Starting Seeds

[homesteadingnky]

Just curious what was the most popular way of starting seeds among BWH members? Last year we started ours on a float bed that we made. Has anyone else done that?

What other ways have you started seeds. I know that there are some first time gardeners on this site and thought this might give them and even us seasoned gardeners some fresh ideas. It is after all, about that time.

Has anyone else started their seed already? When will you and what zone are you in? I'm in Zone 6.

Homesteading Dad 'n KY

[humbug]

I will be starting lettuce, onions, and spinach sometime this week. I use a soil block maker to make blocks and set them in seed startin trays. After they come up I will put them under flourescent lights on a plant starting stand that I made. The soil blocks can be inserted into a larger block as they grow. I feed my transplants with a natural fertilizer.

[homesteadingnky]

Sounds cool. Do you have any problem with damping off?

what zone are you in? Just trying to get a feel for the gardening folks here.

[humbug]

I am in zone 5. I rarely have problems with dampening off. It is really dry here, I live in the high desert. I have always had a garden, and this year I am going to get my feet wet with market gardening.

[homesteadingnky]

Sounds good! I hope it goes well for you. Keep us posted.

Homesteading Dad n KY

[CountryKitty]

Another Kentuckian in zone 6 chiming in. :)

I set up a cheap metal shelving unit in front of a big window.

For pots I use a couple dozen plastic ice cube trays (they were 4/$1 at the Dollar Store) with holes burned in the bottoms (using pliers, a nail, and the gas stove while dinner was cooking).

I fill them with soil, and plant seeds--one seed per cell for large plants such as tomatoes, peppers, etc. 2 each for things like basil that set way more seed than any human could ever use in a lifetime. 5-10 seeds per cell for chives.

The trays go in those rubbermaid under-the-bed containers--handy for more than catching drainage! If the seeds require darkness to germinate--under the bed they go. Humidity--slap the lid on. Warmth--top of the fridge. Light--on the shelf in front of the window. Cat likes to sleep on seedlings--put the lid on it--or tape chopsticks or small branches across the corners and set the lid on those to keep it cracked for ventilation.

Put buckets under the gutters to catch rain water for watering the seedlings--fill your watering can each evening from the bucket and bring it indoors to warm overnight so as not to shock the seedlings (tap water conatins not only chloride which can evaporate overnight but also flouride which does NOT). I keep a kiddie pool under my eaves as watering hole for the chickens--my two ducks like to athe and preen it it regulary, adding a bit of...ahem...fertilizer...at the same time.

Once the weather warms up during the day, I transfer rubbermaid trays to an area of morning sun/afternoon shade. In the evening they come back in. The rubbermaids mean I only have to make 3-4 trips to get all my seedlings in or out, and little risk of spillage...plus the sides being 4-6" high they protect the small seedlings against an unexpected breeze.

AS the seedlings get bigger I transplant them to yourt cups, soda bottle halves, old tumblers that got cracked, you name it--all with holes in the bottom. These go back in the rubbermaid trays. The trays hole 6 ice cube trays with rooom left over, and germination rates are never 100%. Out of the 6 ice cube trays (14 cells each/84 cells total) per underbed container, I may wind up with 60 plants give or take. These all fit back tin the same container fairly well.

Once I'm done with indoor seed starting for the year, the supplies all get tucked into a couple of the rubbermaid containers and go into the shed. ONe or two might get cleaned out and used to store winter hats, scarves, gloves and boots til next winter.

For large seeds like Pawpaw, I have used a plastic gallon ice cream bucket to accomodate the long tap roots, and transplant when the root is still under 6" (just 2-3 sets of true leaves).

I start all my own tomatoes and peppers this way, plus some herbs as well as pawpaw and wild persimmon seed.

[homesteadingnky]

Sounds like you've got it figured out. I like your system. I'm sure everyone has there own but if it works, that's all that matters.

Do you start the pawpaw and persimmon seeds from seeds that you saved? Do you have any that you started this way that are producing fruit yet? I didn't know if they grow better from seed or from a cutting.

[CountryKitty]

I got my pawpaw seed from a wildflower catalog from a company out of MO (couldn't find a local tree to raid for seeds native to the area--I later learned that there are some a mile or so away in a back pasture). 18 of the 22 seeds sprouted and 15 of those were still growing strong as of Fall.

The persimmon seeds I gathered from beneath a wild tree in the neighbors pasture last winter. The cows had already eaten the fruit and pooped out the seeds--some hard-coated seeds are specifically intended to be nicked by the teeth of animals, or 'scarified' (the hard outer coat worn down) by their digestive tract, then dropped on the ground with plenty of fertilizer. Since the first seeds I had tried didn't sprout, I figured the 'natural' route was the way to go. I also put them in a bag of forest dirt in the bottom of the fridge to simulate a more evenly cold winter than the one we were having. Sprouted about 20 and transferred them to the woods edge.

