Off To A Good Start #Seedstarting #VegetableGardening #Gardening #Transplanting

Off To A Good Start #Seedstarting #VegetableGardening #Gardening #Transplanting

Vegetable Garden Beginning of the season 2015

Finally! You've read through post after post about gardening and vegetable gardening and what you should and shouldn't do to prepare. You read through the long, but very informative and helpful post about the things that you'll need if you want to make this gardening thing work, while limiting as little waste as you can, right? If not read, it at Tools For Gardening. You've even gone to other gardening websites that just say to throw the seeds out on the ground, water and watch them grow and figured, "Why the heck is this guy making everything so long, complicated and boring when it could all be so simple?" Well, because I want to not only grow good food, but save you money, and more importantly give you a method that works for both novice and experienced gardeners alike. I know this way renders fantastic results so long as you put in the work at the beginning, two months from now in middle-to-late May you'll be enjoying a beautiful garden that's off to a phenomenal start, with slightly less work put in than others who grew from seed. Also, you'll know precisely where your food comes from and what it's been treated with unlike people who buy from gardening shops, not that they're bad people. Hey, if this fails or you feel like giving everything up when one or all of your seeds dampen off, there's no harm, no foul and no shame in rushing to your nearest Lowe's to grab a pepper or tomato plant and plopping it into a plot. So long as it survives, it should serve it's purpose. But if you want something better, you usually have to grow from seed. And yes, maybe I have over-complicated things. Did I really need to explain every detail about compost, or about wind traffic in your home? No. But it'll come into play later, I promise. And is this paragraph way too long, violating nearly every English principle I learned in Spanish class? You bet. But I wasn't supposed to learn about English in Spanish class, even though comparatively, I did. So let's get this sucker a-goin'!

Previously on: r-u-notentertained.blogspot.com #Seedstarting!

• We started seeds for cruciferous and cold-hardy plants, including: broccoli, cauliflower, kale, collard greens, lettuce, brussel sprouts and the list goes on.
• Using the seeds pictured below, we took half-sheet paper towels, wet them, threw seeds in them, folded the paper towels and slid the moist towels into an open Ziploc bag.
• We placed the bag in a warm place (not on a heating mat), like, in front of a gas fireplace, atop a refrigerator, or just on a table in a room no cooler than 70 degrees, making sure they stayed out of direct sunlight (definitely not in a windowsill).
• Jimmy fell down a well and is trapped in the wormy muck of a winter's cruel end, breathing its blistered breath upon Vern's back.
• Betty had a pie to bake but not enough peaches to do it.
• Paiges got turned and Words got red.
• And that damn dog Bartholemew keeps yapping about Jimmy. "Bark! Bark!"
• Will we ever return to the seeds? Will Jimmy be saved before he dies of frostbite or hypothermia? Will Betty actually be able to bake that pie? Who the hell taught this talking dog to yell bark? Will this ridiculously nauseating tangential stream of consciousness ever end? Let's find out!

GERMINATED SEEDLING TRANSPLANTING

To start I will point you once again to the post on Tools For Gardening where I went through a list of tools and supplies you'll need going forward. For those who have already gone through the list, I will briefly list the items once more so you can go and get them now!

You will need:

Multiple cups for however many things you plan to plant. Again, I would say that for every intended number of plants you want to grow, have double the amount of cups. Example: Want to plant 5 broccoli plants, have 10 cups ready (you should have germinated 10 seeds). Not all of your seeds will grow, but we'll plant 80-100% of what has.

A good seed-starting mix that is preferably soil-less. Again, sand and vermicompost or vermiculite (worm castings... sort of) can work for some things, though you may have to baby them even more than just getting a seed-starting mix.

A basin or water reserving tray to water stuff from the bottom. We don't want to drown the seedlings.

