Growing seeds

Since I have decided to grow my plants from seeds because its a lot cheaper than buying seedling from a nursery, I can plant as many or as little as I want, which was nice since I was planting in pots that can only take about one plant. But also that I can keep seeds for a few years to come.

I thought that I would sit and write down how I have started my seeds for the plants that are going to be planted outside. Its very simple. Plant your seeds 2-4 weeks depending on your plants before the last frost. and here's how to start:

Containers:

Smaller plants I have in egg cartons because its a quick way to section off your plants and not have to worry that you have planted them to close together. I dont plant the cardboard with the plant as I have read on the internet because I have done it before and my plants died since the cardboard didnt melt and the roots got damaged. But I found that the soil pops out of the egg cartons in one nice clump of sand with the roots which can then be planted easily. For my flowers and chilli peppers I used these.

Larger plants I like to use old yoghurt pots or I take an old cardboard milk carton cut it in half and then you have two container. I fill with soil and then you can plant them in the pots, dont water to much or add drainage holes in these. I find that the soil also pops cleanly out of these holders.

Soil:

I like to use soil, the seedling mix from the nursery rather than the soil-less mixes that you can buy.
Then add a tiny bit of fertilizer to the soil. I add epsom salts about 1 teaspoon- 1 liter to the water that I water the soil with, I add my seeds and I cover with a bit of soil before water a bit more. Then I place them in a large clear plastic container with a lid. This creates a mini green house and keeps the humidity high so you wont have to water as often and it will help the seeds sprout sooner.

The mini greenhouse is places in a sunny spot and dont forget to crack the lid so that here is ample air circulation inside otherwise mold can grow.

Hardening:

Once your seeds have sprouted and grown a bit you need to harden them to the sun. This can be done by taking your mini green house outside for a few hours each day and open the lid so that your seedlings are exposed to the sun. I have read that you should do this for a week. So my plan is to harden them for 1 hour each day and increase the hour each day. To make more sense:

day 1- 1 hour

day 2-2 hours

day 3-3 hours

and so on until you have gotten them to 7 hours, you can go longer but I believe that this should be long enough for the seedling to withstand being transplanted.

Transplanting:

When to transplant a plant has always been my main worry, but I have read and found that you should transplant it after the seedling has grown its first 2 true leaves. A true leaf is the first leave that it grows that looks like the leaf the plant is meant to have. If you're not sure what that looks like then another way to time it is to wait until the seedling has at least 5 leaves and then it should be strong enough to transplant. Dont forget to fertilize the soil and water well before transplanting.

And that's the plan. Hope it can help and give you some inspiration.

Finally getting somewhere

Finally I'm getting somewhere with my garden. My fencing is keeping my basset our the garden so I can really get cracking. Today I did a lot in the beds at the back. I sprayed for cut worm and ants (I don't care much for going organic I know these homemade things don't kill the pests and I will be damned if my hard work gets eaten!! Anyway) put fertilizer and then I dug up the ground a bit and added some compost then I watered it all in.

I discovered that one of my cucumbers I had planted outside was still there, a bit trampled on but it seems to be doing better after a good watering. So my soil is ready for my plants. 

I checked up on my other veggies that I have in large pots in our pool area. And they too are making a good recovery. My gardening year has really started out roughly. But finally nothing is eating them and they seem to be doing well.

I have some carrots growing in a pot and I am so impressed at how well they have grown. I decided to pull one up to see how they looked and was pleasantly surprised when a tiny carrot appeared. (It was really crunchy and tasty too!) 

I planted 9 coli flowers of which only 2 survived but the one is finally making a coli flower yay! 

This is the one I'm most proud of. 

I even finally have a small strawberry finally growing. These plants we got from cuttings of a friends plant. This was the first time I had used cutting and of course most of it died.

And then another thing is my red onions they are finally starting to make little onions too. I read that you can grow onions during winter. But it turns out not just any variety can. So have a look at the different varieties an your needs before you plant. In these containers I also have lettuce and celery but they are still o the fence they will either die or flourish, I'm hoping the latter of course.

