listed as add-on items with free shipping, too.
Showing posts with label seeds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label seeds. Show all posts
Parsley in Window Boxes
Antioxidants taste better in parsley than they do in pill form. Parsley happens to be on the Farmer's Almanac's list of Best Bets for Window Boxes. So along with the prettiest of flowers, why not add some Parsley this year? What makes parsley so healthy anyway? Here's everything that's in it! I found some parsley seeds at Amazon.comlisted as add-on items with free shipping, too.
listed as add-on items with free shipping, too.
Growing Healthy Seedlings Indoors
Back to basics time! With each new spring season comes picking seeds and seedlings that are meant to grow into happy little plants. I know I'm not alone in wondering each year: "What am I forgetting", "How did I do this last time?" and saying aloud, "Oh yes, that's right, I'm supposed to (insert memory here) first".
There seems to be just enough time between seasons to forget at least one important tid-bit. So here it is, for me and for you: Growing Healthy Seedlings Indoors, a nicely laid out back to basics instruction (or reminder) guide for starting seeds indoors to get those seedlings going without waiting so long for frost free nights!
There seems to be just enough time between seasons to forget at least one important tid-bit. So here it is, for me and for you: Growing Healthy Seedlings Indoors, a nicely laid out back to basics instruction (or reminder) guide for starting seeds indoors to get those seedlings going without waiting so long for frost free nights!
Grow Seeds Faster
The end of the winter season is near torture for me waiting for the timing to be right for planting seeds indoors - for later transplanting to the garden after the average frost date for my area, which happens to be in April! Frankly I'm going going nuts but have traded nearly all temptations from planting to more elaborate garden planning. I'm surely biting off more than I can chew but that's nothing new. This Grow Seeds Faster – Imbibition by "In the garden with judy" however is something new to me!
I got so excited I dug right into my seed packets and picked out 5 plant types for which I had extra seeds. (read: ripe for experimenting) I carefully selected 5 random baby food jars I had lazily tucked onto a shelf last year "just in case", and filled them about a quarter full with water. I boiled and cooled the tap water first in hopes of eliminating any probable chlorine the day before. After I soaked the seeds overnight, I carefully used a spoon to, well, spoon them out, and place them ever so carefully onto pre-moistened seed starting mix.
With a big grin on my face I got to label the very first containers of the season. Now it's time to wait and see if any of them sprout - and how FAST they sprout. Most have 7-10 days listed on the seed packets, but hopefully soaking them beforehand will indeed make the seeds grow faster! Oh it's so nice to find potential short-cuts when impatience is nearly overwhelming.
I got so excited I dug right into my seed packets and picked out 5 plant types for which I had extra seeds. (read: ripe for experimenting) I carefully selected 5 random baby food jars I had lazily tucked onto a shelf last year "just in case", and filled them about a quarter full with water. I boiled and cooled the tap water first in hopes of eliminating any probable chlorine the day before. After I soaked the seeds overnight, I carefully used a spoon to, well, spoon them out, and place them ever so carefully onto pre-moistened seed starting mix
.
With a big grin on my face I got to label the very first containers of the season. Now it's time to wait and see if any of them sprout - and how FAST they sprout. Most have 7-10 days listed on the seed packets, but hopefully soaking them beforehand will indeed make the seeds grow faster! Oh it's so nice to find potential short-cuts when impatience is nearly overwhelming.
Organic Tomato Seeds
Missing Summer? Me, too! Simply looking at the tomatoes for these organic seed packets brings back memories of last summer! Organic Tomatoes Seeds I can almost hear the birds chirping and hear the squirrels scrambling along the fence tops already! The little rodents love watching me dig holes and plant seeds - almost as much as they enjoy sneaking around to steal fruits & vegetables when I'm not looking. Though they don't seem to be too interested in the tomato plants, they will at least try one or two. Oh but how I do miss spending time gardening.
There's still a thick blanket of snow on the ground but I'm already prepping to plant seeds. Now's the time to get a jump on Spring so there's plenty of seedlings ready to transplant once the weather warms. After a slight disappointment with Roma Tomatoes last year (the flavor simply wasn't as good as expected) I'm going to focus on cherry, yellow pear, and beefsteak varieties of tomatoes this year. Oh I can hardly wait to walk out, pick one, and eat it right there in the sunshine!
Eggshell Seed Starters
I confess I'm not this cute & clever when I'm starting seeds yet using Eggshell Seed Starters for starting seeds indoors seems like a fabulous idea for people who are indeed good at being cutesy with their seed starting!
