Tips On How To Make Your Gardening Seeds Really Fruitful
The premise for starting a garden remains fundamentally the same. You get some gardening seeds, you plant them, you water them, you weed them and you let the plants grow on their own. If you are thinking that this sounds too suspiciously simple, then you may be right. Although there are some plants that need minimal care, there are ways wherein you can improve the seeds’ growing environment. And in so doing, you can also improve the plants’ development as well. Here are some tips.
1. It all starts with the health of the soil. The best type of soil is the one that is loosely compacted, moist and dark chocolate brown in color. Try to prepare the soil before you plant any seeds. Turn the soil using a shovel or spade, digging to about a 1½ feet deep. Remove any weeds or roots or pebbles that might appear, and keep turning the soil. If you want to use fertilizers (organic would be best), mix this in the turned soil 2 to 3 days before you plant the seeds. Water the soil to a consistency that is moist to the touch, but not dripping wet.
2. If you bought a packed envelope of seeds, make sure that you follow the directions on its label carefully. There are usually recommendations as to the amount of light that the plant should get, and its estimated “growing time.” If you bought gardening seeds from someone else, ask the vendors what the optimum conditions are for the plant to grow. Try to list these down and perform the recommendations faithfully.
3. One test for making sure that the seeds you plant will fruit is to simply soak them tap in water for 5 to 10 minutes. If the seeds float, it is very likely that these no longer contain the materials necessary for new life. You can throw these out. The ones that sink to the bottom of the container are the ones heavy enough to contain the budding plant matters.
I did a little experiment this year with my seeds. I had about 10 bags of seeds that were unopened and had moved with me each time I moved. Now that I’m in my own house I decided I’d try to finally plant them. The seeds were from 2005! I bought a peat pot starter, a plastic starter that you add soil to, and a regular old trough like container. Also, I used a fish tank method in which you take a piece of plexiglass cut small enough to stand inside the fish tank, drill pinholes in rows and columns, take poster board and make corresponding holes, place seeds on holes in poster board, cover with 2-ply toilet paper and wet. Then you put the poster board backed with the plexiglass for support (no glue, just stand back to back) on a holder in a fish tank. Put about an inch of water into the tank and turn the light (100 watt bulb) on 24/7 and wait.
The results? In the two seed starters with lids that are supposed to act like mini green houses, nothing grew! In the plain old trough container (that I kinda forgot about and just assumed it was weeds growing…) I have dill and radishes but no flowers. In the fish tank, I planted over 300 seeds on Wednesday and by Saturday I had sprouts! I planted many varieties of seeds ranging from pumpkin, squash, and zucchini, to cabbage, lettuce, and carrots. I also put in some herbs and things, but the point is, I have sprouts on everything! I guess this worked because the amount of water, temperature, and light remained constant, plus there was no soil to push through, but it worked great. I couldn’t believe that such old seeds could sprout at all let alone all of them would. Now the only question is: How am I going to eat 60 romaine lettuce and 20 cabbage among everything else?!