Greetings everybody,
Today I did a bit of seed starting. I planted broccoli, kohlrabi and kale.
My method of choice for seed starting is using a soil blocker. I first saw this method many years ago on a television program called Gardening Naturally hosted by Eliot Coleman and Barbara Damrosch. Personally, I think it is simply brilliant.
Here is the soil blocker. I purchased mine from Lee Valley.
The choice of planting mix is very important if you want the plants to get off to a good start. I use a mix of peat moss, perlite, sifted garden compost and blood and bone meal.
You make up your soil mix, wet it thoroughly to the consistency of brownie mix and then push the soil blocker into it to fill up the little chambers. Then press down and out pop 20 cute little blocks of soil. They have a small indent on the top where you put a single seed. I use a dedicated pair of old tweezers to pick up the seeds.
OK, I can already hear you saying "she picks up the seeds, ONE AT A TIME! ... WITH TWEEZERS !!!" Yes I do and you would be surprised at how fast it actually goes. I had 40 broccoli seeds done in under one minute.
The soil blocks are quite moist so you have a perfect environment for the little seeds to germinate. I actually give them a quick mist with warm water and then pop them into a plastic bag and put them into a warm place.
Now you need to keep an eye on them. I check them at least twice, sometimes three times a day. As soon as they have started to germinate they need good light. They go into my south facing window and I turn them around 4 times a day so they do not grow on an angle and it keeps the stems strong.
An ideal situation would be to put them under a grow light but we do not have any of them right now. Hopefully we will by next year as that would make things easier.
I will be back with another post about this as soon as some of the seeds have germinated.
Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day. Cheers.
Today I did a bit of seed starting. I planted broccoli, kohlrabi and kale.
My method of choice for seed starting is using a soil blocker. I first saw this method many years ago on a television program called Gardening Naturally hosted by Eliot Coleman and Barbara Damrosch. Personally, I think it is simply brilliant.
Here is the soil blocker. I purchased mine from Lee Valley.
The choice of planting mix is very important if you want the plants to get off to a good start. I use a mix of peat moss, perlite, sifted garden compost and blood and bone meal.
You make up your soil mix, wet it thoroughly to the consistency of brownie mix and then push the soil blocker into it to fill up the little chambers. Then press down and out pop 20 cute little blocks of soil. They have a small indent on the top where you put a single seed. I use a dedicated pair of old tweezers to pick up the seeds.
OK, I can already hear you saying "she picks up the seeds, ONE AT A TIME! ... WITH TWEEZERS !!!" Yes I do and you would be surprised at how fast it actually goes. I had 40 broccoli seeds done in under one minute.
The soil blocks are quite moist so you have a perfect environment for the little seeds to germinate. I actually give them a quick mist with warm water and then pop them into a plastic bag and put them into a warm place.
Now you need to keep an eye on them. I check them at least twice, sometimes three times a day. As soon as they have started to germinate they need good light. They go into my south facing window and I turn them around 4 times a day so they do not grow on an angle and it keeps the stems strong.
An ideal situation would be to put them under a grow light but we do not have any of them right now. Hopefully we will by next year as that would make things easier.
I will be back with another post about this as soon as some of the seeds have germinated.
Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day. Cheers.
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