Seeds and Germination: March 2007 Archives

Growing your own transplants early in the year is a wash for just about everything except the summer heat lovers, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. Because the plants do most of their growing when the days get longer, a six week head start in planting only gets you around 2 weeks of gain at harvest. so you might as well wait until April and plant directly in the ground.

For the aforementioned heat-lovers, I've started mine kind of early, in the second week of February. I filled four plastic planting pots 4" square with potting soil, placed my tomato seeds in the top half inch or so and thoroughly watered them.

As I've read from Steve Solomon, the most important thing in getting a seed to germinate is temperature. the seed needs moist conditions, but watering the growing medium every day lowers the temperature. One of his solutions, which i've employed, is to let the water drain out from the pots, and then place them in a ziploc or otherwise airtight bag and set them on a windowsill or well lit place for a few days. The bag will keep in the moisture, and the daylight sun (whatever there is) will help keep the temperature close to 70 degrees. The seeds are activated by the initial watering, but as long as the medium remains moist, they won't need daily waterings.

My house is unheated during the day and probably hovers in the mid to low 60's, and my seeds were still able to sprout, so you have some leeway. Once the first leaves (cotyledons) have emerged, take them out of the bag and start watering them when the soil is dry.

After about a week, you should thin them down to the 3 healthiest seedlings per pot.