As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
Tis the season for fruity fruits, meaning vegetables in the form of tomatoes, peppers, melons and eye fruits like flowers. I have written of my methods of sprouting but run through this scenario again as it is important and people pay more attention to things when they are thinking about things in spring.
I start out by finding gophers, pocket gophers. I do not like potting soil or any of that expensive creation in the green houses. Pocket gophers are fat little rodents which eat roots, live underground and make piles of pretty soil which is perfectly pulverized for potting things in.
As my neighbors grow them, in being big farmer too lazy to kill them, I stop in the right of way in the road ditch and load up a few pails of dirt, which anyone can do, as anything in a road ditch is public domain.
I never have problems with weed seeds nor diseased soil in this way.
I use the plastic pots which come from green houses to start my seeds. I recycle everything and those blue colored or black ones about a pint size are perfect. I fill them to about an inch and half from the top, and then put in four seeds. You can put in a dozen if you care, but if things sprout, I will have like 20 tomatoe plants and I do not want 150 of the things, as I feel bad in tossing them.
I mentioned that Rossa Scillian which I wanted to see if it would work for stuffing and that little ruffled thing really sprouted fast, so did another called Indigo which is a designer tomatoe. Am still waiting on the old seeds I had to stimulate the ghost......oh Marizol Purple sprouted fast too.
I put a shallow layer of about a 1/3rd of an inch of loose soil on top of them. Mom has a sprayer in her sink, and in a light spray, I soak them in with that being careful not to flood them and raise the seeds to the surface.
What follows is the part which you really need to do as it will stop a great deal of heartache.
A number of years ago, I purchased some plastic containers which are about a foot by fifteen inches and around 8 inches high with a snap on cover. Tupperware will work, but this is just that cheap plastic stuff for diapers or whatever people stuff in them.
It is important that your seeds stay moist and not dry out. These containers are what you place your blue plastic pots into. I get 8 into mine and put the lid on.
Plastic wrap comes loose and it just frustrates you. Put your seeds into these containers, they will stay humid, and in a warm location, you will get sprouting at the fastest rate.
There is another thing in this, in seeds have the hulls on the leaves. If the hulls dry out, the baby leaves will not be able to husk themselves from them, and those hulls will decapitate the plant or tear the leaves if you try to cut them off, as I have been prone to do. It is just easier to birth them this way and just pay attention to them, so they do not get too leggy.
The Marizol, Rossa and Indigo sprouted in 4 days. When things are right, they go fast.
OK, so you can put them UP, as in I put mine on top of Mom's stove, which has pots on it, so when the oven is on, I do not end up with plastic meltdown or fires. A top of a fridge or a high cupboard will work.......top of a water heater I suppose to. The thing is it is in most cases 75 to 80 degrees up near the ceiling of most homes. That is the temperature you are looking for, as some things like peppers will not sprout if the ground is cold.
Another thing, use warm water to water the seeds in. Keep things warm and then things sprout.
So you check your wee baby plants in about 4 days and keep checking so things do not get too leggy, meaning too long in the stalk. This happens from lack of light which is what we avoid as it causes more problems and heartache.
Remove the seed pots from the container, lay out some newspaper or paper towels, and I always keep those little individual containers from greenhouses too, and this is where your wee baby plants are going to be transferred to.
I use a very old pointed silver spoon meant for grapefruit eating. You want a pointed end and a narrow spoon. I simply slide it into the soil, and my soil is gopher loam with sand and clay so it sticks together, unlike greenhouse potting humus which crumbles and disturbs the roots.
See if you stay with me, there are reasons I do things which are the big things that keep the frustration down, as disturbed roots just are one more stress your baby plants to not need.
You slide your spoon in carefully straight down, about 3/4 inch from the plant and once you hit bottom, you lift it out like a grapefruit wedge, and then with your finger on top of the soil, you just slide it into the 6 or 9 pack container.
Add a little soil if necessary, and make sure it is straight with the world, so it looks good, and continue on until you are finished.
Set your seedlings now in a window with sunlight, being careful that you do not fry them. I use the same type of sprouting container, actually the same one, to water my plants from the bottom up by leaving water in there or some manure tea or fertilized water to feed the plants.
Water dries out quickly, manure tea or a fish immulsion tea, is more viscous and does not dry out as readily. It just depends on your humidity in it can be from 3 to 7 days before they need a drink. If they do keel over, just water them, leave them out of the sun, and in most cases they will be vertical in a few hours again.
Just do not mix the fertilizer too hot, or it will burn the plants off. Fertilize about twice, and they do need it to make them grow more robust, as you do want them robust.
I harden mine off by sitting them in the shade of the house on the east side for a few days, out of the wind, when they reach 6 weeks. When I had trouble with plants keeling over from lack of sun, I used to just sprout them and stick them into coffee cans with plastic bags on top, and some wire in hoops to hold the the plastic off the plants. That will work too if you have problems, but plants and seeds all need constant humidity, warmth and plenty of light. Add some nutrients and you will have pretty plants.
It is not that difficult, but it takes practice as no one has a green thumb. Some braggarts like to show off in their plants, but hell if you were a millionaire you could make things grow too, as you have the facilities to waste money on. Some people have cold houses as they have the heat turned down.
So do not feel bad if things do not work out. I had a hell of a time for a number of years with lack of light in Mom's house, as I could not figure out what was wrong as I thought it was enough light, but it was not.
I always put coffee cans or plastic pipe the size of a coffee can around my tomatoes. It helps to water them, and it helps to get the fertilizer when I transplant directly to the roots. Tomatoes do not have immense root zones, and no garden vegetable does. Most of the growth goes on the top.
I do grow my melons on black plastic, peppers too. Tomatoes I have not had the need, nor cloches or hot caps to help them along. I at one time grew them in plastic caps, and had immense plants, but when I took off the plastic, they just sat there a month recovering as they were waiting for tomatoe fruiting weather.
What I mean by this is, all melons, peppers and tomatoes do not do well in high humidity as the pollen sticks to the flower. I help mine a great deal in the tomatoes by snapping the flowers with my finger to pollinate as bees are about gone now. Fruits need heat, and if you do not have dry heat, you are not going to get any good flavored fruit. Too much water makes them taste like grocery store fruit too. I know they say about pruning plants for fruit production in vegetables, but at this point I am not going to get into that as I posted on it previously. Just know that you need to ripen fruit in July, August and warmer locations September. That is your window, unless one is in Texas or Florida, then those are the months which kill your plants. You need to get your fruits in an 80 to 90 degree daytime high, and if you have above 70 degrees you will have some spectacular growth. I put that information here, as each of you know when you have those "corn growing" conditions, and that is where you want to grow things.
God does most of this in making August the best month in most of the northern hemisphere for fruit growth.
I will add something which I have not discerned the meaning of yet, and the signs I have noted is the swallows are two weeks late here, the cabbage moths are out as of April 17th which is six weeks too early and I got my first sunburn in April.
It is something in the birds and bugs are sending conflicting signals.........God will though curse evil people's seeds and investments for no return, but I pray He will bless the seeds and investments of His children.
That about ends this education. It is great fun to sprout seeds when things go right. When they go wrong, it is frustrating and sad. Those few million dollar actions though will make things a great deal more pleasing, as none of this is that hard as things grow all the time. You just need to fool it to grow the way you like.
The signs are pointing to something odd this year. All I can do is live through it, as one of the baby goatikins is chewing on my pant leg through the kennel as I type this. He does have a mind of his own on numerous things in being in charge around here.
nuff said
agtG
