The itch is back-the need to scratch in some form of dirt. Even if the first tomato crop is six months away, the dreams of a full, productive vegetable garden are pushing many of us toward getting started.
”People are so anxious to start gardening they jump the gun,” says Susan Grupp, University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service adviser for Du Page County. ”They start too soon and the plants become stretched and leggy by the time the garden is ready.”
But eager gardeners can get started now, by reaching for the closest seed packet. And, by starting your vegetables from seeds, you`ll not only save money, but you`ll be able to plant the spring vegetable patch at the first break in the weather.
In many homes, like mine, this means digging out all those old plastic flats and pots and spending an evening in dirty water washing them and rinsing them in a weak bleach solution to kill disease organisms from last summer.
Then comes the rearrangement of the three-tier light stand. I move a 2-by-4-foot tray filled with seedlings under the top set of fluorescent fixtures. This tray sits on top of another fixture, which allows the warmth of the ballasts in the fixture below to keep the soil mixture warm. The seedling tray is lined with a plastic moisture barrier and a felt wicking cloth. By keeping the felt moist below the seedling trays, humidity is raised to the seedlings.
Shopping around
Next comes a trip to the garden center for potting mix. Most places will offer a specific seedling mix containing a wetting agent and enough fertilizer to nurture the young plants. A more cost-conscious decision is to buy an all purpose, peat-based potting mix that will be sterile and contain enough amendments to keep it light and allow air to get to roots. Regular potting soil or garden soil are too dense and potentially disease-carrying to start seeds.
Don`t expect to stop at buying the potting mix, however. Several other gardening items and packages of seeds are likely to leap magically off the shelves and into your basket on the way through the store.
Remember, though, that the seed selection at garden centers is far more limited than what is available by mail order. That`s why serious gardeners send off orders religiously to the Parks and Burpees and Cook`s Gardens of the seed world.
Back home, combine the peat mix with warm water in a bucket, then shovel it across the indentations of the seedling flats. Pour the seeds carefully into the palm of your hand and distribute them by pinches where they should go, push them slightly under the soil and firmly in. It`s best to place two seeds in each tray compartment to guard against germination failure. Then cover the tray with what`s on hand-glass, plastic wrap or a plastic dome lid- to keep the moisture from evaporating.
Bring on the heat
Doc and Katy Abraham have been through this routine for 40 years as authors, commercial greenhouse proprietors and serious gardeners. As they emphasize in their book ”Growing Plants from Seeds” (Lyons and Burford, $13.95), seeds need a fairly specific temperature of 72 degrees 24 hours a day until they germinate. If you run a fluorescent fixture 14 to 16 hours a day over the trays, that means another heat source will be needed during the night.
”It`s very important; you have to do that,” says Katy. ”You can buy a heating cable at the garden store and they are inexpensive. They come in different lengths and automatically keep the bottom of your plants at 70 to 72 degrees.” If you`re thoroughly low-tech, you may instead want to try an old- fashioned heating pad that aids backaches the rest of the year. They work for seedlings as well.
Once the plants have germinated, you need to remove the glass or plastic coverings. Growing temperatures can then be lowered into the 60s for most vegetables.
South windows can provide enough light to grow seedlings as long as there are a fair number of sunny days and you remember to rotate the seedlings each day or two. But you can gain more control by growing them under fluorescent fixtures.
On my light stand, the first crop moves to the middle level once germination has taken place. Those seedlings then need cooler temperatures and the next generation of seeds can be started in the warmer top tray. Many of the spring crops (see chart) especially need cooler temperatures to keep from growing too spindly.
Also remember that if good germination has occurred and there are too many seedlings per pot, you need to pinch or cut off the extras to keep from disturbing the roots of the strongest seedling.
Careful watering
Watering must be monitored closely, too. I`m prone to allow the small growing cells to dry out, but Grupp says the most common problem the Cooperative Extension Service encounters is overwatering. ”If it`s too moist, a water mold forms and the plants that are healthy one day fall over the next,” says Grupp. ”It helps to use sectioned trays to keep the disease from spreading through the whole tray.”
Water should be delivered more as a mist than as a flood to keep from washing away the tender seeds. The Abrahams stress that water from a tap can be close to 32 degrees, cold enough to shock new transplants.
A nearby teakettle can be used to adjust temperatures or a small plastic watering can will fit in a microwave oven, where a 30-second burst usually brings the water to the tepid range the plants need. In addition, a weekly fertilizing with a diluted solution helps roots thrive.
The Abrahams say air circulation is also a must, and they recommend a small fan be installed near the growing area but not aimed at the plants. Lacking that, the plant trays should be shaken daily to encourage strong stem growth.
Some plants such as tomatoes or peppers that will be inside a long time before warm weather arrives need to be moved up to larger pots when they get to a certain stage. A three- to four-inch pot will grow handsome plants by the end of May.
Easing `em out
Once the seedlings are well on their own and it is almost time to plant them in the garden, they will have to be prepared for the vagaries of our springs. In a process known as hardening off, you must take the plants outside and give them increasing doses of the outdoors` stronger light and wider swings in temperatures for a week or two before planting them in the open garden.
In my back yard, this means setting them in a cold frame with a plastic top like a mini-greenhouse. In the mornings, I remove the ends to provide ventilation; in the evenings, I put the end flaps back to keep heat inside. I place an old bedspread on top if the temperature threatens to go too low. You can also use heating cables under the trays.
What you`ll want to see when you tap the plants out for planting is a mass of white roots all the way to the bottom of the pot. That`s the true test of whether you`ve arrived as a seed starter. Now all you have to do is nurse them through the summer with all those new challenges.