My cucumbers inside (the pot one and spare one) have finally made their first true leaf. I finally read a place that have a better detail of how and when to transplant your seedlings. If you started them with a grow light then you need to harden them to sunlight for at least a week. But if you started them in a sunny window you just need to acclimatize then for a day or two. And the best time to transplant your seedling is once they have made two true leaves. This is true for almost all vegetables, fruits and even flowers.

In my herb garden inside my cone flowers have sprouted finally! 

As you can see my seeds are doing very well I their seed box. I open it once a day for a few hours so they can get some direct sunlight. 

Replanting, pests and mini update

There's nothing worse than having your seeds not sprout so after a month and still nothing I decided to replant the seeds that didn't grow and its a bit disheartening because the season is going along and I still haven't been able to plant out my tomatoes, beans or cucumbers. Since my biggest pest (my basset) decided to eat my first lot of cucumbers this is going to soon become a post about growing all these plants in pots because having a puppy and gardening don't go together well. Even with fencing and all that he still manages to get in some how and eat everything or dig it up. So now at the risk of having a very poor harvest this year I am going to resort to using pots if I can't keep the pest out my beds. Which is very annoying because I know he's just a puppy but I don't want the first time I am solely in charge of the vegetable growing to be like this. I know that this can happen to anyone but I will feel sorry for myself for a few hours and I will think up a plan and work hard tomorrow.

But there are some seeds that have sprouted and are doing well. 

My chives still look like grass but its growing strong. I really can't wait until I can start using them in my cooking. I love chives a lot.

Sage! Yes it's finally come up this was the last of the seeds that came up and then I waited another week but still nothing so I replanted them. When I dug up the soil there was nothing the seeds didn't grown and I'm not 100% sure why bit I think it might have been my soil so I got new soil to use. 

My red rosa tomatoes. At least we will have some kind of tomato this year.

My chilli plant, I almost killed this by putting it in the sun for to long to soon. But I put it back inside the seed box and water it well for a few days and its fine. 

Here are my heirloom brandy wine pink tomatoes. I planted three but only two have come up so far. I still have hope that it will come up. 

And then my bush beans. This is the first time I am growing beans so I am very excited to see how this grows. 

I will update you again soon with what has sprouted and what's doing well. 

14 August 2013

This morning I was greeted by my basil just peaking out of the soil. It's very exciting when your seeds finally break through the ground to become seedlings. Most seeds take 8-14 days to sprout and when you've planted them this can seem like a year, while you wonder if the seeds you bought were duds. Especially since the cucumber seeds you planted 3 days before are already so big. But cucumber seeds grow fast and need a lot of water. My cucumber seedling in my green house room are doing exceptionally well and I have make my makeshift trellis for it today

This is also my dogs rooms so his bed and toys are behind. But these doweling sticks are just over a meter and I hope that will be high enough for my cucumber. I am going to prune this one and not let it grow wild like the ones I will put in the garden. My goal with the indoor cucumbers, celery and tomatoes is to have two growing but time it so that when the one stops producing fruit the other is just starting so that I can have an all year supply. This first plant is an experiment so that I can determine the right times to plant. 

I have tied a short piece of string to the last row of strings on the trellis and loosely wrapped it around the plant so not to strangle the poor thing, to start to train it up onto the trellis. I have given all of my seeds a bit of shake and grow so hopefully they will start to grow big and strong. 

My thyme is one of the first thing I planted and I am proud at how well it's done. Soon I will have thyme infused oil ready for cooking. 

Sprouted

So yeah my cucumber I showed you had come up but my thyme has also gotten quiet big already 

My mint has sprouted one little leaf but its so small I will only post a picture once it grows bigger and then my chives have also sprouted but it still looks like weird grass but soon it will be good. 

Something that I am very interested in, which is why I planted so many plants is the health benefits that these herbs have and I will post a little bit about them later on. And a few things on how to use them and what you can do with them. 

Here are all my pots I can't wait until everything is growing and I can start to use the plants. 