It does seem more logical to be able to transplant the entire seed starter container, whether it's an eggshell seed starter or paper egg container seed starter because those can be set directly into the dirt. However I have tried the egg container method before and not been successful with it at all! The humidity levels here are too high and I tend to over-water, so for me the paper (or cardboard) of the egg containers tend to attract mildew.
I prefer the plastic seed starting containers that I find free from time to time. They look like this when I'm cleaning them & filling the cells with seed starter soil:
Yes the upside down containers are drying though not sure why I dry them before I fill them up with seed starting soil just to get them wet again. It's just become a little routine - out with the old, in with the new! Once the seeds are sown and sprouting they look promising:
Those are ice-cream sticks for seed labels, which work wonderfully! I do use Sharpie pens because even with weeks of watering over the sticks the plant names remain easy to read.
It does seem more logical to be able to transplant the entire seed starter container, whether it's an eggshell seed starter or paper egg container seed starter because those can be set directly into the dirt. However I have tried the egg container method before and not been successful with it at all! The humidity levels here are too high and I tend to over-water, so for me the paper (or cardboard) of the egg containers tend to attract mildew.
I prefer the plastic seed starting containers that I find free from time to time. They look like this when I'm cleaning them & filling the cells with seed starter soil
:Yes the upside down containers are drying though not sure why I dry them before I fill them up with seed starting soil just to get them wet again. It's just become a little routine - out with the old, in with the new! Once the seeds are sown and sprouting they look promising:
Those are ice-cream sticks for seed labels, which work wonderfully! I do use Sharpie pens because even with weeks of watering over the sticks the plant names remain easy to read.
Cheap Indoor Seed Starting
What's the best way to start seeds indoors for transplanting outside after the weather stops freezing? Maybe there is no "best" way, but here's good comparisons of different ways to try.
Seed Starting: a Comparative Study on Cheap Indoor Methods
Seed Starting: a Comparative Study on Cheap Indoor Methods
Seed Starting Tips
Have you been starting seeds indoors this week? I have because it is the 1st week of Spring! Here's a handy little article for sharing ( Seed Starting Tips – Learn About The Best Time To Start Seeds ), especially this part:
" The plants that should be started the earliest are broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and head lettuce. Sow seeds for these indoors 10 weeks before the date of the last frost. "
I have about 100 different seed types this year and while it's fun to look through them all to pick & choose what I want to try in the different soil types, it's important to remember what should be started earliest. I didn't plant any of those types of seeds yet because I was working on getting the companion herbs & flowers started first. So I'm thankful for the reminder & now thinking about organizing seeds not only by type: companion, herb, root, etc. but also by when to start the seedlings!
" The plants that should be started the earliest are broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and head lettuce. Sow seeds for these indoors 10 weeks before the date of the last frost. "
I have about 100 different seed types this year and while it's fun to look through them all to pick & choose what I want to try in the different soil types, it's important to remember what should be started earliest. I didn't plant any of those types of seeds yet because I was working on getting the companion herbs & flowers started first. So I'm thankful for the reminder & now thinking about organizing seeds not only by type: companion, herb, root, etc. but also by when to start the seedlings!
Extinct tree grows anew
from ancient jar of seeds unearthed by archaeologists story by TreeHugger. Hm, about those seeds that are marked for 2013 season? Now I'm not convinced they're only good for 1 year.
Garden Soil vs. Seed Starter Mix
I've been testing different seeds with seed starting mix and the garden soil from the backyard. Much to my surprise only 1 of the seeds sprouted in the garden soil from the raised garden beds in my backyard. I just had tested this soil and it came in at about 6.5 pH. This is the same soil the tomatoes, strawberries, beans, cucumbers, dill, carrots, onions and cauliflower grew wonderfully in last year. The strawberries are even still alive and looking good after resting in this same soil over the winter.
However, it is plainly obvious that seeds prefer seed starting mix. Out of the 40 or so containers I filled and planted seeds in, only 5 of them with the seed starting mix had zero sprouts. There was only 1 sprouted in the containers filled with garden soil. I'm really very surprised. But also very glad I tried both ways. Can you imagine if I had tried with out using the seed starting mix? I'd have been so very disappointed.
However, it is plainly obvious that seeds prefer seed starting mix. Out of the 40 or so containers I filled and planted seeds in, only 5 of them with the seed starting mix had zero sprouts. There was only 1 sprouted in the containers filled with garden soil. I'm really very surprised. But also very glad I tried both ways. Can you imagine if I had tried with out using the seed starting mix? I'd have been so very disappointed.
Broccoli seeds sprouting
I got a nice surprise this afternoon when I was checking the pots to see if any seeds were drying out. Cute little broccoli sprouts pushing up through the top dirt. I didn't think that broccoli seeds would sprout so quickly though I'm so happy they did.
