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Tag Archives: seeds

How to make your seeds germinate faster

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Seeds can take many days or even weeks before they germinate. Some faster than others. But you can make them germinate faster yourself. There are a lot of things you can do to make your seeds germinate faster. In this post I will be showing you three (3) of them.

Dark places
One way to get your seeds germinating faster is by putting them in a dark place after you have planted them. They will germinate much faster than when you have them outside in the sun.

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Some people also cover them with newspapers. This is also a great idea. Since when they are covered by the newspaper, the soil will stay moist. Becuase the newspaper is protecting it from drying out too fast. And moist soil is what your seeds love.

Soaking the seeds
To start germinating, seeds need a lot of water inside them. Soaking them will let them absorb the quantity of water that they would have absorbed in maybe a week. So it is good to soak your seeds for about 24 hours before planting them.
When you soak them, the seeds will absorb the water. This triggers the seed into thinking that it has been planted for several days already. Which let the seeds start germinating. Since they already absorbed the water that they would have absorbed in more than a day, they will germinate faster when you plant them.

How to soak your seeds
Put the seeds in water for about 24 hours. Not a lot of water.
You will notice when the seeds absorbed enough water. Because their colors will get lighter than they were before.
After you have soaked them, you can now plant them.

Vermicompost
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For those of you that don’t know, vermicomposting is a way of composting where you use worms to decompose your food waste for you. They do this very fast and what they produce is a very very nutrient rich soil for your vegetable plants.

Since the finished compost contains so much nutrients, using this when planting the seeds will make them germinate faster for sure!

1. When you’re going to plant them, fill the planting pot till where you want to plant the seeds.

2. Then add some finished worm compost in top of it.

3. Put your seed on top of the compost.

4. After that you can cover it with either potting soil or more compost.

This method is my favorite one to use. It works really great! A plant that would have germinated in 7 days, germinated in like 3 days. And some of them even started coming out the next day! How great is that?

So now it’s your turn. Choose one of these methods and try it out. Let me know how it worked out.
And if you have any questions, please ask them in a comment.
Feel free, don’t be scared.

How To Make Seed Starter Pots Using Toilet Paper Rolls

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An easy way to start your seeds indoors is to use toilet paper or paper towel rolls.

There are two advantages of using toilet paper rolls. The first is that they are free. It’s likely that you already have both items available in your apartment. Ain’t no better price than free. The other is that that they can be put directly into the soil when transplanted because the cardboard will biodegrade into the soil.

What you’ll need to get your toilet paper roll seed starters made:

  • Toilet paper or paper towel roll
  • Razor
  • Scissors
  • Duct tape

How to make a seed starter pot using a toilet paper roll:

  • Cut the toilet paper roll in half using your razor and scissors.
  • Take one of the halves and cut four slits about 3/4″-1″ or so up the roll.
  • Fold the toilet paper roll into each other to form the bottom of the seed starter pot.
  • Use tape to secure the bottom.
  • To fill put your soil inside, followed by your seed and cover with more soil.

 

Starting seeds in eggshells

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This is a Eco-friendly way of starting seeds. The next time you eat egg, save the shell because now you can plant in them!

  • Wash the shells
  • Plant 1 to 2 seeds in every eggshell.  So they won’t be crowded when they come out.
  • You can use a marker to write the type of plant you planted in there. So you don’t forget what you planted in there.
  • Put the seeds on top of the soil. Remember not to fill the shell full with soil yet. Water them carefully and then add more soil on top of the seeds.
  • You can use a shower cap to cover the shells. You can put them in a sunny window in a relatively warm area. During the day the seedlings get some sunlight and because they are covered, they are retaining heat and gaining necessary moisture.
  • When you’re transplanting them, you can just break the shell and put them in the soil. This will be a compost too. Or you can also put them in immediately in the container.

This is an Eco-friendly way of gardening. This is also very affordable.

How To Grow Pumpkins

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Pumpkins are so rewarding to grow in your own garden. What could be more fun than carving a Jack O’Lantern from a pumpkin you grew from seed? There are a few things to watch out for, and a few tricks for success. But if you’ve got the space (you’ll need a lot!) you can definitely grow pumpkins in your garden.

Choosing a Variety

There is a huge variety of pumpkins out there to try growing in your garden, from small pie pumpkins to traditional orange carving pumpkins to huge, prize-winning varieties for those who want to try their hand at growing giant pumpkins.

One thing to keep in mind is that pumpkins take up a huge amount of space. While some, such as the miniature pumpkins, can be trained up a trellis to take up less space, large jack o’lantern or giant pumpkin varieties need plenty of room — sometimes up to 70 square feet per plant.

