Starting Your Seeds

Starting Your Seeds (Making It: Radical Home-Ec)

• Start seeds in commercial potting mix.

Your garden should be a loose, light mix of soil and composted organic material (START A COMPOST PILE).
If you don't have good garden soil yet, use potting mix.

• Fill your seedling flats, flatten and lightly compress, don't pack it in.
• Good rule of thumb: plant the seed to a depth twice the diameter of the seed.
• If the seeds are tiny, just sprinkle them over the surface and then, using a colander, sift a thin layer of soil on top of them.
• Make a planting guide. Use a piece of chicken wire.
• Mark what you planted.
• Mark on your calendar what you planted and when. Also take note of when you transplant the seedling and when you get your first harvest (for reference in the next year.)

Pay attention to the ambient temperature, because it's critical for getting good germination rates. The package should tell you what the temperature range at which your seeds will germinate. Consider florescent lights to make sure seedlings get enough light every day, if growing indoors. Place them under a south-facing window. When growing outdoors, make sure they get shade.
Don't over water. Aim to keep the soil as moist as a wrung-out sponge. Even when the soil is wet, it should be a little springy.

GROW LIGHTS on the cheap:
2 (4-foot) florescent shop light fixtures
2 (40-watt) cool white tubes
2 (40-watt) warm white tubes
chain (to suspend the lights)
Timer

Suspend the two light fixtures side by side as close as possible to your baby plants, no more than 3 inches way. Load each fixture with one cool bulb and one warm bulb. You don't need to turn on the lights until your seeds have sprouted. Once they've sprouted, keep the lights on for 14 to 16 hours a day.

The seedlings are ready to transplant when their first true leaves have emerged. These are their second set o leaves, the ones that look like miniature versions of their adult leaves. You can leave the seedlings in the flats for a little longer, but don't let them get too old or they'll run out of room for their roots.

HARDENING OFF:
For a few days before planting the seedlings in the garden, take them out for a few hours to show them the world, then bring them back inside to recover. The temperatures, humidity, and brightness are all different. If you move them directly from their cloistered life indoors to the garden, they'll likely go into shock. Watch for signs of distress, like wilting. Fit hardening off into your workweek by doing the first, crucial introductions over the weekend, leaving the seedlings outside in a sheltered place during the day and taking them in at night. By midweek, they'll probably be ready to stay out all night, and they'll be ready to plant the next weekend.

TRANSPLANTING:
Be sure to read How to Prepare a Bed for Planting

Gently scoop the plants out of the flat, taking a clump of soil with the plant. Handle gently, cradling the rootball in your palm, never grasp by the stem. Open up a little hole in your garden bed and gently set the seedling down in it. Tap the soil down around the roots, firmly enough that there are no air pockets but not so hard that you compact the soil. Transfer one at a time. Water when you're done with all your transplants.

Not recommended: planting in rows. Unless you plan to drive a tractor between your rows, it's a wast of space.

Plants like to cozy up to one another. Ideally, their leaves will just touch when they are full grown. Close planting shades the soil, protecting it from drying out and keeping the temperature of the roots more consistent. This leads to happy plants and larger yields.

French Intensive layout: use cutout triangles of various size ranging from 3 to 18 inches (determined by the spacing needs of each plant) and arrange as cookies on a baking sheet.