Gardening Diary - Planting The Seeds (The Seedling)

Whenever I say: Ok, I want to do this., then I will start to do a lot of research from the internet, books and ask the expert to make i do it right. As a beginner in gardening, I realised that maybe it is good for me to record my trials and errors in my own term as future reference. Because, information is just within a few clicks but we don't really digest it until we try it. Besides, it always and still happened to me that: "I have already do 100% according to the instruction but why the result is different?".

This idea came yesterday, 10 April 2009; first thing when I woke up. I was so happy to see my babies has been growing very well since the seedling last Saturday and I think I am ready to start planting in new pot without any help. Therefore, here's the beginning.

First of all, I need to prepare the planting materials as following:

1. Portable seedling box with transparent lid or, I use the plastic container as the base that used
to package the meats by supermarket and cover it with transparent food wrapper later.
Note : The base of the recycle plastic base has to be flat otherwise root(s) may somehow come out from the hole at the bottom of the pot. See my observation at the bottom.

2. Small plastic pot.

3. Well-drained soil. (I would describe it as dark brown soft mud, almost for all plants on earth)

4. Trowel (I only use my hand to grab the soil because it is small amount unless I need to fill into
hard reach edges)

5. Hand gloves (If don't want to get dirty. But sometimes is good with bare hands)

6. Old newspaper to cover the floor (if want to save the cleaning works, but still it will be all over)

Now I am ready with many wonders...

1. Add soil into the pot, about 2/3 of the pot.

2. Pour seeds into palm. Easy to distribute and avoid too much seeds if pour directly into pot.

Iceberg Lettuce. Small yet big contribution to us :)

3. How many seeds is ok in the pot? I'm wondering all the time because I don't know how big each plant will be. So I start up with 5-10 seeds first and labeled the different of seeds amount in each pot, as well as the name of the plant. (Well, a lot of works for a beginner)
4. After adding the seeds, slightly press them into the soil or, slightly cover them with some soils.
Babies need the blanket to keep warm :) No need to put them 6 ft. under the soil :P I really don't know where shall I put them into the soil the first time before Mutsi taught me, and was so afraid that they will be buried forever in the soil. Ha!












5. Watering. This part is always overdo by me as a new comer. Since here is a four season country, the plants no need to water all the time as well as the seeds. As long as the soil is wet (feel with fingers) it is enough for them to grow at the initial stage. I have once encountered that watering is hard to separate the plants' root when transferring to bigger pot though the plants survived with too much water. So no flooded the soil. Also, it was a bit challenging for me to pour the water with 'big mouth' water kettle. It will over pour!!! So I have to use my finger to help the water pouring. I think mist spray is good to avoid the over pouring but then the seeds will running around however it is ok. Just need to spray a bit far and slow and blanket the seeds again.

ops... too much water

6. Now I need to give the seeds another big shelter to keep the moist and warm - the transparent wrapping paper. Some source said that plastic bag also can but I prefer this because it is best to get the sunlight. I was so silly at the first time that, I afraid they will suffocate without having oxygen if I would keep it seal all the time so I keep on open and seal back the shelter. In fact they wouldn't, they are just seeds. Ha! Shame on me!
7. All ready and now just place them at a bright place with sufficient sun lights and water them daily (with very little water) or alternate day. I did 2 experiments: water daily or water them only on the first day with no water on next 2 days and they still grow. So either way but I prefer alternate day to avoid killing them with too much love and cares (this time is the real suffocation) :) Last but not least, clean the inevitable dirty floor!!!
8. As soon as the plants pop-up from seeds about 2cm with 2 leaves open widely then unseal the pot. Let them breath freely. Since their height is not reaching the shelter limit yet, I would wait until the rest of the seeds to pop-up before I unseal it because I am still not sure how well the seeds will grow without the shelter. Still under experiments anyway.

OBSERVATION & RESULT

To make sure the pot is steadily stay on a flat base. I transferred the baby spinach pot to green house box and let it stand on top of a hole (because the pot is bigger than the hole) for higher shelter space as some of them has grown tall and some still struggling to pop-up from seeds. The result was some roots even grown over the hole from the pot base and I have to transfer the particular baby spinach to a deeper pot.




I am glad that I found a way to recycle as I feel bad all the time to throw them away. So I started to collect them but, another thought in my mind was : I could probably collect more than 100 plastics in a year if I am keeping them all! According to hubby, there is no plastic recycling yet in Finland. I hope there is as soon as possible and if anybody know where is it available here, please tell me. Oh yes, don't forget to keep the film for future use once the babies no need the shelter. Please feel free to share your experience with me :)