone 6
- Inadvertentfarmer, The Inadvertent Farmer, Western Washington – zone 8
- Lauren
- Melody, Merrie Melody, Utah – zone 6
- Melinda, One Green Generation, Seattle, Washington – zone 8
- Michelle, Alpaca, Chook, Garden, Travel and…., Hobart, Tasmania, Australia – zone 9-10 (Aust. 3)
- Laurel, Nefaeria, North Bay, Ontario, Canada – zone 4a
- Mary, Freedom Gardens Journal: Mecar, Crete, Illinois – zone 5
- Susan, How Green In My Garden, Southern California – zone 8b
- Mary, Cat’s Fiber Adventures, Oregon – zone 8-9
- WIlla, Plants And Animals & Yumminess Ensues, S. Central Pennsylvania – zone 6A
- Jenn, Attempted Simple Life, Osgoode, Ontario, Canada – zone 5a
- Shibaguyz, Here we go! Life with the Shibaguyz…, Seattle, WA – zone 8
- Tina, Bee Content Ranch, California
- Cassandra, The Urban Trowel, Southeastern BC, Canada – zone 5
- Nico, Self Sufficient Life, North Germany – zone 8
- Sadge, Firesign Farm, Carson City, Nevada – zone 6
- Leanne, At The Good Life, New Zealand – zone 9-10 (Aust. 3)
- Jenny, Studio J
- Sarah S, Life At The Ranch, Northern California – zone 9
- Sarah Z, Ward Road Garden, Northern California – zone 9
- Christy O, Farm Dreams, Georgia – zone 7
- Jason L, Vegetable Garden Planner
- Annette, Ward House, Hot Springs, Virginia – zone 6
- Paige, Clausen In The Hausen & Out In The Garden, Saint Peters, Missouri – zone 5
- Rhonda, FarmHouse Style, North Georgia Mountains – zone 7b
- Kelly, Taurus Rising, Adelaide Hills, Australia- zone 9-10 (Aust. 3)
- Laura, Mas Du Diable, France – zone 9
- Christina, A Thinking Stomach, Altadena, California – zone 9b
- Latigoliz, Cowgirl Up, Enumclaw, Washington – zone 8
- Lisa, Natural Gardening, Upstate South Carolina – zone 8
- Chris, Chattagarden, Chattanooga, Tennessee – zone 7
- Mary B, Tampa, Florida – zone 10
- Kathy, Birmingham, Alabama – zone 7-8
- Kathy and Skippy, Skippy’s Vegetable Garden – zone 6
- Katrien, MamaStories, suburb of Boston, Massachusetts – zone 6-7
- Maggie, Mama What The
- Christa, Lazy Toad Farm, New Hampshire – zone 4-5
- Emma, The Berry Patch, Sydney, Australia – zone 10 (Aust. 4)
- Jenny, Seeded, Toledo, Ohio – zone 6
- Melissa, Rabbit Hill Farm, rural North Carolina – zone 7-8
- Jessie Earth Momma, Pacific Northwest – zone 7b
- Catherine, Love Living Simply, Texas – zone 8
- Ian, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada – zone 6b
- Christy, Growing Human, Coastal Virginia – zone 7b
- Amanda, A Homegrown Life, California – zone 9
- Robbie, Going Green Mama – zone 5
- Pamela, Suburbancrunch – zone 6-7
- Beth, Potager Gardening, Columbus, OH – zone 5
- Tammy (+ her 6 cherubs!), Simply Beck’s Bounty, SE Tennessee – zone 7
- Ottawa Gardener, The Veggie Patch Re-Imagined, Ottawa, Canada – zone 5a
- Laura Chandler
- Lisa Cohen, Life Is In The Details
- Darlene, Stover Lane, Kansas – zone 5-6
- Sherri M, Sherri’s Mad Blabber Blog, Erin, Ontario, Canada – zone 5a
- Chad M, Minnesota – zone 4
- Shelby, Eat Local Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM – zone 5-6
- Linda, Garden Girl, Chicago, Illinois – zone 5b
- Stacy, Canada – zone 5b
- Joan, Young Girl, Old Life, Northeastern Missouri – zone 5
- Kim & Victoria, Living And Gardening In Idaho, Boise, Idaho – zone 5-6