Choosing a Site

Because pumpkins require so much space, you’ll need to plan ahead to give them the best growing conditions possible. Full sun, good air circulation, and rich, well draining soil are all key to growing your own pumpkins. They need eight hours of sun per day. Air circulation is important to help fend off powdery mildew, which can be a huge problem for pumpkins in late summer. The soil should be enriched with compost and composted manure.

Growing From Seed

The easiest way to grow pumpkins is to sow the seeds directly in the garden after the soil has warmed. You can also start the seeds indoors under lights, then plant them out after the soil has warmed. Seeds should be planted one inch deep. Different varieties of pumpkins will require different spacing between plants; read your seed packet for this information.

Growing Organic Pumpkins: Watering and Fertilizing

Pumpkins require regular irrigation and fertilizing for good growth and production. Pumpkin vines grow almost ridiculously fast, and pull nutrients from the soil like mad. We call plants like these “nutrient hogs.”

The best way to ensure that your pumpkin vines get plenty of nutrients is to start with good, manure and/or compost-enriched soil. You can also add a granulated organic fertilizer to the soil at planting time, and alfalfa meal will provide your plants with a nice amount of potassium — great for overall plant health.

After initial planting, feed the plants every month with fish emulsion or kelp meal.

Be sure to water regularly — pumpkin plants need about an inch of water per week. Don’t just assume your plants need water if you see the leaves wilting in the heat — check your soil before adding extra water. If the soil is still moist, don’t give them extra water or you’ll risk drowning them. Pumpkin leaves often wilt during very hot days, then recover once the hottest part of the day is past.

Harvesting

It’s time to harvest your pumpkins when the skin is hard; you shouldn’t be able to penetrate the skin with your fingernail. It’s best to leave them on the vine until they’ve reached the color you want, because often the color stops developing once you harvest the pumpkin. To harvest, simply cut the pumpkin from the vine with pruners or a knife, leaving a few inches of stem attached to the pumpkin.

Growing organic pumpkins is rewarding. It requires some work and diligence, but there’s nothing quite like picking pumpkins in your very own pumpkin patch.

Starting seeds in egg cartons

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Many of you gardeners out there start your vegetables from seeds. I don’t think you’ll want to be wasting a lot of money on plant pots just to start the seeds in. There are many affordable things that you can use to start your seeds in. One of them is egg cartons.

In this post I’ll guide you how to start your seeds in egg cartons.

What You Need:
These are the stuffs that you need:

  1.  Egg carton
  2. Your seeds that you will be planting

Steps:

  • First you need to fill a layer of soil in the bottom of the egg carton. Since I’m planting garlic, I need to put a very thin layer of soil. Otherwise they won’t fit in the egg carton.
  • After this, I usually add worm castings to give the seeds a source of nutrients. But when I went to get worm castings, I found some worm cocoons in the castings, I couldn’t use it. Otherwise I’ll loose those worms.
  • Then I put the garlics on top of the soil. The pointy end should be pointing to the top.
  • Then you have to finish filling the egg carton with soil.
  • After that, you have to water them. Since I couldn’t give them worm castings, I decided to water them with worm tea.

I covered this egg carton so it stays in the dark. This will give the seeds a chance to germinate faster.

After the germination

As soon as they start to germinate, you have to put them in a place where they can get a little bit of sun. Otherwise they will grow long and thin.
I planted garlic. As soon as they start to germinate, I’ll transplant them to a raised bed.

Labeling your seedling

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You’ve started your seeds, and didn’t label them…

…there’s no need to because you know you’ll remember.

Wrong.

We all tell ourselves that and sure enough we always forget what we planted and when we started them.

Label your seedlings. You think you are going to remember what you planted where, but you won’t.

That’s why this is one of my basic seed starting tips for beginners.

On the labels you can write as little or as much information that you’ll like such as the exact type of seed, date started and approximate time to germination.

Now I’ll share five (5) options to allow you to easily label and identify your seeds. These will range from the simple to a bit more fancy.

Options for Labeling Your Seedlings

  • Rocks
    Rocks are simple and inexpensive ways to label your seedlings and then use in your garden. I’ve used these on my balcony garden as a garden marker.

Collect the rocks from your own yard or “borrow” them from your neighbors. To decorate them, you can simply write on them or decorate them to make them more stylish. The choice is yours.

When writing the name of the seed on the rock, I’d recommend being a bit more generic because you can’t erase what’s on the rock and want to be able to use it again.

  • Popsicle Sticks
    You can get popsicle sticks from your local craft store in bulk at a cheap rate.Much like the rocks, you can be as simple or as fancy as you’d like. They can easily be slipped into the soil to label the seedlings.
  • Clothes Pins
    This is an idea that I got from Becky at EatDrinkBetter. She used clothes pins to label her seedlings.
  • Plant Label Sets
    If you just want to buy something and have it done for you already, then you can buy plant label sets from an online garden supply company such as The Greenhouse Catalog (a sponsor of mine).These come in a many designs from the simple plain white to fancier designs with pictures and other information.

