Seed Starting as MOTHER's Gardeners Do It

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MOIST AND WARM

If you just pour some water on your flat, the soil mix will splash all around while your little seeds will get washed every which way and loose. Instead, water carefully. Walker and Olivia always use a Haws watering can (available from Smith & Hawken, 25 Corte Madera, Mill Valley, CA 94941, or Walter F. Nicke, Box 667, Hudson, NY 12534) because -thanks to its finely perforated, upward-pointing rose-it sprinkles water very gently on the seeds. The gardeners start and end the watering off the flat to avoid any hard splashing (see the photo). If you're watering from a bucket or can, trickle the liquid over one hand and use your fingers to break up and place the droplets.

Water the seed flats well initially, and lightly whenever the surface of the soil begins to dry out. Use tepid-not cold-water, and if your household supply is chlorinated, let the liquid stand overnight before using it so the chemicals in it will volatilize.

START SEEDS WARM, GROW SEEDLINGS COOL

So far, you've maintained a warm, moist haven-a womb, in a way-for your incubating seeds. (Some growers even construct little plastic tents over their newly planted trays.) But once they start to sprout, everything changes. If you kept your seedlings in that type of environment, they'd be quite likely to succumb to damping-off, a fungus disease that rots the stems of young plants at the groundline, causing the seedlings to topple over and die. (Even just-planted seeds can succumb to damping-off and will rot unsprouted if they're kept too wet.)

To prevent this calamity, you need to make sure your starts are well ventilated and not overly warm. The ideal temperature range for seedling growth is about 55° to 70°F. Indeed, when the thermometer in MOM's greenhouse hits 60°F, Olivia and Walker open the vents and let outside air flow through. It's better to overdo the ventilation and let the crops stay a little cool than risk creating the "tropical jungle" that is prime territory for damping-off.

At this point, you should also change your watering habits. Instead of keeping the flats constantly moist, water the plants less often, but give the trays more water when you do add the liquid. Eventually, you should be letting the top one-half to one inch of soil start to dry out before you rewater. The bottom of the tray, though, should still be moist. (Just poke your finger in somewhere to find out.) And water your flats early in the day so that the surface of the potting mix can start to dry by nightfall. If damping-off is really a problem, you can even "bottom water" by submerging flats halfway in a tub of water.

And you should give your growing starts plenty of light. Our gardeners' plants get enough sunshine in our south-facing solar greenhouse. But if you're stuck with using a windowsill, you'd better supplement what sunshine you get with artificial light. Plain old fluorescent tubes (not incandescent bulbs) will do fine. Work out some way to get those tubes as close to the plants as possible-no more than a few inches away-and to raise the lights (or lower the plants) as the seedlings grow to keep that distance the same.

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