Hit the Dirt; Starting Seeds

Good morning. This is out across Novy at ski and I'm your host today for hit the dirt. It's the middle of March and a good time to start some vegetables and flowers from seed that you don't even have your seeds yet but it's not too late to order from catalogues and I've noticed a lot of stores have their seeds now. If you have some of your own left from last year or even two three years back don't throw them away if they've been kept in a cool dark dry place. They may still be good. It's better to say something's fresh like onions and possibly some perennials too as it is delphinium in Galatia and annuals like Marigold should be from last year's flowers. But Caesar the cabbage family and lettuce can be good for five years. Also spend it in celery beets squash and tomatoes may be good for four years beans with three and corn for two. This may not be the last word in figures. A lot depends on how you stored your seeds so you might want to test the germination rate yourself. There are various ways of doing this one is to put 10 or 20 seeds of one type between damp paper towels or blotting paper and keep them crossed that name oysters around 68 degrees. Check them every now and then and see if they've

started to grow root. If you have several types of seeds mark the paper towels and squares and label each. If you have children old enough to handle small seeds this would be a good project to teach them not only teach them about spreading seeds but also about percentages. Even small children can handle peas and beans. Give them sees that germinate fairly quickly spin a drought issues or peas would be good but prostate or cucumbers might be try their patience and yours too. Vegetable seeds are the best for kids experiments because you know they're not poisonous. Before you start sawing you should gather your equipment containers don't have to be very deep two to three inches and a half transparent mushroom boxes with their tops are like mini greenhouses flower pots Wooden a plastic seeds milk cartons. Avoid egg cartons because they dry out easily. Plastic bags in newspapers for covering the containers labels marking pen or pencil. And if you want to keep records a notebook. You'll see it starting so I should be free from weed seeds disease and fungus loose to allow for my

shareholding and non crusting potting soil top with half an inch of a Mickey diet is one mix another is equal parts perlite milled swagman from AQI. If you can get it melds fact known as a good medium to use because it's large cells can absorb 20 times their weight in water and it contains an added biotic that helps prevent damping off. Fill your containers with moistened medium lightly and you're ready to go. I like to think of a seed as a small miracle. A tiny living package that has a good food supply to put it through germination and all the genetic information to become a plant like his parents. And what do we do when we plant seeds. We supply them with the ideal environment for germination moisture air and warmth. You can sprinkle your seeds on the surface so live in a shallow far ozone drills or place them one by one just when you want them. Most seeds need to be covered. A rule of thumb is to cover the seeds to a depth of three times the size of very fine seed petunias for instance can just be pressed into the soil and one way of dealing with those very

fine seeds is to put them in a salt shaker a pepper shaker and sprinkle them in another one is to mix them with sand and also put them in a shaker and sprinkle them examples of seeds that should not be covered snapdragons and alyssum. Once the seeds of the container can be put in a plastic bag covered with newspapers and kept in a warm place out of direct sun for optimum temperatures check your seed package is a good catalog or reference check every 2 days or so for germination as soon as that takes place remove the covering so that air can circulate and there's less chance of damping off or can you start right now on Ian's leaks and Prost there on my list too right now. And by the end of the month I'll stop peppers celery ancillary and you could start some perennials now but that list is really too long to talk about now. You'll seed catalogs and packages are wonderful sources for information and I highly recommend the new seed starters Handbook by Ned C. Bua bell. Watching those seeds grow is watching lifes

renewal. This is present for hit the dirt.