Your Turn

With these four options, you have plenty of choices to make sure that your seedlings are labeled this year. I’ll be sharing other creative ways to label your seedlings in the future, so be sure to subscribe to keep up to date.

4 Seed Labeling Options, So You Don’t Forget What You Planted | Urban Organic Gardener.

Answers January #2

Posted on by Posted in Aquaponics, Compost, Help, Hydroponics, Nutrients, Pests, Plants/Garden, Seeds Leave a comment

Earthworm compost
I was just writing an article about this to renew the informations I’ve written about it in the page of worm compost. So I think that I will be posting this on monday.

Carrots in hydroton
I’ve designed a system especially to grow carrots in it. The roots will have enough space for them become as long as they can. Don’t know if I will start selling it. But if you would like, I can send you a special system designed for carrots for free. Just contact me via my email: support@hydroponics-curacao com

Hydroponics seed starters
Depending on the size of the seeds, you can determine if you need a plug or not. You can use a plug to start your seeds in or to start your cuttings. If the seeds are very tiny, you should put them in the plug and put the plug in the hydroton or the growing medium you’re using. If the seeds a larger, you can just plant them in the growing medium. If the seed is large, then there is less chance for the water to take it than when they are small.

I hope that this article was helpful to you.

Related articles:
Answers January #1

Brandon Koots
Hydroponics Curacao

Email: support@hydroponics-curacao.com

Taking care of seedlings in your system

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In this article I will be talking about taking care of your seedlings in your system.

Taking care of them is easy (these following tips can be used for an aquaponic and hydroponic system):

  • Choose the healthiest seedlings from you garden.
    Wash your seedlings’ roots. For the soil not to get into the system’s water.
  • Plant them into your system. I recommend you to put them into a plug (see picture). Maybe when you were taking out the seedling out of the soil, you broke some of the roots. But when putting the seedlings in a plug, the roots will grow back fast.
  • There’s more chance for them to rotten if they aren’t in a plug.
  • When the seedlings are in the system, you shouldn’t give them too much water. This can lead to rotting of the roots.

I hope I’ve given enough information in this article.

Brandon Koots
Hydroponics Curacao

Email: support@hydroponics-curacao.com

Starting Seeds

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There are several ways to start your seeds and how to let them come out faster. In this post I will teach you what I know.

In Eggshells
After you eat eggs, you can wash those shells and start your seeds in them. Don’t plant too much seeds in one of them. Because when they come out, they will be needing space to grow. And when they are bigger, you will have to transplant them. Plant about 2 seeds in 1 shell. Not more than that.

How to let them come out faster
From experience I have learned that if you put your seeds in a dark spot, where they don’t get light, they will come out faster than normal. But as soon as they come out, they will be needing sunlight. Otherwise they will become very tall and thin. It’s better to give them less water until they get their true leaves.

More tips about faster germination
Another way to let your seeds germinate (come out) faster is to soak them. Soak them in water for 24 hours. After 24 hours you can plants them in soil or other mediums. The soaking will help for the plant to germinate faster than normal.

Dome
You can plant your seeds in a (plastic) bin and then water them. Then you cover them with a plastic cover. This will maintain the humidity inside the bin. Don’t put it in the sun. The soil will be drying out. Put it in a shady spot. When the plants start to come out, remove the plastic cover and let them have sunlight.

Well, these are all I can remember. If I learn something new, I will post it on the blog.

Brandon Koots
Hydroponics Curacao

Email: support@hydroponics-curacao.com

Taking care of seedlings

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Once your seeds come out, you will have to take better care of them. Taking care of seedlings is easy. In this post I will try to explain what to do in just a few words.
When these seeds come out, they will be needing full sun. And less water. When they get enough water and less sun, they will become long and thin. That’s not a healthy plant. So give them less water. Or you can keep them in the dark and don’t give them water till their first true leaves come out. True leaves are the 2nd pair of leaves. When these leaves come out, the plant can get normal water and sun.
The best way to let them grow faster is to put the pots with the seedlings in water. The soil will suck up the water automatically and whenever the plant needs water, it can suck from the soil. An easy way to do this is in self-watering containers.
When their roots begin to get stable in the soil and start to spread out, your plant won’t be needing that much care. If it’s planted in a good and well watered soil, it can take care of its self. The only thing you have to do is watch out for pests. Growing organically will reduce the chance of pests to attack your plants.
I hope this short post was enough to teach you how to take care of your seedlings.

Brandon Koots
Hydroponics Curacao

Email: support@hydroponics-curacao.com

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