Seed starting spinach HOWTO

By geekgardener, on September 17th, 2008%

Spinach was in my list since quite sometime so I wanted to start spinach as the first thing after i came back.

I picked up some seeds from Lalbagh and was all set to start. This time I wanted to try the soil mix recommended by Mel Bartholomew of Square foot gardening fame. Its called “Mel’s Mix” .

  • Mel’s mix:

1/3 of Vermiculite

1/3 of Coir pith.

1/3 of Compost.

I didn’t have home made compost with me so I bought a bag of compost from lalbagh.

I mixed all the three thoroughly and filled the containers with them. I used the old Fruit juice containers like Tropicana. The head of the containers are cut and i use the bottom 3/4th.

The spinach seeds look like this. They are large enough to handle them individually.

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I sowed them two per hole and two such holes per container.

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The spinach seeds were sown half inch deep and covered with fine vermiculite. It took 5-6 days for the first sprout to show up and them all of them eventually started.

After 10 days, they look like this

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I plan to keep these seedlings in the same containers. I came to know that spinach resent transplant so I am not going to do that.

I am planning to start bell peppers and tomatoes in the coming days.

gg

2 comments   gardening, medium, seedstarting   , , , , , , ,  

Propagating Coleus from Cuttings – HOWTO

By geekgardener, on March 6th, 2008%

I have been taking cuttings from coleus several times and Here in this HOWTO I am going to explain how easy this process is and how to multiply the coleus plant you have in following steps with pictures. I hope you enjoy.

Requisite:

  • Coleus stem tip cuttings [ Approx 4 inches in length]
  • Potting mix.
  • Root promoting hormone. [IBA]
  • Containers
  • Polythene bags
  • A razor blade

Step 1: Collect coleus cuttings.

The first step is to go around the garden and find out what plants you want to take cuttings from. Those plants must be healthy and disease free. Once you have spotted a plant, then using a razor blade take the cuttings from the stem tip such that the cuttings are approx 4 inches long. If you have many varieties of coleus then you will end up with something like the pictures below.

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Once you cut the stems, put them in a glass of water like above till they are inserted into the propagation medium. This helps them to remain fresh and they wont droop.

Step 2: Prepare the cuttings.

For all the cuttings you have taken, make sure that you remove the leaves that arise from the bottom most node( Place where the leaf is attached to the stem). Once you have removed all the leaves on the last node, make a cut just a centimetre below the node. If you do it just right, you will have your cuttings look like this.

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Step 3: Prepare the medium

The best medium I have found to give good results is a mixture of Coir dust, Sand, perlite in equal proportions. Any other well drained medium should also be fine. Ensure that the medium is free from any fungal infection. Make the medium moist but not so soggy wet. Let the medium drain.

Mixture

Step 4: Stick’em in.

Now, take cutting by cuttings, and dip them in the rooting hormone ( this speeds up rooting a little bit). I have a solution called “Quicroot”. Any other standard rooting solution should be fine as well. Using your dibber, make a hole in the medim so that the bottom most node of the cutting is totally inside and its deep enough to not let the stem cutting fall off. Stick the stem cutting in to that hole and gently press the surrounding medium.

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Step 5: Make a mini greenhouse

Once the cuttings are inserted into the medium, prepare a mini green house to keep the cuttings fresh and to not lose moisture. I took a window planter and kept all my cuttings inside that and covered the whole thing with a polythene bag. The end result was something like this. If you have a green house or a propagating chamber thats cool too.

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Tada! and you wait for 2-3 weeks. The end result is colony of coleus plants for your viewing pleasure.

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