As with the other seeds I planted the plastic cover has to be left off now that the sprouts are showing. I am also stacking some scraps of cardboard under the pot to ensure the sprouts are only about 2-3 inches away from the light. I am doing it this way in hopes that the sprouts won't get leggy.
As with the other seeds I planted the plastic cover has to be left off now that the sprouts are showing. I am also stacking some scraps of cardboard under the pot to ensure the sprouts are only about 2-3 inches away from the light. I am doing it this way in hopes that the sprouts won't get leggy.
Updated: How quickly they grew in only 8 days!
Remembering Last Spring's Mistakes
Last year when I was just getting started with seedlings on indoor plant shelves I made a lot of mistakes. I'm sure I'm not done making them, but I'm trying to avoid repeating the same ones. Other than the cat eating the tops off the new baby plants, I had problems with all these issues:
Then I over-corrected and stopped watering them in the morning & at night, (yeah, I was that bad), and so I started only watering them every other day. (sighs) Please note: Baby lettuce will die if it dries out. So will every other baby seedling plant. Here's some good basic information I keep handy: http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/10508/watering-your-seedlings
Once I got decent little 2" plants growing, I was happy. Then I found out tall little seedlings aren't actually healthy, they just haven't fallen over & died yet. Leggy is bad! It's usually caused by... bad lighting. The little guys are stretching up to the light, fighting to survive, and I was unaware. Having the right lighting & distances between the seedlings and the light is vital. I'll probably mess this up again, but this time when I built shelves, I made them adjustable :) I'll have to make another post about that.
My little indoor plants were getting very poor air circulation. It was an effort to save them, basically I protected them to death. The house cat was sneaking onto the plant shelves & eating the tops off the growing veggies. I was so frustrated with the cat (once I figured out is was the cat snacking & not some invisible bug eating plants) that I stuck all the plants into a very small area in a very small room with the door shut. The window in that room is rarely opened. The plants were suffering. They're supposed to get breezes, fresh air, not stuffy still room air.
The evil fungus gnats I nearly forgot to mention. They love moist dirt. They kill baby plants. They are pure evil and put me through hell for 2 weeks. I absolutely suggest learning about them here. http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05584.html.
Last but not least, by the time I made it through the first learning curves, I had way too many seedlings for the very limited pots that I did have. The weather was not cooperating enough to transplant directly into the garden, and I started a quest to find as many free pots on craigslist.org as possible. Apparently so did everyone else in the county, so I had to get very creative with making temporary "pots". From yogurt containers, to plastic food containers, milk jugs, plastic lined cardboard, and plastic drinking cups. It was frustrating as heck trying to save the plants that actually made it so far, while waiting for the cold weather outside to go away already!
- Over watering (soaked roots to death)
- Under watering (letting things dry out = dead)
- Leggy seedlings (which just fell over dead either from over-watering or under-watering)
- Wrong lighting!
- Very poor air circulation
- Fungus gnats
- Transplanting too late
Then I over-corrected and stopped watering them in the morning & at night, (yeah, I was that bad), and so I started only watering them every other day. (sighs) Please note: Baby lettuce will die if it dries out. So will every other baby seedling plant. Here's some good basic information I keep handy: http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/10508/watering-your-seedlings
Once I got decent little 2" plants growing, I was happy. Then I found out tall little seedlings aren't actually healthy, they just haven't fallen over & died yet. Leggy is bad! It's usually caused by... bad lighting. The little guys are stretching up to the light, fighting to survive, and I was unaware. Having the right lighting & distances between the seedlings and the light is vital. I'll probably mess this up again, but this time when I built shelves, I made them adjustable :) I'll have to make another post about that.
My little indoor plants were getting very poor air circulation. It was an effort to save them, basically I protected them to death. The house cat was sneaking onto the plant shelves & eating the tops off the growing veggies. I was so frustrated with the cat (once I figured out is was the cat snacking & not some invisible bug eating plants) that I stuck all the plants into a very small area in a very small room with the door shut. The window in that room is rarely opened. The plants were suffering. They're supposed to get breezes, fresh air, not stuffy still room air.
The evil fungus gnats I nearly forgot to mention. They love moist dirt. They kill baby plants. They are pure evil and put me through hell for 2 weeks. I absolutely suggest learning about them here. http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05584.html.
