“Starting Vegetable Seeds in Your House”
The only way to have very early vegetables is to take time with both
hands by the reins and start seeds indoors while the ground is still
cold.
In the Northern States it is especially important to make an early
start, when starting seeds in your house, if vegetables like tomatoes,
eggplants, cauliflower, early cabbages, celery and peppers are desired.
Of course there is some advantage in having a hotbed, but its operation
involves too much skill and requires too much attention to make it
suitable for use in the backyard garden.
Starting seeds in your house using your kitchen space is a much simpler
matter, and the results are likely to be satisfactory if the started plants
can be set in a cold frame later.
Garden shops use what they call flats, which are merely shallow
boxes the right size to be handled easily, and about two inches
high. Anyone can make good substitutes for flats by obtaining a
few old boxes at the grocery store and cutting them down to the
right size.
The boxes should be filled with good garden loam, with which a
very little sand has been mixed. Or sterile planting media such
as vermiculite.
If soil is available, then it is advisable for you to put the boxes
of soil into the oven of the kitchen stove until it has become
thoroughly heated. This will kill the weed seeds and save you so much
trouble later on. However It is not recommended that you bake the soil
too long.
When starting vegetable seeds in your house, you will find some seeds are
very fine and only need to be pressed into the soil, and a little sand then,
can be sprinkled over the seeds. Furrows for the larger seeds can be made
with the point of a pencil, and should be about an inch and a half apart.
Many beginners have difficulty in watering their seed boxes after
the seed has been planted. One plan is to set the box in a pan of water
and let the water soak through from the bottom.
A much better plan, when starting seeds in your house, is to get a piece of
tissue paper, just the size of the box, and lay it on the soil. If water is then
applied lightly to the paper, it will gradually soak through and the seeds will
not be washed away.
There will be no need to remove the paper, from youe seeds that have been
started in your house. The paper will have become so thoroughly water
soaked by the time the little plants appear, that they will easily push their
way through.
It is best to keep a clear cover over the box so light can shine through
until the seedlings started in your house, emerge from the soil, the box
can then be set in a warm place like the back of your stove.
The clear cover may be removed once the seedlings have burst through the
soil and the box can then, be placed in a sunny window.
As soon as possible the little plants should be thinned out so that they
will not touch. Once your plants have made their first true leaves, or in
some cases even earlier, they should be transplanted to other flats, or
better still, to paper pots which can be set close together in any box.
The principal advantage of using paper pots for your vegetable seeds in
your house is so the plants can be set into the ground, when large enough,
without disturbing the roots. The paper pots do not need to be removed, for
they will eventually rot away, and while they remain in the soil, the sides will
also form a barrier to keep away any cutworms that could endanger any
started plants.
If you have a cold frame which can be used through April,then tomato plants
and pepper plants may be started as early as the first of March indoors.
All the other seedlings can be started after the fifteenth of March.
If you keep your started vegetable seedlings in the house too long,
the plants are apt to become spindly. They will make better growth in a
cold frame which can be opened on warm days.
For the beginning backyard gardener who has only a very small garden, will
probably buy started plants, and perhaps this is the best plan for the
beginning backyard gardener.
This article on How to Start Vegetable Seeds in Your House is brought to you by www.backyard-gardening.com
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