Potting Mix | Geekgardener's Weblog

So you want to start a kitchen garden – Part II – Seed starting

By geekgardener, on December 15th, 2009%

This post is a continuation of Part I. This post focuses on seed germination popularly known as seed starting. Seed germination is the process of sprouting of a seed and beginning of growth. A seed germinates when the environment around is conducive this includes temperature, light levels etc.. When the environment is not favorable for the seed to sprout, it simply waits. This waiting period is called period of Dormancy.

As gardeners, our job is to gently wake up the seed and remind it of its job!. Sounds like a piece of cake? You’ll see!.

You might be reading this because, you may want to sow some seeds and wanted some info or you have already sowed them and can’t wait to see them sprouting. In any case, you will not be disappointed, read on.

Before jumping into seed starting for a kitchen garden,, one need to decide a) What are we going to sow and where? b) Is it the right time of the year for that vegetable c) Will the vegetable grow where you live?. This might involve some googling or watch this blog. First week of every month I will be posting what can be sown that month.

Once you have decided the vegetable you can go ahead and start your seeds.

For seed starting, you need the following.

Requirements

Seed starting mix
Seed starting tray/flat or a pot.
Seed labels ( optional if you have super memory)
Seeds
A polythene wrap and a rubber band.
A Marker.

Seed starting mix:

This can be soil based or soilless. To make a soilless mix, you can simply use

plain coco peat, Or plain perlite or plain vermiculite
Mixture of perlite and coco peat. and vermiculite Or
Fine topsoil free from fungus or any insects.
Sand. Or
Tissue paper ( Surprised?)

Procedure

Pre-germination:

Take the seed starting medium which could be any of the ones listed above in your seed starting tray or pot.
Ensure, the tray has very good drainage and is free from any insect eggs or fungus.
Make the seed starting medium moist. It should not be very wet but just enough moisture. When you squeeze the medium in your palm, the clump that forms should stay in tact when you open your hand. If it is little more moist, don’t worry, just make sure the container has good drainage.
Now, fill your tray with medium till an inch from the top brim. The depth of the tray must be atleast 2 inches. It helps if it is deeper the roots dont get pot bound.
Gently compact the surface to make sure it is flat.

It should look something like this. This tray you see is 10” X 9” X 4”. I found this in a plastic recycle shop. Works like a charm.

Now it is time to sow the seeds. Here you need to see one more thing. How it has to be sown? Few seeds need light to germinate and few needs to be covered ( darkness to germinate). Oh My god.. I don’t know if it needs light or not ? now what do i do? No worries. Just point your browser to this beautiful website. In this site, you get all the information necessary for seed starting a vegetable. Happy?
You have the seed starting tray filled with media ready. You can either make furrows and place the seeds in the furrows and cover them with soil or just place the seeds on the surface and just press them a little deeper with dibber or your little finger.. Make sure the seed doesnt stick with your finger and comes back to you when you lift it. . It should look like below. A depth of 0.5 cm is just fine for tomatoes and its relatives like chilly, eggplant, pepper etc.
Once the sowing is complete, simply cover the surface with a polythene cover and keep it in a bright location but away from direct sunlight. A balcony would be fine. Watering is not necessary till germination happens. The cover will hold the moisture in.
Keep checking the tray for signs of germination. A small hook will show up first and then the cotyledons. When you see a sprout, remove the cover off the tray and keep the tray in a place where it gets good light. IMPORTANT: Any delay in keep them in a well lit place during this phase of its growth will cause seedlings to become tall, thin and spindly. They won’t make good yielders.

Here is a food parcel container hosting a few pepper seeds.

NOTE:I am posting pics of different veggie seedlings so that you get a general idea.

Post-germination:

Now the seedlings are germinated, you are excited. But hang on, the game is not over yet. In fact it is the beginning
As said above, keep them in a place that receives good sunlight. Gradually expose them to direct sunlight starting from few minutes the first day and then increasing day by day.
Do not let the media go dry. Any stress and this point of its growth is irrecoverable. The idea is to keep the media moist all the time. So dont let it dry and dont overwater either.
Water them with a half strength fertilizer. If organic, use compost tea otherwise use any complete water soluble fertilizer.(Use as per directions on the fertilizer label).
Keep the environment where the seedlings are kept, dry and airy. If not fungus might develop causing damp-off which can be very frustrating.

Here is how the seedlings look once they germinate.

Here is a pot that contains cabbage seedlings that just germinated.

You can also grow seedlings in cups like this.

The picture you see below is that of Okra( Ladies Finger). The top 4 of them are healthy seedlings and the bottom 2 are affected by Damping-off. You can see the weakened point in the stem that simply gives in. Damping off is caused by a fungus.

Damping off ( Close up):

Damping off can be prevented in many different ways, including germination in dryer conditions with better air circulation, starting seedlings in sterilized soil, and/or using a fungicide for this purpose, either a commercial one or a homemade solution, such as one made garlic.

