Hello! Isn’t this great! Spring – finally – at last!

Cheer up! We’ve got spring stuff to get into gear. And today we are going to start whooping it up with our spring seeding chores. Did you have a chance to test some of you old seed leftover from last year? Did you have a chance to pick up some new seed for this year? Did you have a chance to plot and plan your new garden arrangement for this year?

Well, those tomatoes, peppers and eggplant seeds can be started now. Those cole crops like broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower can also go in around now. But don’t even look at your cucumber, zucchini, melons, summer and winter squash at this point! Seed all those around this time next month.

OK – so let’s assemble all of our seeding supplies; line them all up. Besides those seeds – old ones or new ones, you are going to need planting containers, a soil-less planting mix, water to moisten the mix, markers or plant tags to label those seeds, and a nice warm cozy place for those sleeping seeds.

So first, set up all those clean planting containers (cell packs, planting flats, pots, whatever). If you are using brand new ones – no problem. If you are using last year’s planting containers, you must sterilize them first. Use one part bleach to 9 parts warm water and let them soak for about ten minutes. Used containers don’t necessarily have to be clean, but they do need to be sanitized with bleach to kill off any harmful deadly fatal fungi that may be lurking on those containers. You can let them air-dry or rinse them off and manually dry them.

Now moisten that soil-less mix – a wonderful combination of Canadian sphagnum peat moss, perlite, and/or vermiculite in a clean bucket. The operative word here is moisten. Moisten that mix; don’t soak it.

Now load those pots and containers with that moistened soil-less mix. Gently firm it down to remove any air pockets. All seed needs good soil-to-seed contact, and won’t germinate or sprout if they’re next to any air pockets. So gently press down, but don’t jam it down!

Next we have a few choices to make to get that seed planted. You can place your seed on the soil-less mix surface and then poke them down into the mix. Or you can poke a hole in the mix first and then plop your seed into that hole. Or, if your seed starting container is a 10”x20” plastic flat, you can make a little furrow in the mix and then push your seed down the row and into the furrow. Or if you are seeding into those plastic cell packs, you can put 2 seeds in every section of the cell packs.

The reasoning for the double seeding is that, while most seed germinate, there is never ever a 100% guarantee that 100% of those seeds will 100% germinate. So, if you put 2 seeds in every section, then you will increase your chances that maybe one of them will sprout. However, if both of them come up, then after a little bit with these seed twins sharing the cradle, you are going to have to get rid of one of them! Either try to gently to remove one and try to transplant it into its very own crib, or determine which one is the weaker twin, and then take a pair of scissors, and snip it right off at the soil line. Try not to pull it out; you might end up disturbing the other one’s root system. Then that stronger one will be set back in growth! (Me – I hate having to choose one over the other. I never did like “Sophie’s Choice”!)

So let’s go back to those seeds lying on the soil-less mix surface. Take a pencil and poke each seed down into the mix. Generally, a seed should go down to a depth 4 times its width. Keep in mind, all seed varieties vary in size. Most average-sized seed, like broccoli, cabbage, tomatoes, and peppers, should go down ¼ to ½ inch. Larger seed, like cucumber, zucchini, and summer and winter squash, those that we are not going to look at until this time next month, should get put in at a depth of 1 to 1 ½ inches.

So poke that seed down to the proper depth. Or make that furrow the proper depth, then place the seed in and cover them up. And when the seed is in and covered, gently press down to ensure good soil-to-seed contact. Continue seeding the rest of the cell packs or the planting flats in this way.

Are we done now? Done – for this week! More on first seeding next week!

Remember – Eat Smart New York!

And – Bye – Talk to you soon!
D