Last but not least, by the time I made it through the first learning curves, I had way too many seedlings for the very limited pots that I did have. The weather was not cooperating enough to transplant directly into the garden, and I started a quest to find as many free pots on craigslist.org as possible. Apparently so did everyone else in the county, so I had to get very creative with making temporary "pots". From yogurt containers, to plastic food containers, milk jugs, plastic lined cardboard, and plastic drinking cups. It was frustrating as heck trying to save the plants that actually made it so far, while waiting for the cold weather outside to go away already!
Caring for Seedlings
I'm once again having problems with leggy little seedlings, so went searching around and found this information about starting seeds. Near the end of the answers is the reminder:
"Finally, be sure to keep your fluorescent lights no higher than 3” above the seedlings at all times."
Welcome to read this about Caring for Seedlings: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Seeding-Propagation-733/Caring-seedlings.htm, too. I've bookmarked it for refreshing my own memory later :)
"Finally, be sure to keep your fluorescent lights no higher than 3” above the seedlings at all times."
Welcome to read this about Caring for Seedlings: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Seeding-Propagation-733/Caring-seedlings.htm, too. I've bookmarked it for refreshing my own memory later :)
Planting by the Moon?
Okay I tripped over this web page today while looking for methods for starting seeds indoors and then transplanting to bigger pots but still keeping the plants growing in the house. Since I've planted all the fall crops (by crops I mean just a few square foot spaces outside in my raised garden beds), I'm thinking of indoor veggies during the winter already. Though I'm still not sure if it's possible to do successfully, I imagine it's worth a try.
The Moon Phase Gardening website talks about timing plantings with moon phases! Now there's something I'd never have thought of myself. Here's the part I'm on now, though there's lots more. http://www.moongrow.com/moon_phase_gardening.html
The Moon Phase Gardening website talks about timing plantings with moon phases! Now there's something I'd never have thought of myself. Here's the part I'm on now, though there's lots more. http://www.moongrow.com/moon_phase_gardening.html
Long Lasting Seeds
A friend of mine gave me some old seeds when she found out I wanted to find out if I could grow things to eat. I gleefully accepted the "expired" seeds she offered me, and I thought there's no harm in dumping some water on them to see if they'll grow. Yep, throwing them in the dirt & dumping water on them - real technical lingo in my thought process.
During the months of spring and summer I was still being in the super non-technical naive mindset and I didn't see any harm in buying "expired" seeds from the market either. What's the worst that can happen? They won't grow? No big loss.
Some seed packets were dated with sell-by years, shipped for 2011 season (with 50% off marked price) or 2012 which were marked 25% off for sales. All these seeds, glorious seeds, that I collected this year with plans of planting crops upon crops in my tiny garden.
After the spring and early summer sowing, I still had a lot of seeds left. Now that it's the season for planting fall crops, there are still an awful lot of seeds left in dozens of packets.
I started to feel sad thinking it's wasteful to have such a collection of seeds that probably won't sprout next spring (or during the winter if I try to plant them indoors). Then I started searching, and found this information (and more on the Clemson University Home & Garden Information Center website:
"Long-lived seeds include beets; all cabbage relatives such as broccoli, cauliflower, collards, and kale; cucumber; lettuce; melons; peppers; sunflower; tomato; and turnip. If you keep them cool and dry, these seeds should maintain good viability for five years or more."
"Medium-lived seeds include beans, carrot, chard, eggplant, parsley, peas, pumpkin and squash. These, properly stored, should last at least three years."
"Short-lived seeds can only be depended on to last to the next growing season. This list includes corn, leek, onion and spinach seed."
Great news I think! This should mean that the only wasted seeds are things like corn, leak, and onions. All the other seeds should be fine for next year :)
During the months of spring and summer I was still being in the super non-technical naive mindset and I didn't see any harm in buying "expired" seeds from the market either. What's the worst that can happen? They won't grow? No big loss.
Some seed packets were dated with sell-by years, shipped for 2011 season (with 50% off marked price) or 2012 which were marked 25% off for sales. All these seeds, glorious seeds, that I collected this year with plans of planting crops upon crops in my tiny garden.
After the spring and early summer sowing, I still had a lot of seeds left. Now that it's the season for planting fall crops, there are still an awful lot of seeds left in dozens of packets.
I started to feel sad thinking it's wasteful to have such a collection of seeds that probably won't sprout next spring (or during the winter if I try to plant them indoors). Then I started searching, and found this information (and more on the Clemson University Home & Garden Information Center website:
"Long-lived seeds include beets; all cabbage relatives such as broccoli, cauliflower, collards, and kale; cucumber; lettuce; melons; peppers; sunflower; tomato; and turnip. If you keep them cool and dry, these seeds should maintain good viability for five years or more."
"Medium-lived seeds include beans, carrot, chard, eggplant, parsley, peas, pumpkin and squash. These, properly stored, should last at least three years."