Trichoderma is a beneficial fungi and is used as a bio fungicide. It is used for seed and soil treatment for suppression of various diseases caused by fungus

Transplanting:

Transplanting is when you move the seedling into its more permanent place for it to grow and produce yield. The target place can be a container or on the ground directly. Here we will focus on container only.

Select a container that is large enough to grow the transplant you are planting. Typically tomatoes, eggplant need 20L containers. Cabbage and chilly can do with 10L approx.
Take a container that has good drainage.
Choose a soil mix that has good amount of organic matter and rich in nutrients. Add a handful of bonemeal to the potting mix when you transplant.
Few plants can be planted more deeper ( burying a part of stem) and some have to be transplanted with their crown ( place where its stem connects with soil) at the soil surface.
Plant the transplant in the container and slightly compact the soil so that the plant anchors well.
Always transplant either early in the morning or in the evening.
Do NOT keep the container in direct full sunlight immediately after the transplant.
Water them with plain water after you are done with transplanting.

A typical plant ready for transplant will look like below.

seedlings ready for transplant. ( Actually. Late by a week).

Cabbage transplants

If you are growing in cell trays then your transplants might look like the ones below. A Capsicum transplant.

Brinjal Transplant

These pictures are to help you identify the stage at which a plant can be transplanted.

While I tried my level best to include much of the information related to seed starting, I might have missed something important that needs to coverage.

As always I welcome comments/suggestions.

Happy seed starting!

Transplanting Seedlings – Cabbage

By geekgardener, on October 12th, 2009%

I get this a lot. “Why only tomatoes?”. Mostly my Mom and Wife. Ok Seriously, why only tomatoes? My answer is.. a) tomatoes are forgiving. b) tomatoes are needed daily c) they yield forever!. Don’t they?

Lets say I grow onions, It takes pretty long time to be ready for harvest and guess what? 3-4 months of growth gives me an onion or two per pot and that is used up in a day!. That I feel is less productive. I would have done two different veggies in that time. For a guy, who is so particular about his container real estate, it matters a LOT. So, I kind of stick with Toms, Peppers, Chillies and quick growing/yielding varieties.

Anyway, I wasn’t interested in cabbages either, until I came across a variety that yields quicker in 2 months. Guess what happened. Seeds sown in small pots the very next day!

In this post, I present to you the variety called “Earliana”.

“57 days. Brassica oleracea. Plant produces small 2 lb round cabbage. This variety takes less time to mature than other varieties. It will cut your growing time in half! Suitable for home gardens” says a description on one of the seed selling sites.

Cabbages are transplanted or can be sown directly too. I had sown them in small trays and after I saw two true leaves. I transplanted them to small pots. In the small pots, shown below, the transplants spent a good 1 month. The leaves show, don’t they?

Step 1: Get the transplants ready.

MyGarden 720

Step 2: Choose a container.

Creativity is your limit in choosing a container. But again, choosing old shoes and egg shells are unrealistic. Choose a container that is 12″ wide and 12″ deep. I simply choose the dustbin buckets like the one pictured below. It holds approx 8Litres of medium. The blue protruding thing you see is for the drainage. Thats is generally called as “Tank Joint” and in bangalore you have to ask “Tank nipple”. ( Dont get me started on that name). The one I use is 3/4th of an inch and is an inch from the bottom. Why so much fuzz… whats wrong with a simply poke-few-holes-in-the-bottm technique? If you are using a terrace or balcony you will know. The drainage water when it comes through the side, it is more controllable. I can connect all the outlets of all the buckets and let it into one drum saves water. Also, since the drain hole is 1inch from the bottom, it always stores some amount of water inside which prevents the plant from wilting off in hot weather.

MyGarden 721

Step 3: Get the soil mix ready.

By soil mix I meant the potting mix. It can be a potting mix that you made yourself, or purchased from outside. The picture shown here is a 50-50 mix of Coco peat ( Coir Pith) and Compost.

MyGarden 722

Step 4: Carefully remove the seedling from the pot.

This step is very important. The whole point is to remove the plant from its pot without any disturbance to its roots. If your medium is coco peat based then the plant will come very easily. You keep your hand in such a way that the plant stem is in between your fingers and your palm holds the top soil. This prevents the plant stem from breaking and the media from falling off.

MyGarden 724 MyGarden 725

You can see the pot full of roots but they are not pot bound so no worries.

MyGarden 731

Now gently turn the plant while holding the root mass with your hands.

Step 5: Place the plant and add more potting mix

Fill 3/4 of the container with potting mix and keep the seedling on top and gently add potting mix to the sides and with care, compact the top at the same time not damaging the plants roots.

MyGarden 727

Thats it! the transplanting is over. Its time to water them and keep them in a place where there is no direct sunlight. Once they are hardened they will be kept where it receives atleast 6 hours of sunlight.

I transplanted 3 seedlings. Here they are.

MyGarden 733

Though this post is titled “Transplant cabbage”. This applies to most of the seedlings.

Enjoy!.

Geekgardener's Weblog