A full bottle of water. As stated many times before, it doesn't have to be store-bought (I already drank what was inside that bottle; the water you see is tap). You should let the water sit for a day at room temperature, but straight from the faucet is fine in many areas, so long as it is tepid or room temp--no hot or cold.

The lights as the newly planted seeds will need to go under them immediately.

The actual germinated seeds, silly! We can't pot-up seeds without the actual germinated seeds, now can we?

OPTIONAL:

You may want to get a pen or pencil or something long and cylindrical to make a little divot in the seed-starting mix if you're too prissy to get your hands dirty this early in the season. I just use my finger, because, unlike Trump, I actually am a small-fingered vulgarian and proud of it.

You may also want to get some kind of scooper. While I would say a hand trowel is too big, a plastic spoon works. In fact, the other end of the spoon could be used for divot making. You can also just scoop out the soil with one of the cups. Either way, it doesn't matter.

Step 1.

Open the bag (remember, it shouldn't have been sealed) and pull out your paper towels one at a time. You want to check how many seeds germinated in each towel. If you're organized, then you'll have labeled the bag with the name of that particular plant, this is why you do one paper towel at a time, putting it back after planting the germinated seeds. Looks amazing, doesn't it?

Count how many have germinated. If none, then place the towel back into the bag and move on to the next paper towel. It's OK. Not every seed germinates at the same rate. Keep going until you find some that do.

Step 2.

Stop gazing at the seeds and being so amazed with yourself. Yeah, you grew somethin', big whoop! OK, take a little time to pat yourself on the back, but that's enough. Two, maybe three pats max! Now it's time to fill up the cups. Again, either scoop the cup into the bag of seed-starting mix or fill it to about 3/4ths the way by spooning it in. Yes, only fill it 3/4ths of the way. There's a reason for that.

Step 3.

Place the cup inside the water reservoir (note: it should not have any water in it currently). Take your bottle of water and pour a few drops of water into the cup. For everything except sand, the mix will bubble and want to flow overtop. That's fine. Wait a minute and let the water drain through. If it hasn't drained after a minute, lift the cup, hold it over the reservoir and allow it to drain. With the cup filled only 3/4ths, no soil should spill. Take another dry cup or your spoon and scoop out a little more of the mix to cover the top fourth of the first cup. Return the cup to the basin.

Even when pouring the water in, not all of the starting mix will get wet. 

Step 4.

Now look at the germinated seedlings. You want to choose the strongest ones: ones with the greenest leaves, ones with the biggest leaves, ones with good roots (roots that are already spiking out or have more than just a taproot), and ones that have completely shed their hard-shell seed coating. Yes, it's tiny but you can see that the plants have burst from their seeds.

Here's where things get tricky, some argue that the oil on humans' hands will hurt the seedlings. I haven't found this to be true. So long as your hands have recently been thoroughly cleaned, they should be fine. Do not lotion them before doing this. Gently grab hold of the seed root near the leaves, and pull. The roots will have tried to bury themselves in the paper towel fabric. You want to lead it out of the fabric as delicately as you can until it is free. If the root is exceptionally long, don't worry about getting all of it out. So long as the root is fingernail's length and/or has other roots spiking off the taproot, it can recover.

Step 5.

Once you have the root free from the paper towel, place it in the flat palm of your hand. With your other hand, make a tiny divot with your finger or with a pencil in the dry top soil of the prepared cup from step 3. If you only have one hand (not a joke. Some people don't have the luxury of two working appendages), then you can drop the entire seedling onto the top of the soil, then make the divot. Slip the seedling into the divot and cover its bottom tip (the white part) with soil, leaving the leaves above ground. Finally, pat the top mix down around it, just hard enough to make the dry "soil" start absorbing some of the water of the wet soil.

And there you go. Repeat steps 1-5 until you have planted everything you wanted to plant for that session before continuing to step 6. Note: Some of the seeds will not have germinated. For those that haven't, place back in the bag and put the bag back where you had it until they germinate or until they start to rot and turn black. If they do the latter, then you have bad seeds that won't germinate. Sorry. It's still early enough in the season to go and buy more from a different company.