- Sinclair, Nature With Me, Oregon – zone 7
- Jenette, Sacramento, CA – zone 9b
- Jennifer, Jen & The Bean Stalk, North Idaho – zone 4-5
- Laurie and Tim, Golden Gaits Garden, Colorado – zone 5b-6
- Phoebe, Cents To Get Debt Free, Southern Missouri – zone 5-6
- Megan, Raised On Sunshine, Dallas, TX – zone 8a
- Crunchy Chicken, Seattle, WA – zone 8
- Jenn, Jenn’s Coop, central valley, CA – zone 10
- Veriance, Michigan – zone 5
- Sande, Sow This, Sew That, Southeastern Michigan – zone 5
- Jenn, Newlyweds!, Texas – zone 9
- Carri, Home Of The Petersonclan, South Central Kentucky – zone 6
- Amber, Cloud9 Design, Texas – zone 9
- Jo, Little House By The Railway Line, England – zone 8
- Andrea, Colorado – zone 5-6
- Kendra, A Sonoma Garden – zone 9
- Stuff, Proactive Bridesmaid – zone 7
- LiBBy BuTTons, US – zone 6
- Healing Green, Gaylordsville, Connecticut – zone 6
- Carpe Diem, British Columbia, Canada – zone 3
- Trish, The Promised Land – zone 8-9
- Diana, Backyard & Community Gardening, Northern Colorado – zone 4-5
- Tricia, Little Eco Footprints, Australia – zone 9-10 (Aust. 3)
- Juliette, Abielle A Miel, Santa Cruz Mountains, CA – zone 8-9
- Ciera, Ciera’s Garden, Pittsburg, PA – zone 6a
- Kara, Garden of Eatin’, Canada – zone 4
- Vickie, In The Acorn, Winnetka, CA – zone 9
- Paula, Buckets Of Gardening Ideas, Idaho – zone 4-5
- Jennifer, Seeds In The City, Bay Area, CA – zone 9-10
- Anne-Marie, Cheeseslave, Los Angeles, CA – zone 10-11
- Shea, The Lion And The Little Red Birds, Australia – zone 4
- Vermontmommy, McKinney, Texas – zone 8
- Christina, Closer To Fine, Bay Area, CA – zone 9-10
I’ve added everyone’s name, blog, location, and hardiness zone. Please check your info to make sure I have it right as I had to guess on some of them. And if I’ve left you off, be sure to tell me.
Chat Away!
My sister Lori wrote me last year asking for advice about her new vegetable garden in St. Louis. They have loads of little bunnies. Apparently they’re extremely persistent and have been known to eat even jalapeño peppers! She was worried they will eat her yummy new lettuces, carrots, radishes – and considering their track record, even her tomatoes.
We had jackrabbits at our Northern California home. Have you ever seen one? They’re not your little St. Louis bunny: they are amazingly fast, and they are much bigger than our dog! They eat grass and clover, and presumably they would find our carrots and lettuce absolutely delightful…. but guess what? They were everywhere in our yard EXCEPT in our vegetable garden. I never saw – or found evidence of – a single nibble.
It could be luck, but considering that the rabbits regularly hopped within inches of the vegetable garden, I think it may have to do with a few other things. So I wrote this post to help Lori and all the rest of you who have bunny problems!
How to Keep Rabbits Out of the Vegetable Garden:
Humanely, Organically, Frugally, and Sustainably.
Note that many of these solutions will work for deer, raccoons, coyotes, and various varmints as well.
1. Build Raised Beds. You don’t have to build formal raised beds, but even if you mound up the dirt as we did, it confuses them. Ours beds were also sloped, so that may be a further deterrent.