Seeds

So the seeds that I am planting are:

Garlic chives

Chives

Thyme

Mint

Majoram

Rosa tomato

Big tomatoes

Cherry tomatoes

Cucumber

Kiwi fruit

Chilli

Paprika

Basil

Lemon basil

Cinnamon basil

Lavender

Chamomile

Purple cone flower

Celery

Parsley

Granadilla

Green beans

Aniseed

Sage

Yeah a lot I know but I want to plant a whole lot and next year see what I used or not. But also a lot of these are perennials (they last a few years) 

The nice thing about seeds that if you store them right you can have them for up to 6 years. What I have read I have mine in airtight container or little zip lock bag in a light proof cardboard box in the fridge. If you don't want to keep your in the fridge a cool dry and dark area is perfect to. Like a cupboard or garage. If you keep it in the fridge keep it well away from the deep freeze or the back of the fridge. 

 

I have mine in little pots or old pill jars. I saw a few ideas on Pinterest to put your seeds in tic tac containers. If you have enough it is a good idea but I would never have enough even in 10 years. 

In my seed box

This is my seed box for the plants that are going to be planted outside. Since its not too good to replant plants as it damages their little roots and gives them a shock the seeds for the inside pots I planted straight into their pots. I have them inside a container and I keep the one corner open for some ventilation. I have 4 kiwi fruit seeds growing and holding thumbs that I will have at least one male and one female plant. The problem with the kiwi vine is that it will only start to bare fruit after 4-6 years but I'm not about to move anytime soon (and if I do I will dig them up and take them with me!) but I think in the long run it will be worth it. There are two paprika pepper seeds and 1 chilli pepper seed growing. I have them in the egg cartons but I think that I will rather use proper seed trays next time. Soon I will have money maker tomatoes inside, cherry tomatoes and two granadilla vine seeds as well but I am still waiting for them to arrive. 

Many people say to buy seedlings, I say it's your choice but I prefer to buy the seeds for a few reasons:

A) you can plant as much or as little as you want. With the pots I only planted one or four seeds. If you buy from the nursery then you have to plant 6/9 

B) their much cheaper

C) if you store them right then you will have seeds for the next 6 years 

D) you have the satisfaction of seeing your seed sprout and grow and you get more of a seance of awe that the tiny plant will soon grow and produce a big fruit. 

I have found that a good potting mix, and some Epsom salts goes a long way in terms of starting your seeds off. As well as having them in a warm and well lit area you can't go wrong. 

If you're interested I bought my seeds from Bid Or Buy from Lavender heaven and Seeds for Africa because buying seeds from a nursery or store was a lot more. 

My cucumbers

One thing I love and something that is so easy to grow is a cucumber. I always grew my cucumbers outside and they thrived but the last two years it was attacked and killed by white fly. And none of the organic sprays that you make with oil or dish soap work believe me I tried everything. I did realize by a fluke that Rose Care killed them but I wouldn't recommend using it when the cucumber is producing fruit. So this year I have three seedings for outside and then I am planting one inside in a pot 

This is when the cucumber just started to sprout I planted my seeds inside egg cartons and it was nice because the seedling popped right out the problem is that you had to water it quiet a lot because the cardboard soaked up the water. And you could only leave in there for a limited time because now here we are having a late spell of cold and frost so my cucumbers have out grown the egg cartons an I have had to put them in a larger container for the time being. 

So here are the three cucumbers that I will plant outside how they look today. 

As you can see the cucumber in the pot is doing much better because I reported it earlier. I also gave them a bit of Epsom salts to help it grow a bit better. 

I still need to get the materials to make the mini trellis for the vine to grow up. 

Introduction

Hello I'm Jenna,

I have come to discover the joy of growing plants. I have planted a few flowers but this blog is going to mostly focus on my herbs, fruit and veg because those I am the most excited about to watch growing. Now I am just a beginner gardener I have helped my father in the garden before but this is the first time I am growing anything on my self. A lot of my information is from memory but also a lot from my research over the last few months. I have grown some things already but a lot of it still has to come up. So I hope that you enjoy this and maybe even learn something with me. Also please keep in mind that I live in South Africa we are a 10b zone but most of my plants are indoors.