I apologize the basin is already dirty as this was the fourth transplant before I remembered to take pics.

You can use the end of the spoon (optional), to make sure the root is properly buried. Notice the mix looks wet. 

Step 6.

Once everything is planted, check the amount of water you have in the bottom of the reservoir. Lift one of the cups from out of the water. You want the water at its deepest to be no higher than the length of a modestly cut fingernail--from the skin to the tip--usually less than half an inch. If less, add more water directly to the basin and not to the cup, before replacing the cup. This should last for a full day and is the way you should water for the next two weeks.

Step 7.

Take the reservoir with all the cups inside and place it under the fluorescent light. We want extremely close, no more than 1 to 2 inches of space between the bulb and plants. Seedlings crave light. Early inundation is a good thing, but they won't do well in window sunlight. That light isn't strong enough for them and doesn't provide enough heat. Plus, windows often seep heat and the seeds need to stay warm, however, this method does not call for a warming mat. So long as the lights are close, the seedlings won't need to be warmed.

These are established plants to show how close to the light they are. Some leaves are even touching. 

And that's it. Leave the light on for no less than 12 hours (seems like a real power suck but it isn't as bad as you might think). No need to cover them for a greenhouse effect. The soil surface should look moist. You want to water them through the reservoir whenever the top starts to look crusted, hard or no longer shimmers. You're good either until you have to pot them up, something which you should only have to do for non-cold-hardy or summer plants like tomatoes and peppers, or until you have to start hardening them off which will be another week and a half to two weeks. Don't feed them anything but water. It would be a bad idea and could destroy your plants. They can't take too many nutrients this early. Nothing against non-organic gardening, but stuff like Miracle-Gro is too early (let's not get into a debate about the seed-starting mix). Lower them from the lights one inch for every two inches they grow. And you should soon have these tiny, but large seedlings.

What do you think? Is this informative to you? Is there anything about the process you aren't understanding? Are you not convinced that here-on out will be much easier and far less involved? Or can you just not wait to tear into your... uh, Kale? Brussel sprouts? Carrots? Well, what did you plant? Let me know in the comments below (hint: click the no comments button if you see no comments).

Check out my new 5-star comedy novel, Yep, I'm Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend. #AhStalking

If you’re looking for a scare, check the YA novel #AFuriousWind, the NA novel #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or  the bizarre horror #ThePowerOfTen. For those interested in something a little more dramatic and adult, check out #TheWriter. The full first season is out NOW exclusively on Amazon; season 2 coming this summer. If you like fast action/crime check out #ADangerousLow. The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Join us on Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to and follow my blog with that Google+ button to the right.

Until next time, "Wow! That's a lot. I usually just throw my line out there and let them get a hold of that slippery worm."

P.S. Family Guy reference. Yes, it's lazy. It's the one where he was a fisherman and the guy switched his signs to say something perverse about how he caught the fish. I ain't got time, look it up! I was actually trying to impress the reason why I don't just throw the seeds out into the ground anymore (though I still do that for lettuce sometimes), and why I don't direct germinate the seeds in a soil-less mixture. I've seen tons of videos about seed-starting where they start seeds in a cup or a pre-fabricated tray--you can buy those at your local Wal-Mart and they do work wonderfully as I used one for the first two years--with seed-starting mix poured into the tray of, like 30 cells. They'll take three seeds and put them in one cell and expect to grow one plant from that cell. But then when the seeds germinate, they do what is called "thinning out" or pluck out the seedlings that did germinate but look the weakest. I find that to be a waste. For one, while beginners may feel fine with buying a seed packet for 1.48 at your local Wal-Mart (god, I mentioned that store twice. They really should pay me), and spreading out the entire pack or at least half of it trying to grow two, maybe three plants, you know no better. You're just happy something grew and produced food. But as you get better at growing, suddenly things like heirlooms and exquisite tastes of stranger vegetable varieties you want to try begin to seduce you. You suddenly start realizing that there's more than three varieties of watermelon: oblong, round and seedless. And while you might not have heard of a Janosik Watermelon before (delicious in my book), you suddenly wanna try this yellow-fleshed melon, because... I mean, it's yellow for goodness sake! And then you realize, "Holy cannoli, those seeds cost $3.00 plus shipping from online vendor." And suddenly you don't want to chance planting 9 seeds, 3 in one cup, to have them duke it out in survival of the fittest, and end up with one viable plant in the end. No, I use my method because when I do plant those more expensive seeds like melon seeds, I can put four seeds into a paper towel, and have three of them germinate and end up with three healthy plants by planting time (if they germinate at all; buyer beware). I'm a utilitarian and a minimalist, haste makes waste and he who wastes not, wants not. Therefore, I still have seed packets that I bought three years ago that still not only have viable seeds, but are plenteous just in case I want to give them away to family or friends who may want to start growing their own veggies.

