Seed Starting Round 2

I tried the cornstarch gel and paper towels which successfully sprouted radishes, scallions, and some of the lettuce & broccoli seeds but I had little success with my Walla Walla and Red Onions. I also had no success with Carrots or Spinach. For the sprouts that were successful, I put them straight into the garden (which is under plastic). Of the pre-sprouted seeds I put out from the previous try, the peas are doing the best. Most of them have come up and are about 2 inches tall and looking healthy. The others have been very slow. Part of the problem is probably that the top layer of my garden is currently more like mulch than soil. I plunked the paper towels into the mulch layer to see what they'd do. It's been over a week, but I am starting to see a couple of them poking out. I dug around in there a bit the other day. Some of the seeds look the same as when I put them in, some looked like they dried out and I couldn't find a couple of them (I didn't dig them all out, I was just curious as to what was going on out there). We'll see what the rest do. In the meantime, I'm trying another method which seems to be going better.


I used the same clear plastic egg cartons but I used Organic Starting Soil in them this time. When I filled them, I pressed the soil in pretty firmly so it would pop out intact like a little tiny soil block. I re-sowed both types of onion, the carrots, a few spinach, lettuce & broccoli to fill in for those that didn't sprout. I started these last Thursday, so it's been just under a week. I put them back on the cable box again. Those little soil plugs actually get quite warm on there. I had a couple lettuce sprouts by Saturday! With this method though, you have to be able to take out the sprouts as soon as they appear. One appeared late Friday but I left it until Saturday. It was about an inch tall and looking for some light. I also propped the lids open a bit with a toothpick as the lack of circulation did cause the loss of a couple of the little guys. I'm guessing it was the dreaded Damping Off.

The onions have done much much better this way. I planted out about 14 of them today (in about 40 degree, windy weather to boot...).
Just a little push on the bottom of the egg carton and the little soil plug just pops right. I did have one come out accidentally today but it stayed together well enough to pop back in. When I planted these, I used some pretty well finished compost (from one of the beds I layered in the fall) that was more of a soil-like consistency to use around the little plugs. I think they'll fare a little better that way. I also direct-seeded carrot seeds (in the same compost) and covered them with a square bucket lid (substitute for a board).

I started a few tomato seeds in a few of the empty plugs last night. When these sprout, I'll move them to larger containers and I'll put them under lights to grow.

We had such nice warm weather for a few days, then it got cold again. I really can't complain since it is only March, and the weather forecast looks nice for next week (I'm not sure, but I THINK I saw 77 on the weather chart one day next week???) With the nighttime temps back into the mid-teens, I put the original sheet of plastic over the "new & improved (and uhm, more ventilated) piece that's been covering the bed for the past couple weeks. What I have found is that it seems to stay about 10-12 degrees warmer in there than the outdoor night temps. This must be from the water jugs because with just plastic, the garden thermometer usually reads a couple degrees lower than the one just outside my back door. It's nice to see they make such a difference.

Seed Starting Experiment

I decided to try and get an early start on some cool weather crops this season. I put the plastic over one of the beds a couple weeks in advance to warm the soil a bit more and watch the temperatures before starting some seeds. There were some wild temperature swings in there, down in the 20's at night but about 115 degrees in the late morning (until I opened it). We added a row of milk jugs filled with dark colored water to each side of the bed in hopes that they will help regulate the temps a little better. I have noticed it does stay a few degrees warmer at night. I can't tell as well with the daytime temps because my husband had an idea for making the plastic easier to open and close. When he was finished, there was a bit more of a gap around the edges than he had intended. Shortly thereafter, the wind ripped off one of the hooks it was secured with. Let's just say my garden is better ventilated now than it was before...

I had read about making homemade seed tapes and about pre-germinating seeds and I decided to try a little of both. First I tried making a paste with a mix of flour & water. What I ended up with was a sticky gooey mess.

It didn't squeeze out of the bag very well at all. The cat liked it though...

Time to try something else...

This one seemed simple, pre-sprouting sugar snap peas (collected from last season's plants). Last spring, I soaked the seeds overnight before planting and they came up quickly. When I attempted a fall crop, I didn't soak the seeds and they took a lot longer to sprout. Since I'm really starting this pretty early, I figured pre-sprouting may be a good idea. This is just peas on a napkin in a bit of water.

I also read about using a cornstarch & water gel to start seeds. This was much better than the flour & water. I used about 1 TBSP cornstarch mixed with a cup of water and boiled it for a minute. I may have brought it to a boil too quickly resulting in a few lumps which I'll try to avoid next time. I put a spot of gel on a bit of paper towel using a baggie like a pastry bag and placed the seed in the gel. This was really pretty easy using a toothpick. Once I touched the end of a toothpick into the gel, it picked up seeds quite nicely.

Then I put the paper towel into these new style egg cartons. If you haven't seen them, they are a 3 piece unit. One cup under the egg, one cup over the egg and a flat lid over the top. I cut off one section of the cups (leaving a regular egg carton) then took that section, stabbed a hole in the bottom of each cup with an exacto knife and placed the seed in it. That piece sits in the upside down egg carton lid with the other cup as the new top.

I tried red onion, walla-walla onion, spinach, broccoli, lettuce & mesclun in the egg cartons. I also tried some seed strips of carrots, scallions & radishes in a storage box.

After a thorough spritzing with the water bottle, I put the storage box on the back of my television (which is on WAY too much) and the egg cartons on a rack over the cable converter box which seems to be warm all the time. I used the rack so I wouldn't burn up the box by covering it's ventilation.

Then I learned a few things.

1. Peas don't smell good when you get them wet and leave them in a warm little box.

2. Onions don't either.

3. Radishes can sprout in 24 hours!!

The peas took 3 days. I thought they would be easier to plant using the paper towels, so I used some of the gel (I had put it in the refrigerator) and carefully placed the sprouted seeds in the gel. I used a pair of hemostats to place the seeds.

I also used them to place the seeds & paper towels in the garden.

I pulled back the mulch where the seeds were to go and put the strips in and loosely covered them with an inch or so of the mulch (leaves and pine needles added in the fall).

The seeds have been outside since Feb. 18, almost 2 weeks now. When I checked earlier today I have some peas that are up through the mulch. I can see signs of life in the radishes and scallions. I'm still not seeing anything from the lettuce, mesclun or broccoli. Next time I will put the seeds in soil (or soil-like compost) rather than plunking them in the mulch. I suspect they may have come up better that way.

The red and walla-walla onions, carrots and spinach did not sprout. They might have, but after 2 weeks, I wasn't as regular with the spray bottle and they dried out. I like the egg cartons better than the storage box because they have more air circulation but planting the strips was really easy.

The verdict? Not sure. For some seeds, this didn't work well at all. I really won't know for sure until I see the results in the garden and what the survival rate is for the seeds. I'm going to find another method to start the onions & spinach.