Mine are still too small to bear fruit for a while yet. Don't know how difficult they would be to start from cuttings, tho' that is something that I ought to explore as they grow. The Pawpaws are for mostly for me and the persimmons are partly for me and partly for the wildlife they draw (Deer and wild Turkeys seem to like them quite a bit). I also needed to reforest the creek's edge where Japanese honeysuckle had strangled the trees so badly they were mostly dying back. I also transplant all mulberry seedlings I find in the yard to over there to keep the wildlife from being too tempted by my garden and berry bushes! Some suckers from native plum bushes (from a catalog as well) will also be going into
eroded areas where they can take over to their heart's content--they will become a thicket in very short order.

[homesteadingnky]

Has anyone else started seeds on a float bed?

Homesteading Dad n KY

[Deberosa]

I got a free waterbed matress and heater out in the barn this year and was going to put it together but I think other projects are pushing it to the side - how did you make your float bed?

[homesteadingnky]

We (my brother in law and I - we raised a garden together last yr.) made a frame by standing 4 2x8s up on their edge and nailing them together (making a square that was approximately (don't remember exactly) 8' long and 8' wide.

Then we took "black" plastic and lined the inside of it and brought it over the 2x8s and stapled it to the outside bottom of 2x8s. You can either drill holes in the top edge of the 2x8 large enough for a 3/4" to a 1" piece of pvc pipe to go into it or you can install a metal clamp to secure the pipe. You put the pvc in one side and stretch it over the float bed to the other side and push it into a hole in the opposite 2x8. On an 8x8 float bed 3 pieces of pvc are sufficient to stretch across. You then stretch a clear plastic over the pvc frame (it will look like a hoop house or mini green house). Fill it with water and when the water temp is warm enough you put your styrofoam float trays (already seeded of course) on and close it up tightly.

After they begin to germinate you have to pay close attention to the temps so that you don't cook them or allow to much condensation to occur during the day if the temp is going to bottom out during the night or you'll find as we did that the ice that forms on your tomatoes and peppers is counter productive. LOL!

When the weather warms enough you can replace the clear plastic with a white tobacco canvas. The float bed worked great for us last year. I intend to try it again this year. We use to raise tobacco and would start our seeds in a heated green house and then move them to a covered float bed as we begin to fill the green house up and need room. If you need heat in the float bed you can always install a heat lamp of even just a regular light bulb would probably be enough for a small one. Wish we had done that last year.

If I can find the pitures of it I'll try to post a few. It may be a few days though.

Homesteading Dad n KY

[Deberosa]

Fascinating - so my waterbed would probably work the same way - might not even need the heater on it.

That's exactly the setup I was thinking for this waterbed.

Thanks for describing it.

Debbie

[AlchemyAcres]

We (my brother in law and I - we raised a garden together last yr.) made a frame by standing 4 2x8s up on their edge and nailing them together (making a square that was approximately (don't remember exactly) 8' long and 8' wide.

Then we took "black" plastic and lined the inside of it and brought it over the 2x8s and stapled it to the outside bottom of 2x8s. You can either drill holes in the top edge of the 2x8 large enough for a 3/4" to a 1" piece of pvc pipe to go into it or you can install a metal clamp to secure the pipe. You put the pvc in one side and stretch it over the float bed to the other side and push it into a hole in the opposite 2x8. On an 8x8 float bed 3 pieces of pvc are sufficient to stretch across. You then stretch a clear plastic over the pvc frame (it will look like a hoop house or mini green house). Fill it with water and when the water temp is warm enough you put your styrofoam float trays (already seeded of course) on and close it up tightly.

After they begin to germinate you have to pay close attention to the temps so that you don't cook them or allow to much condensation to occur during the day if the temp is going to bottom out during the night or you'll find as we did that the ice that forms on your tomatoes and peppers is counter productive. LOL!

When the weather warms enough you can replace the clear plastic with a white tobacco canvas. The float bed worked great for us last year. I intend to try it again this year. We use to raise tobacco and would start our seeds in a heated green house and then move them to a covered float bed as we begin to fill the green house up and need room. If you need heat in the float bed you can always install a heat lamp of even just a regular light bulb would probably be enough for a small one. Wish we had done that last year.

If I can find the pitures of it I'll try to post a few. It may be a few days though.

Homesteading Dad n KY

So kinda like a hotbed, but with solar heated water?
Am I understanding this correctly?

~Martin

[homesteadingnky]

Yes. It's similar. The water with the black plastic under it allows the sun to heat the water very well and releases that heat at night. The float trays are designed so that the plants are watered from the bottom perfectly and the root system they develop is incredible. It really gives the plants a head start. I even mixed up a manure tea (thanks to my rabbits) and added it to the water and it really seemed to boost the plant growth.

Homesteading Dad n KY