2. Create Narrow Pathways Between the Beds. If you think about it from a rabbit’s perspective, there are these mounds about 1.5 to 2 feet tall. If I were a rabbit and tried to hop between those mounds, I’d be a sitting duck for any cat or coyote standing on the mound. No way, not worth it! Our pathways were about 1′ wide, just enough for us to walk through.
3. Mulch. I’ve read over and over that for whatever reason, mulch deters deer, rabbits, gophers, moles, voles… I don’t know why, but seems to work. We use straw mulch, because it’s cheap and plentiful, and eventually it will decompose and become plant food.
4. Interplant. Again from the rabbit’s perspective, I am hopping around finding a nice clover patch here, another one way over there, and then… wow, a whole row of tender, organic greens all to yourself. But, if that row is interplanted with things I don’t like – like onions – suddenly, maybe it’s not worth it to me. This goes for all sorts of pests, including aphids, powdery mildew, voles, and so on. For example, we planted carrots and scallions together.
5. Plant a Perimeter of Things They Don’t Like. Garlic, onions, chives, catnip, lavender, and marigolds are all deterrents according to several sources. The Old Farmer’s Almanac recommends planting a double row of onions. You could also try a low, dense hedge. Here is a list of plants rabbits (and deer) reportedly do not like. If you don’t find anything there, many more are listed here.
6. Build a Fence Around the Beds, or Around the Plants. You probably want to build a fence at least 2 feet high. It can be made out of a number of materials, so you can make it quite attractive: bamboo, chicken wire, wood, wire mesh will all work. If you don’t have raised beds, you should dig a trench at least 6-8″ below ground, and start the fence there. If you’re using a bendable material, bend it outward for added benefit. Rabbits (and voles, moles, etc) can burrow, so you want to cover above and below ground. And incidentally, this is what Lori ultimately used on her garden – there are pictures here.
7. Put a layer of mesh or other material over the hardest hit plants. You can use wire mesh, burlap, or hardwire cloth for this. You can build a loop-wire tunnel as well (we usually have one over our greens).
8. Try Other Alternatives. Fake snakes or owls, soap flakes, sulfur, blood meal, wind socks, human hair, motion-sensor sprinklers, a mostly buried bottle, dog, coyote, or fox urine, and cat litter are some I’ve found but haven’t tried. There are also some store-bought remedies, but I’d suggest trying some of these cheaper, organic, and sustainable methods first. (Note cat litter should not be put in the vegetable garden, only on the perimeter, to avoid consuming potentially harmful bacteria.) Have fun!
9. Plant Clover and Other Bunny Favorites in Another Area of the Yard. This is the decoy effect: if you feed them well with their favorite foods, they won’t need to eat your veggies. What do bunnies like? Goldenrod, wild strawberries, clover, dandelions, wildflowers, alfalfa, and long grass.
10. If All Else Fails, Plant Extra for the Rabbits. They need to eat, too, and goodness knows we have altered their world by putting up roads and houses where they used to graze happily. Why not give them a little bit of extra food to survive in their human-altered environment?*
Note that you’ll probably want to try at least a couple of these methods together to make it work for you.
Non-Humane Methods…
I would not try poisons, pepper spray, or fire arms. I personally feel all of those are dangerous to you, your neighbors, and other beneficial wildlife.
I also don’t think trapping is a great option. The problem with trapping is that you are relocating a rabbit from its home, family, and established territory: the place where it knows its predators and food sources. It could be pregnant or have babies. And you could be relocating it to a place where it doesn’t have a good food supply or is eaten quickly by a predator. And you may end up putting them where someone else has to deal with them in their yard – someone who may or may not use humane methods to deter them.
Please consider trying the many humane methods above. You may have to work a little harder at it. But in the end, your family, community, and the planet as a whole will be better off for your efforts.
