Seed Starting

One of my favorite times of the year, is seed time! And I literally start counting down the days after the new year, when I get to pull those seed trays out and get busy! I’m in zone 6a, and I start the first week of March. I used to start in February but found that was far too early, given we still get frost early April. I had the pleasure of starting in a green house one year and even mid March was plenty of time to get going with the temperatures in that greenhouse, it worked out just as well. I’ve learned to really dig into the germination and grow time of your seeds so you know exactly when is the right time to start them. For instance, because tomatoes and peppers take the longest to germinate, those are what you would start first. Unless you grow your own annual flowers, those need to go in just before the tomatoes and peppers do. Then move on to perhaps your cole crops, herbs, then squashes and finally beans and peas that only take a few days to germinate and they start producing before you know it!

There are many ways you can start seeds, and many ways to stay less costly! As we already upcycle as much as we can here, what we cant recycle gets saved for further use. Play-doh cups or any kind of plastic or styrofoam cup that can’t be recycled we try to save for seeds. And they’ve actually come in handy over the years not just for planting seeds, but for cuttings when I’m sharing herbs or house plant babies. You can use egg cartons, which would only be good for germination, keep in mind you would need a larger cup once they sprout. I’ve seen people make little cups out of toilet paper rolls, or even newspaper, you can use old plastic juice or soda jugs or bottles, the possibilities are endless. Make sure whatever you use has some kind of drainage and doesn’t hold water.

Soil is of utmost importance not just when starting seeds but throughout the whole life of the plant, you need to educate yourself on and invest in good soil for your garden and for the containers you grow in. They do have seed starting soil, which is important to consider when you start seeds indoors. It’s hard to clean soil from outside once it’s been exposed to the elements and all those tiny microbes, that can actually eat your seeds. If you do not want to invest in seed starter medium, then be sure to literally cook your soil in the oven for a few hours just to kill all those harmful bacteria and soil microbes that can hurt your seeds. You also want a very light fluffy mix, anything heavy will also prevent a healthy germination process. Think back to grade school or scouts when we grew a bean in a wet paper towel inside of a baggie. Same concept here, the bean root had nothing but the paper towel to give it structure. If you have thick clay soil or even muddy dirt, it will stop your seeds from sprouting and having a strong root system.

Be sure to take the time to know where your seeds are coming from. I do not want to discourage any beginner growers, keep up the good work, but for future reference, seed resources are just as important as any other personal connection. You want, and deserve to have the absolute best. Many seed organizations are taking a stand against evil corporations like Monsanto/Bayer and are taking pride in labeling, as well as harvesting and distributing clean, healthy NON GMO, organic seeds. You can always do a quick google search on the brand name of seeds, and most are quite easy to find, and you may be surprised to know privately owned. Many seed companies are generational families still trying to make a living on providing a service to society as seed savers. I fully support all those that I can ordering from many different seed catalogs and companies over years. I have listed a few below that you can reach out to and sign up to receive a free annual catalog in the mail! There is nothing more exciting than when those catalogs start rolling in just after the holidays!!

If you are planning to start seeds inside of the house, be sure to have the correct lights. Lighting is everything when it comes to germination, and you want warmth as well, so if you have plant heating pads I would use them as directed. Your lights need to be as close as possible to the soil or your plants will get ‘leggy’ as they grow and reach for the light. I end up adjusting my grow lights a few times during this process as the plants start to touch the light, I move it up. For the first 2 days I do no light, I rely on complete darkness for the beginning of the germination process. Then do 8 hours of light on until they break the surface and go from 12 hours gradually to about 18 hours of light, for the rest of the time until you move them, and most of that has to do with being indoors. These seedlings haven’t been acclimated to the sun yet, which is very powerful, and so they need at least that many hours indoors under a light to produce enough chlorophyll to stay alive, as you slowly acclimate them to the sun. I always start acclimation in the window, and then move to the porch, and then out in the full sun over about a 2 week period mid march.

The most important part of seed starting that is often overlooked, is seed saving. The seeds must be preserved properly to begin with, and if they’re not many things can go wrong. You likely will not get a decent harvest or any harvest at all regardless of the plant growing, if you didn’t save the seed correctly in the fall. That is another reason you need to rely on a trusted source. Once you have your own seeds and start preserving your own crops and seeds and swapping with others, you’ll always have a supply ready to go come spring and you will not need to invest as much in each year if you learn to rotate your seeds and swap for what you don’t have!

Please keep in mind here at HOTH we have the Cincinnati Seed Library, open to the public for anyone in need of seeds! Our library is an honor program, where you take what you need and leave what you can, and it has provided dozens of local, and even nationwide growers with seeds to get started growing, or to help add to their already established garden. It is open and available year round, all you have to do is email us to set up an appointment time, or I would be more than happy as I often do, to send you the seeds you need through the mail! Our intentions are to share the passion of seed saving with those that are interested in doing what they can for the future of this planet and the future of clean and heirloom seed availability. You can also make a donation if you’d like, as many have, to the seed library from your own homestead and community, to share with others. Even a handful of seeds would help someone who doesn’t have them. You can send one package or several small ‘ready to grab’ packs, many people do many things and I am grateful to each and every one of you for your dedicated seed passion!