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The Birds Are Chirping, The Gnats Are... Gnatting (?) And The Republicans Are Cannibalizing Each Other. Yay, It's Planting Season! #Gardening #SeedStarting #Vegetables

The Birds Are Chirping, The Gnats Are... Gnatting (?) And The Republicans Are Cannibalizing Each Other. Yay, It's Planting Season! #Gardening #SeedStarting #Vegetables

Photo courtesy of Google 

It's Spring... almost. OK, it's not officially spring yet, however, much of the northern US has felt an unseasonably warm winter for the last two weeks and it doesn't appear to be going away. In any case, whether the weather was warm or not (do I get bonus points in this blogging thing for psuedo-alliteration there?), now is the perfect time to think ahead to the spring, summer, fall growing seasons. So get off your butts, put those #TrumpRally protest signs away, make sure you don't accidentally congratulate Nancy Reagan for something she really didn't do and grab your seeds. It's seed-starting season (seriously, the alliteration points. Is that a thing or...)!!

For those new to the blog, I'd like to first take this moment to welcome you. You're wondering why there's a post about gardening on an entertainment blog. Well, kickback because it's a short story that I'm gonna make excruciatingly long. It began back way long ago, about less than a year or so... And then I discovered funny stuff is, like, totally amazing... But who knows if they can actually grow tubers in space, you know what I mean? Plus, what would the chemical makeup of those potatoes be? Hell, some sweet potatoes come out purple just from having been grown in Asian countries. I'm just sayin'... So I say to the guy, "Well, Jimmy cracked corn but I don't care." Ha! Right. Get it? Because his name was James, which has a nickname of Jimmy? Technically, he only goes by James, but I still thought it was funny. Anyway, I said all of that to say this: this blog is about all forms of entertainment, including entertaining (wait for it) guests, or just yourself. And what do you do when you are entertaining guests but make them stuff to eat? And somebody's gotta grow your food, right? You're not one of those weird Air-i-ans, are you? Lately, everybody's been talking about the Air-i-ans that survive on air alone, or those Air-i-ans that think they're the master race and I guess they have a grand wizard or somethin'--I don't know. Magic has always been confusing to me. But even if you were one of those people, you gotta eat at some point. Why not try your hand at growing your own food, especially for health reasons.

So, where do we start? Well, this is for newbies to the home gardening culture. Debate still rages on whether you should start all your plants from seed or buy them from your local big box store. To opine, I say do what's comfortable for you when easing into this thing. My 1st year I didn't buy anything, planted some seeds out in the ground and grew one small tomato plant that produced two tomatoes. One never ripened and ants ate the other one--picture not included. Year two I ran out and bought myself a chocolate cherry tomato plant, perfected my ability to grow from seed and have been saving seeds from the cherry tomato ever since. Scroll way down or check the gardening tag and you'll see I've added a lot of new produce to the garden since, all grown from seeds or tubers. This will be a tutorial on how to grow from seed, so if you aren't doing that and don't care, that's fine. Still read it. Why? I don't know. Do you have anything else to do... or read? I should point out at this time that I am an author. Check my books out on amazon, links below. If you want to learn how to do seeds, then this is the place for you.