*Note that in Australia and New Zealand, rabbits have been introduced into the area, and have created havoc with the native ecosystem. In that case, I would avoid feeding the rabbits, and in general discourage their presence – your local municipality likely has a policy that you should follow in these areas. If you have the choice, try the sustainable, integrated pest management approaches to the problem. Indiscriminately poisoning and shooting them has proven time and again not to work!
Do You Have Any Other Tips?
Earth Day is on Wednesday, April 22nd. I don’t know about you, but I have been inundated with emails telling me what to buy, what great things companies are doing, where to donate, and what wonderful product I should be writing about on my website.
In some ways, it’s great that Earth Day has become more mainstream. More people are thinking about the planet, companies are thinking about greening their products to cater to a new, more green audience.
At the same time, Earth Day was once a celebration of the Earth, and a reminder to become more involved with its health and well-being. That’s the important part, isn’t it?
So, are you doing anything exciting or meaningful for Earth Day? I would love to know, and I’m sure others here would like some new ideas as well.
As if you need another reason to hate spam…
A new study reports that about 62 trillion spam messages are sent each year, giving off the same amount of CO2 as driving around the earth 1.6 million times. To break that down, one spam releases 0.3 grams of carbon dioxide, which is the equivalent of driving three feet, according to The Wall Street Journal. (Thanks to Ryan Avent at Portfolio.com for the link.)
Spam accounts for one-third of all business and personal messages. Yowza. I believe it. I just added a spam counter to the right sidebar here, and look how many spam comments I’ve had to go through! Boy they are just awful, too. Personally polluting, time polluting, and environmentally polluting.
How To Minimize Spam
1. Filter your spam. Apparently “spam filtering saves 135 terrawatt hours of electricity a year, the equivalent of taking 13 million cars off the road,” according to The Wall Street Journal. It is likely your email system has a decent spam filter. Check your email preferences and make sure the spam filter is on and working at maximum capacity. If you have your own domain or ISP, you can probably use a more robust filtering system through your service provider – just ask them.
2. Use a disposable email address for things you want to sign up for but will never need to use again. About “80% of the greenhouse gases created by spam actually comes from the process of deleting it, or by searching around for legitimate emails trapped in spam filters.” I use an email address specifically for such purposes – my “donotspam” email address!
3. Uncheck the check boxes. When you sign up for membership to a website, listserv, or campaign, they will often have a check box – which is usually pre-checked – asking if you want to receive ads and other emails. UNCHECK the check boxes!
4. Avoid publishing your email address anywhere on the web, unless it is disguised. There are several ways to do this. Here, I’ve set up a “Contact” page so that the sender never knows my email. Kills me to do that, but I learned the hard way with my last blog! You can also put up a jpg or png image file of your email address, so that “spiders” and “trawlers” can’t automatically find your email and stick it in a database (they can’t read images). Or you can do the simple “joe at gmail dot com” technique. Any of the three work fairly well.
5. Google your email address. If it comes up on any site, do everything you can to remove it! Ask the administrator – they’ll probably do it without much fuss.
6. When posting to newsgroups and listservs, be careful not to post your email address if you can help it. Often there is a preference to remove your email address. If you can’t remove it, use a disposable email address (see #2).
7. When forwarding emails from someone else – and particularly a group of people – make sure you remove all the old email addresses from the email. You never know where that email will end up – you could be handing a spammer 50 of your friends’ personal email addresses!
8. Ignore “delivery failures” of messages you did not send - these are probably sent by a worm, Trojan, or spammer. Don’t reply! (Worms are programs that can send bulk emails – they often live on your unsuspecting friends or family’s computers as a virus.)
9. Run virus scans regularly on your computer. Worm viruses can actually send spam to everyone in your address book. Icky. PCs are much more vulnerable to worms than Macs. Also make sure your anti-virus software is up to date and from a reputable company.
10. Don’t reply to spam. Even if you reply in order to request removing your email address from the mailing list, you are actually confirming that your email address is valid and the spam has been successfully delivered. Then your email address may be sold to additional spammers, being more valuable now that it has been confirmed. Even opening the email may trigger this confirmation, so try not to open spam if you can help it.
