Seeds grow up and turn into plants. I know, hardly an earth-shattering concept, right? Here’s the thing, though… knowing seeds can be grown into plants in a greenhouse environment is one thing… actually learning the skills and techniques of doing it myself was quite another.
Seeds to bounty: Learning by doing
OK, I get it. Growing my own plants from seeds is hardly rocket science. People have been doing this for thousands of years (although the greenhouse ideas are a bit newer in most cases).
But here’s the thing. Knowing that it can be done, and actually knowing HOW to do it… and how to learn from the inevitable failures… are two totally different things.
Here’s a link to the article I wrote about this at the start of this year’s gardening season.
As you can see by reading that, I’ve had a lot of successes and failures using my little seed greenhouse kits.
Let me take you on past where that article was written and tell you the rest of the story of these plants.
Hardening
My seedlings were spindly… like REALLY spindily… and they were pretty weak. I would sit them in a south-facing window on top of one of our water barrels, and by the end of the day the plants would turn themselves towards the sun.
The room that they were in is a storage room, and while it gets great light, there’s no air circulation in it at all.
To start the toughening up process (after all, if they were going to survive and thrive in the great outdoors they need to be strong and tough) we moved the seeds into a front room and set them on a table. The front room also has a south-facing window so they still got plenty of sunlight, but it also has a ceiling fan that moves a lot of air.
I was shocked and pretty concerned as I watched the moderate breeze coming off this fan whip around my little plants like they were caught in a hurricane. Some of them died. More broke. Some grew stronger.
Outside
Following a couple of weeks in the front room, they got to live outside (sort of). It was still too cold at night (below freezing, something tomatoes and peppers do not tolerate) so I would put them on the back porch in the morning and bring them in at night.
Our back porch is screened in, and it’s also on the east side of the house. The wind rarely blows from the East here in north Missouri, our prevailing winds are west-to-east. I have always suspected that this is because Kansas blows and Illinois sucks, but I digress.
After this treatment for a couple of weeks, they graduated to life on the deck of our front porch. The front porch is much more breezy, so I sat them down on the deck so the porch skirt could protect them some. Again, some died, some broke and some grew stronger.
Finally, it was time to take them to the garden. Unfortunately, this year spring was REALLY cold and the ground temp was still too cold to plant them, so I set their containers outside during the day in the areas they would be planted. More wind, more hardening.
Planting
Spice is our designated planter, and when the time was deemed right, into the ground they went.
I’ve got to be honest, my plants were a LOT more spindly at this point than the ones grown in the greenhouses professionally. I think this is because they had more sunlight to grow in, they were kept warmer and they had air circulating around them earlier.
Without building a greenhouse myself (something that I am considering doing) I can fix two of those issues for next year… I can start air circulating and I can put a warming pad under the plants to accelerate their growth.
Growing
Once my plants were in the ground, however, they took off like little rockets, and grew as well as any greenhouse purchased plants.
We are now seeing the fruits of their bounty. Here are a couple of pictures of what Spice brought in from this morning’s picking. All of these came from my little seedlings.
Takeaway
Every year I set out to learn some new prepping & survival skills. This year one of my projects was garden starting. Did everything go perfectly? No, I had many challenges and struggles to learn from.
The point, however, is that while I had failures, I had them in a year of plenty, where I can afford to make mistakes. Our lives do not depend on this garden.
Having seeds in a prepping seed vault means nothing unless you know how to actually plant them, help them grow, care for and maintain them. It means nothing if you don’t have ground for them to grow in ready to go.
The time to learn is when times are good, not when times are bad.
Bounty: the break table at work, guess who brought the healthy snack, courtesy of my formerly baby plants
Your plants were probably spindly because they did not get enough blue light as a component of the light that they did receive. I ran into the problem growing in a sunny indoor location. Modern windows block much more UV than in the past, and the plants need this to grow healthy. Otherwise they stretch and push upward to get to the good light.
Also, I start my seeds in a damp paper towel in a zippered plastic bag. Once they germinate they get moved to a peat pot. That way peat pots are only used for good seeds.
Good stuff, RayK. Thanks for your comments!
A neighbor told me how to make a small greenhouse to start my plants. You start with a large tote that you can find in the Home Organization area of your local home improvement store. Make sure that it is opaque, not clear. Then you need some garden shade cloth which you can find at your local farm supply store, and some bungee cords.
Put your starter seedlings/peat pots in the tote, put the shade cloth over the top of the tote and wrap the bungees around the shade cloth to hold it in place. I put the whole thing outside in the sunshine, but on days where it is quite windy, when it is raining or when the temp is below 32F, the tote stays indoors. Water every other day, and rotate 180 degrees every day.
After about 4 weeks, put outside without the shade cloth.
Plants are ready to transplant into the garden in about 6 weeks.
Also, I use 3″ peat pots so that I don’t have to repeatedly transplant my plants. Put the germinated seeds into the potting mix and just water and put out in the sunshine.
I’m a real cheapskate and I came up with an improvised greenhouse for early Spring when it is still chilly outside. My “greenhouse” is the rear window of my car. I place a flat cardboard box containing my seedlings on the ledge above the back seat. Climate control is done by opening the windows slightly. I have a thermometer inside the car and I can read it from through the window to avoid extremes in hot or cold. It can easily climb to 100 degrees inside the car, even though it might be in the 40’s outside. The technique worked well this year. I know it sounds silly, but it really works and is good for a more urban setting where you may not have space for a proper green house.
I know some of what I’ll say here runs counter to what you said…BUT…spindly plants are almost always a sign of too much heat, not enough sunlight and too much moisture. I always strive for cool temps in the 70’s, diffuse sunlight and low humidity for my seedlings.The recipe for gardening success here in the Midwest is plant everything as early as you can…start the seeds in late March…even though that can be tricky with the unstable weather we have.
Thanks for your comment! Here’s my thoughts on your excellent points.
I’m pretty sure that one of the three things wasn’t the cause… it was not too hot where they were. They were in a room that was generally around 66 degrees in the daylight down to 60 at night. That’s why I’m thinking about a heating pad, I think they got too cold.
Overwatering? Quite possibly… in fact, I’m pretty sure that’s a big part of my problem.
Not enough sunlight? Possibly, they were in good light (in a south facing window), I’m not discounting that at all but I’m pretty sure it was a decent amount of light.
Of the three options you mention, I’m pretty sure that too much moisture was the leading culprit at least… I’m pretty darned sure I overwatered.
Could I buy some seeds from you to grow the chocolate chip cookies?
I got them from a friend of a friend’s friend, but will see what I can do for you…