SEED STARTING

OK, before we begin to throw seeds around and start stuff all willynilly, we need to figure out what we want to grow and what is best started in our garden. Below is a picture of my garden pre-winter cleanup.

As you can see I have the big compost pile sitting near the center there. Then the rest of it just looks like a big muddy, leafy mess. Even the side opposite the patio path looks heinous. Good! It just came out of a long winter with temperatures that varied wildly from 70 (in Northern Ohio) to 12. By the time I'm done with the cleanup, it'll look suitable for growing and a little showing off. What's important to note is that the design and the space allocated to the veggies is all pre-planned before planting anything. The long stretch of garden separated by the path is where my winter or cold-hardy plants tend to go as they are out of the way. Just across from them at the part that looks like an arrow is also where more of my cold-hardy plants go. What are the cold-hardy plants I'm growing, you ask? Or, Michael, more importantly, "what plants that I want to plant are cold-hardy?" Simple. 

They are:

Nearly all lettuces: Iceberg, Romaines, any other loose-leafs.

Cruciferous plants: Broccoli, Brussel sprouts, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Collard Greens (or greens of any type), Kale

Potatoes (Warning: White Potatoes only, not Sweet Potatoes. Wow! Reading that out loud sounded so racist. Not all white potatoes are white. Uh... yeah.)

Carrots

Other Tubers: Beets, Turnips

Swiss Chard

And only certain types of green peas.

For everything, you want to check your seed packet for possible planting times, however, the plants listed above are considered cold-hardy (some extremely so, like beets and Brussel Sprouts) because they can survive temperatures as low as 29 degrees with minimal to no damage. That doesn't mean they're invincible as you may still have to take a certain care with them if a late deep frost below 20 comes and knocks things out, but you should be safe with these.

Now, at this time some of you are saying, "But I don't see what I want to grow on that list. What about me?" Well, just hold on to your britches because they might not be on that list but that doesn't excuse them from being started from seeds this early in the season. I'm just listing those because you can risk throwing them out into the cold, workable ground right now and they'll grow. However, if you want a surefire way for any of your seeds to grow just hang on.

That last paragraph is in reference to the most commonly grown vegetables that people love to eat and almost everyone grows: Tomatoes and peppers... and some sweet potatoes too. Is it OK to start tomatoes and peppers this early? Well, it depends and yes, respectively. I have started both all my tomatoes and pepper plants already. In fact, I still have four pepper plants as holdovers from last season. However, tomatoes can be tricky in that, unlike peppers, they will need staking at some point and they classify both as determinate and indeterminate. I'm sure you, my smart readers, know what those mean but for younger or more inexperienced readers, indeterminate means they may produce all season long until a killing frost in fall/winter. Determinate means they will produce for or at a specific time in the season or their growth cycle and then that's it. A bunch of tomatoes, then nothin'! For the latter, wait later toward the summer (early to mid-May) to start as you won't have them long anyway. Indeterminates can be started right now but both them and the peppers must be kept inside. The sweet potatoes I will do a completely different post on, but suffice it to say that you can start them now, too.

Now, as for the seeds themselves, today I am starting these packets of seeds. Unseen, I am also starting my lettuces because I don't want it to get too hot too quick. Lettuce not only does great in the cold, it must have a certain amount of coolness or it will begin to bolt or put on seed, which makes the leaves taste bitter. This often happens during the dog days of summer when temperatures rise above 78 degrees. So if you're in a warmer climate than Ohio, make a note to start your seeds even earlier next year.

I Get Seeds From All Over: Burpee, NK, Seeds of Change, RareSeeds.com, SeedSavers

For this, you will need.