And finally, never respond to emails that ask you to validate or confirm any of your account details of your bank, credit card, Paypal, or others. If you are not sure if a request for personal information is legitimate, contact the company directly. Don’t click on any links in the email, as they may be fake links which simply validate that you received the message and you can now be put on more spam lists.
All in all, spam is a small portion of the total climate and energy impact of humans. But as we all are aware, every little bit helps. And since spam is such a nuisance anyway, why not take a few extra precautions to rid society of spam?
Techies, please feel free to contradict me if I’m wrong on any of this stuff! And everyone, please let us know if you have any other tricks!
Before You Start Seeds Indoors.
1. Make sure that’s the best solution for that particular crop. Check out Gardening 101: My Top 12 Easy Vegetables To Grow From Seed. There you will find lots of healthy plants that thrive better when I plant them in situ (ie, directly in the ground).
2. Read, read, read. Read the back of the seed packet, read what the seed company says about the plant on its website, read any material sent with your seeds regarding how to plant, and read the seed starting chapters in organic gardening books. The more you know going in, the better the chance of your seeds thriving into wonderfully fruit-producing plants.
3. Determine your last frost date. I know you want to start gardening, you’re ready for spring, you’re looking at all these wonderful things happening on different garden blogs… but there’s snow outside, you’re in Zone 4, and your last frost date might be in May…
The general rule of thumb is to start your seeds indoors 4-6 weeks before the last danger of frost. You can push it a little bit earlier, if you have cloches, cold frames, frost blankets, a greenhouse, or some other sort of season extension. But if you don’t have those, you should make sure to plant out after the danger of frost has passed, rather than risk losing your crops to a late frost.
Also note that you can often plant later – don’t feel like you have to start everything indoors, nor do you have to start everything exactly on time! Look at the back of your seed packet – or in your favorite gardening book – for how long your crop will take to mature (ie, produce vegetables or fruit). This time does not include germination time, so add time to germinate as well. Then you can determine how long you can get away with procrastinating!
How Do You Determine Your Last Frost Date?
Ever wonder why the Old Farmer’s Almanac has been around forever and people still read the thing? Well, one of the reasons people read it is because it has details of the last frost dates for each region. Here’s an abbreviated version (here for Canada – if you’re in another country, let me know a link and I will add it here), and you can pay online to have a more detailed version for your particular area in North America.
If you’re not in North America and/or you don’t want to pay to find this out, you can ask around, find out what your neighbors remember. You can ask in your local nursery. You can contact your local Master Gardeners. You can call the local Farm Bureau/Commission. You can ask the farmers at your local farmer’s markets. And your local library will probably have the latest Farmer’s Almanac and other reference materials for your area.
I highly recommend keeping your own garden journal that includes your garden’s last frost date from year to year, as your yard will have its own unique micro-climate.
Is That The Same As My Zone?
If all you can do is determine your hardiness zone, it will help. However, the zone is a different indicator than the last frost date. Your zone is an indicator of how hardy your plants need to be to survive the winter.
Basically what determines your zone is the average minimum temperature in your area. It does not indicate how long temperatures will remain low, nor when your last freeze or frost will be.
That said, if you’re in a zone 4, chances are that your last frost date is going to be much later than someone in zone 10.
Find your hardiness zone here: U.S., Australia, Canada, Europe, South America, China. For other regions, I’m sorry I don’t have links so give it your best guess.
Equipment Needed.
- Coconut Pellets
- Seed starting medium
- Seedling trays, or any sort of container with holes at the bottom
- Pen or Pencil
- Plant identification markers
- Hydrogen Peroxide (for sanitizing everything you use)
Starting Seeds Indoors.
The Coconut Pellet Method
Coconut fiber is a naturally disease-free potting medium. This is my favorite seed starting method, having worked for me every time. I purchase coconut pellets from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply. They’re 12 cents each, if I buy more than 100. It may sound like a lot, but if I factor in the ease of use, and the fact that I don’t need to purchase a separate seed starting medium, it is worth it to me. You might want to try this first, and then move on to making your own medium and potting in found containers once you’re more comfortable with the general principle of seed starting.
