Talking Green: Planting the seeds-photos

Hello again
Today I would like to go a little more in depth on how to plant the seeds. At least how I find it works best. Something I forgot to mention in earlier posts is that it is important to plan out what seeds you are planting and write it down so you know which seeds are which. What I like to do is make a table on the computer that represents the tray and then mark down exactly what I plan to plant where. You can use markers in the tray of seeds but sometimes they fall out or are too tall so it becomes difficult to place the plastic cover over top. I like to have a written record where I can record when I plant, what I plant, when it comes up, how many come up and when I transplant. I do this so I can look back on it the next year and know what seeds came up good and how long it took for them to sprout and it helps me to plan how to plant the coming year. You do not have to record all of this to grow good plants but it does help keep you organized. Here is a photo of one of my tables. I have all the cells marked as well so it is easier to keep track of stuff. :)

Now on to filling the trays with dirt. First you should moistin the dirt a bit so that it isn't completely dry. Sometimes potting soil is already moist and if that is the case you do not have to add more water. After the dirt is moistened, you should put the dirt in the trays. I find the easiest way to do this is to first fill all the holes up and take something with a straight edge and level it off so it looks like this.

After you have the tray filled and leveled off, you need to press the dirt down slightly so it is slightly packed. I push just a little bit so it isn't packed too hard because then it won't drain. I find that with most potting soils, when it is pushed down it is still about 3/4 full. It should look something like this. On the left side I have pushed down the dirt and on the right side it still hasn't been pushed down.

After you have pushed the dirt down, it is a good idea to add some more water before placing the seeds in the dirt. You can use the spray bottle or a watering can since there are no seeds in the tray yet. Next you can put the seeds in the dirt. When doing this, make sure to refer to your chart or your markers to make sure you put the right seeds in the right spot. For larger seeds like 4 O'clocks, you can just drop them on to the dirt like this. (I usually put two per cell)

Next you cover up the seeds that need to be covered and spray the dirt some more with the spray bottle and you are good to go! Then comes the waiting for the seeds to come up which is tough for me-I am rather impatient. lol I want to see if stuff is growing or not and if I give in then I end up disturbing the seeds and causing problems. When covering the seeds, the rule of thumb I go by is to add enough dirt to be about the same depth as the width of the seed. This also means that you only need a sprinkle of dirt on top of the teeny tiny seeds. On most packages it states 1/8inch for the really little seeds. In my next post I will show some photos of the different seeds I have planted to show the different sizes. :) Happy Gardening!