One bottle of clean water. It can be from the faucet, however, it is best to let it sit for a day to allow some of the chemicals to die back. #Water4Flint

A roll of paper towels. I usually get the half sheets rather than the big square ones (mine are rectangles). You can also use napkins but don't completely unfold the napkin. You want the seeds to be able to be covered by a semi-thick layer of paper.

And finally, one plastic Ziploc bag or many depending on how much you plan to plant and what you have available to you. As an incidental or added need, you may want to have a permanent marker for marking your seed bags and you may want to have a ton of bags, one for each seed pouch. I am quite lazy and I just stuff as many seeds into one bag as I can and am then surprised at what I get. No, I don't label either, though I tend to have a good memory on what I placed where in the bag. You'll see.

Step one.

Remove a few seeds from one of your packets. I know, small (we're talkin' Trump-hands small). To me the cold-hardy plants tend to have smaller seeds than the warmer plants, with the exception of spinach and collard greens.

Step two.

Scatter them across the center of the dry towel. This is why I like the half-sheet rectangles because it is easier to get them centered and not waste the rest of the towel.

Step three.

Pour a tiny bit of water on the paper towel. Important: Wetting the paper towel before spreading the seeds may be easier for you, just make sure it is wrung out and not sopping wet. You want it to feel like you laid it on top of a tiny wet spot on your counter and let the water spread across the towel fibers rather than tried to wipe the wetness away. Damp or moist (mmm, moist. I love that word).

Step four.

You want to fold the paper towel like you are folding a letter, then fold it again at the ends to make sure the seeds don't roll out. Place it into the bag as far as you can. Do not seal the bag at any time! The seeds need the air to breathe. Again, if you have smaller sandwich bags you can do one type of seed per bag. If you have the bigger bags, you can fit in multiple folded paper towels and put a permanent marker mark on the plastic directly over the paper towel. For example, Broc written overtop the corner of the plastic would remind you of what's there. Remember to carry the bag flat on your palms so that the towels don't bunch together at the bottom or anything.

This is mid-fold. You want one small rectangle.

This is two already finished and neatly bagged

Step five.

This is where many people will differ from me. My house has a gas fireplace. I generally place the bag on the floor in front of the fireplace--right under it when it's not on, no less than a foot and a half away when it is on. But that is just me. The seeds need to be kept warm. While most people's homes are kept at or above 70 which should be enough ambient temperature for germination, some houses have deathly cold spots. So place the bag in a place that you know will stay between a constant 70-80. For cold-hardy plants it is actually OK to put certain seeds in the refrigerator instead as this will help them germinate quicker (I've done this for kale and collard greens). Others like tomatoes and peppers require the heat. Warning! Do NOT put them in a windowsill. Only seeds specifically stated to need sunlight should be put in a windowsill (Stevia, coleus plants).

And that's it. Simple, right? Leave the seeds there for about a week untouched. By the time you come back, they will have sprouted from their coatings and we'll be ready for step two, planting them in starters.

What do you think? Will you be trying to start all of your own vegetables from seed? If not, why not? It's so easy. If so, what do you plan on planting and what's your favorite dish to make with it? Let me know in the comments below (hint: click the no comments button if you see no comments).

Check out my new 5-star comedy novel, Yep, I'm Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend. #AhStalking

If you’re looking for a scare, check #AFuriousWind, #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or  #ThePowerOfTen. For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check out #TheWriter. The full first season is out NOW exclusively on Amazon. If you like fast action/crime check out #ADangerousLow. The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Join us on Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to and follow my blog with that Google+ button to the right.

Until next time, "you reap that which you grow."

P.S. Wait, is that how that goes? Now I can't remember. But that could be an acceptable sign-off for my blog right? At least for the posts about gardening and stuff, right? Right? So what if it's cliche and derivative. I can't be creative all the time. Geez, Louise!

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