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FeedSeeds of Spring
Order now to prepare for this season’s bounty
By Bonnie Blodgett
If you’ve never started seeds before, you may not have seed catalogs crowding your mailbox. You may not even realize such a thing exists. Or that seeds are an alternative to propagating plants from cuttings. And to procuring those expensive annuals and perennials from the garden center every summer.
Read no further if you work 60-hour weeks and have 12 kids. Seed starting isn’t for you. But if you have a bit of time on your hands, the savings in dollars is significant. That plump heuchera in the 6-inch pot that you bought last year for six bucks could have been yours for pennies if you’d ordered seeds in January, set up a plant factory in your basement or a spare room, sprinkled the seeds into the growing medium, and waited for tiny green tendrils to appear.
Germination is the moment that gets hard-core seed starters (and seed savers, those true tightwads who start seeds from their own plants) hooked. Plants I grow from the embryo stage are my babies in a way that seedlings someone else raised are not. I have coneflowers in my garden that wore out their aesthetic welcome long ago, but I can’t trade them for the fancy new ones. They’re like family. They and their offspring go back 10 years in my garden. I can’t just kick them out.
Germination times vary from 24 hours to 12 months. If you want the widest selection and the earliest start, go online and request catalogs, or shop on the Internet (see below). Some of the better-known names in the seed business are Park Seed Company, Burpee, Gurney’s Seed & Nursery Company, Territorial Seed Company, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Seeds of Change, and the U.K.’s Thompson & Morgan. The latter is fun if you want to pretend you garden in England. Thompson & Morgan sells everything, from trendy to traditional, including edible plants.
As you’re online ogling plants, check their maturity dates. This will tell you how early to sow seeds, based on how quickly they develop and how early they can be planted outdoors. Cold-tolerant plants such as pansies and onions can be set out four to six weeks before the average date of the last frost; others must wait until all threat of cold snaps pass (Mother’s Day is traditionally considered safe).
If you’re a beginner, don’t get too caught up in the details of seed starting. It’s possible to take all the fun out of this project by obsessing about how much light or dark a seed needs and from which direction, whether or not you should add humidity to your seed trays by covering them with plastic, and so on. Instead, I suggest concentrating on six rules of thumb:
1) Use soil-less mix. You’ll have no worries about the fungal scourge of seed-starters called “damping off,” which causes new seedlings to turn spindly and topple over. Popular brands such as Sunshine mix and Pro-Mix are peat-based. You can also make your own with compost, perlite, vermiculate, and other similar materials.
2) Concentrate on easy-to-grow seeds. Seeds known to be “hard-starters” aren’t worth the trouble. For me, those include delphinium and Nicotiana sylvestris, which are as small as dust particles.
3) Let there be light. Too much is better than not enough (16 hours daily is ideal).
4) Follow package instructions. Seed companies offer excellent advice on the packet because they want your seeds to germinate as much as you do…maybe more. For example, a few seeds need their hulls scratched and softened in water overnight. The seed packet will explain such idiosyncrasies. Packets will also tell you how to place the seed in soil-less mix, how long you’ll wait for seeds to germinate, approximately when to plant the seedling outside, and maturity dates for vegetables.
5) Go easy on water. Over-watering is worse than under-watering. Again, follow the packet directions!
6) Thin seedlings. They’ll make healthier plants. Plus, you’ll only have room in your garden for about a tenth of all those seeds in the packet, so you’ll have to pluck most of them up out of the tray and toss them into the compost pail. Tweezers help. Your seedlings also need pinching. With your thumb and forefinger, remove the top stem above the first leaves. This makes a bushier plant.
Some seedlings can go directly into the garden once they’ve filled out, but not all. Those that have to work their way up to it will at some point need their own pot.
Ready to head to the hardware store for supplies? Here again, no need to go overboard on fancy equipment. You can rig up your own seed factory more cheaply and efficiently yourself. Those tiny kits are for gullible novices who don’t understand that seed starting is a space-devouring enterprise. I hang plain fluorescent tubes (again, try not to get waylaid by nuances of different colors of light—this is for fanatics) on chains attached to a three-tiered wire shelf. As the seedlings grow, the lights rise—that’s what the chains are for.
I keep the tops of my seedlings about two inches from the tubes and rotate the trays to keep the light even. To enhance light, line seed trays with foil, install mirrors, or place your plant factory in a south-facing window. Cover trays with clear plastic for humidity; if seeds can’t stand any light during germination, put them in a dark place or cover them.
Speaking of novices, I was one once. Using one of my kid’s skateboards, I’d roll my seedling shelf in and out of the sun shining in a south-facing window. It was too cold for them by the window at night. Then, I found out that the best seed starters set up their operations in the basement, out of drafts.
I see that I’ve succeeded in turning a simple project into a daunting one. Just keep in mind the six simple rules, and you’ll be fine.
Seed Shop Online
The web is brimming with seed specialists. Here are a few of my favorites:» Renee’s Garden (www.reneesgarden.com). No-GMO edible plant seeds for the gourmet, plus heirloom and cottage garden flowers.
» Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (www.rareseeds.com). Heirloom vegetables and a few exceptional annuals.
» Seeds of Change (www.seedsofchange.com). Certified organic seeds for fruits and vegetables.
» Johnny’s Selected Seeds (www.johnnysseeds.com). All seeds tested at a certified organic facility. Herbs, vegetables, and flowers—heirlooms, too.
» Seed Source (www.seedsource.com). Native seeds, especially wildflowers and prairie grasses.
» American Meadows (www.americanmeadows.com). Seeds for popular meadow wildflowers.
» Seed Savers Exchange (www.seedssavers.org). Member-owned, nonprofit heirloom-seed-preservation organization that sells heirloom seeds of all types gathered through a worldwide network of seed savers. — B.B.
Bonnie Blodgett publishes The Garden Letter and is writing a book about smell.
11 ISSUES (1 YEAR)