"Short-lived seeds can only be depended on to last to the next growing season. This list includes corn, leek, onion and spinach seed."
Great news I think! This should mean that the only wasted seeds are things like corn, leak, and onions. All the other seeds should be fine for next year :)
Saving Strawberry Seeds
I've managed to remove about a dozen strawberry seeds from a strawberry picked off a plant I bought as a start earlier this year. I wasn't sure what to do with them so I looked around and found this: http://strawberryplants.org/2010/05/strawberry-seeds/
Mystery Sprouts
Well, I did it again. I got so into planting a variety of seeds last week that I forgot to label a set of 6 little plastic cups. Today I noticed the sprouts and looked for a label to see what I managed to get started, and saw no sign of a label. :( Whatever they are, I hope they grow up and live long enough for me to find out!
I started these indoors, but stuck them outside for a while today since it's not too hot yet. I'll bring them back indoors well before nightfall so they don't get too cold or eaten up by random night creatures before morning.
The little plastic cups are super cheap and linked here on Amazon.com. Way better than those little biodegradable seed starter pots because these are re-useable so I only had to buy them once! Just pop out the seedling along with the dirt, re-fill & re-use. They also stack really well for storage!
I started these indoors, but stuck them outside for a while today since it's not too hot yet. I'll bring them back indoors well before nightfall so they don't get too cold or eaten up by random night creatures before morning.
The little plastic cups are super cheap and linked here on Amazon.com. Way better than those little biodegradable seed starter pots because these are re-useable so I only had to buy them once! Just pop out the seedling along with the dirt, re-fill & re-use. They also stack really well for storage!
New Kohl Rabi Seeds
Today a friend of mine said someone at work brought in some Kohlrabi (Kohl Rabi - I'm still not sure if it's one word or two). He told me that if I can grow some, I should because it's delicious. Okay, I thought, I'm bored with the normal types of seeds so what the heck. What's the worst thing that can happen?
I'd been waiting for a good excuse to justify using some more gasoline. So I drove around to a few local shops and finally found some seeds. Kohlrabi Early White Vienna. They're from the American Seed company - Finest Quality Since 1897 it says on the package. The seed packet cost 20cents (so I bought a lot of packets). It also says Net Wt. 200MG. I just opened a packet to see how many seeds were inside, and to my surprise the seeds look like cabbage seeds. Round and small and hard to count in my cupped hand, but it looks like about 30 Kohlrabi seeds.
After looking on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohlrabi I'm thinking this Kohlrabi veggie is probably pretty healthy. It says it's from the same family as cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, collard greens, and Brussels sprouts. I'm also hoping it's as good as my friend says it is - after all, I'm not really into the taste of kale or Brussels sprouts.
I'm going to spend some time watching YouTube videos to see if I think I can grow this indoors or not. So far, it's looking pretty good because I'm reading it can be grown just about anywhere. Only time will tell. Unfortunately most videos are just showing transplanting of the Kohlrabi and not giving a lot of details about how to get it started from seed, so I'll probably just end up learning by trial and error again! That's another reason I bought lots of seed packets, just in case they're needed.
Here's a good picture of what full grown Kohlrabi looks like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KohlrabiinMarket.jpg I'm trying to remember it's supposedly tastes great!
I'd been waiting for a good excuse to justify using some more gasoline. So I drove around to a few local shops and finally found some seeds. Kohlrabi Early White Vienna. They're from the American Seed company - Finest Quality Since 1897 it says on the package. The seed packet cost 20cents (so I bought a lot of packets). It also says Net Wt. 200MG. I just opened a packet to see how many seeds were inside, and to my surprise the seeds look like cabbage seeds. Round and small and hard to count in my cupped hand, but it looks like about 30 Kohlrabi seeds.
After looking on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohlrabi I'm thinking this Kohlrabi veggie is probably pretty healthy. It says it's from the same family as cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, collard greens, and Brussels sprouts. I'm also hoping it's as good as my friend says it is - after all, I'm not really into the taste of kale or Brussels sprouts.
I'm going to spend some time watching YouTube videos to see if I think I can grow this indoors or not. So far, it's looking pretty good because I'm reading it can be grown just about anywhere. Only time will tell. Unfortunately most videos are just showing transplanting of the Kohlrabi and not giving a lot of details about how to get it started from seed, so I'll probably just end up learning by trial and error again! That's another reason I bought lots of seed packets, just in case they're needed.
Here's a good picture of what full grown Kohlrabi looks like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KohlrabiinMarket.jpg I'm trying to remember it's supposedly tastes great!
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