1. Sterilize. I wash all of my seed trays with warm soapy water. Then I sterilize them by swishing a bit of hydrogen peroxide (diluted 3:1, water:hydrogen peroxide). And finally, I give them a quick rinse.
2. Soak. I soak the coconut pellets in warm water for about 5 minutes. It will change as follows:
 
I soak them in a seedling flat, because I find it easier to keep them upright.
Then, I place them on a mesh seedling tray which I bought at BGH (through Amazon.com). I use the mesh tray rather than a solid one, because when it’s time to water the seedlings, I can just submerge my mesh tray into a hole-less tray filled with water.
And I spread out the mouth of the pellets a bit:
3. Label. Then I label my rows before I plant, so I don’t forget what I planted where. I prefer Cole’s aluminum plant markers (I buy mine from my local nursery), because the wooden ones deteriorate very quickly, long before the growing season is over. These are reusable, too. I mark them with the name of the plant on the front, and the date planted on the back (leaving room for many future planting dates).
4. Plant. I take a pen or pencil, and put two holes in each coconut pellet at the depth indicated for that seed. No need to worry about getting this perfect, just approximate. If you don’t know how deep to plant your seeds (ie, if it’s not on the back of the seed packet or in a book anywhere), a general rule of thumb is to plant them two times deeper than the width of the seed.
Then I drop one seed into each hole, and gently cover the holes with the pen/pencil. When the seeds sprout, I’ll remove one, and leave only the strongest of the two seedlings.
5. Give them warmth and light. Again, check the back of the seed packet to see what the optimum germination temperature is. If you can’t find it, a general rule of thumb is 60-80F. And yes, they do need light. A windowsill with a lot of light will work great. You can put a humidity dome on them to keep them warmer and more moist. I put them in my growing rack outside, which is about 10-20F warmer than exterior temperatures.
If you put them under full-spectrum grow lights, those lights will need to be 2-4” from the tops of the seedlings, and turned on for 16 hours/day. You must raise the lights proportionally to the seedlings as they grow.
6. Water Them. I water the seedlings when the coconut fiber has just turned dry – it becomes a lighter color brown. Plants in general seem to do better when the top inch of soil dries out between watering, and seedlings have been no exception for me. In addition, seedlings do better if you can water from below – there is less chance of dampening off or other diseases. So, if you’ve used the mesh tray I recommended in #2, you can just submerge the mesh tray into a hole-less tray filled with room-temperature water. Once the coconut fiber turns dark brown from saturation, they are fully watered.
After the seedlings emerge, I will add a very dilute liquid fertilizer to the water before submerging the pellets. I do this each time I water. You can use worm tea, fish fertilizer, or any liquid fertilizer.
7. Pot On. A plant’s first set of leaves looks very different than the plant will look later on. Usually the first set of leaves is much wider, to maximize the amount of nutrients taken from sunlight. The next set of leaves will be the plant’s “true” leaves. You should pot seedlings into larger pots when then have their second set of true leaves.
This is the way I started, and I still use this method from time to time. It is fun, easy, and produces good, consistent results. In the next seed starting article, I will delve into making your own seed starting medium, and using containers around the house (or even using the soil itself as a container). If you’re nervous about starting seeds for the first time (most of us have been in your shoes), or you have had bad luck in the past, try this method first!
|
The Growing Challenge Join our growing community of food growers from around the world!
The Buy Sustainably Challenge We are living in difficult economic times. Join us in saving our family budgets and helping our local communities thrive.
Donations This site is totally ad free, and I fund it on my own. So if you feel this website is helping you in some way, please donate $5, $10, $20 to help fund the site.
Just $25 in donations will pay for the site's hosting for one month.
Thank you so much for your support!!
|
Loading ...
Recent Comments