#4 Seed Starting

The madman came dancing up the cellar stairs a couple of days ago singing “They’re up, they’re up, they’re up.” To a visitor his actions may seem strange, but I knew he meant that some seeds had begun to sprout. To understand the significance, we have to back track to the beginning of December.          

Exciting Mail

The seed catalogs began arriving around Thanksgiving – first came Burpee. And, the rest followed in rapid succession. Between the Christmas sale catalogs, the seed catalogs and our regular subscriptions, we must have driven the Post Office crazy!

Seeds in the Mail

During all of this, the madman got a different kind of package. A small, manila package, tightly taped. Seeds. This particular package contained Japanese Black Pine seeds. The next one contained pansy seeds. These were the first of what will be many over the coming weeks. Not all packages are treated equally because not all seeds are created equal.

The madman is fascinated by starting conifers from seed. This fascination started shortly after we moved into our home. Our neighbor Jen, a retired school teacher, showed him how to take a pinecone, put it in a plastic bag and shake the heck out of it. Voila! Seeds! Getting these seeds to germinate presents a challenge. A challenge the madman readily accepts.

Planting Seeds

Some seeds are much easier to start than others. Most seeds readily start in a loose soil medium – plant, water and walk away. As long as they don’t dry out, they will sprout.

For some seeds you have to replicate the natural growing conditions. And, before you can do that, you need to know what those conditions are. Conifers fall into this group. Most of the seeds don’t just fall to the ground and sprout. Once on the ground, they must experience a winter.

Planting steps for Japanese Black Pine

To make them feel at home, the madman soaks the seeds overnight in water, then puts them in a plastic bag with loose, damp potting soil. Bagged seeds sit around for a week or so, then if he hasn’t forgotten about them, he’ll put them in the refrigerator’s meat keeper for 4 to 8 weeks. Next, he will move them to his seed starting area where he can watch for germination. The Japanese Black Pine seeds have been in the meat keeper for almost a month.

In the next couple of weeks, the madman will move the Japanese Black Pine seeds from my meat keeper to his heating mat in the basement.  If the seeds sprout (sometimes they don’t), he’ll tease them out of the soil with tweezers and pot each seedling in a 2”x 2” pot filled with the same loose plant medium he uses for germination. At this stage, the mice love them (sprouts, you know) so he has to be extra diligent. Trays holding the newly sprouted and potted plants are surrounded by mouse traps, and the madman constantly monitors the traps (down the stairs, up the stairs, down the stairs…).

Artificial Light for Plant Growth

In the past we used inexpensive shop lights with 4-foot florescent tubes suspended over shelves in the basement. Try as he might, the madman could never convince me this system would not look ridiculous in the living room – I mean we ARE civilized. Would you be happy with these florescent lights in your living room?

This year we purchased some new LED lights – the price on these units has been dropping so they are now rather affordable and they look nicer. In case you are interested, LED stands for Light Emitting Diodes-as an Optometrist, the madman can go into a day-long dissertation on what they are and how they work, but trust me you don’t want to know this.  Just know that the LED lights are smaller and provide a better light spectrum for the plants. Our plan is to move the young plants out of harm’s way to begin their growth under LED lights upstairs where hopefully there are fewer mice.

Pansies

Now to the reason for the recent excitement – the madman planted his pansy seeds a couple of weeks ago. Over time we have learned that if we want early pansies, they have to be started early December to compete with Florida growers. The advantage to growing your own is that you can choose your favorite types and colors. Besides, it is cheaper, especially if, like the madman, you like lots of pansies.

Growing pansies isn’t as challenging as growing conifers. We fill a 4”x6” nursery flat with loose, very drenched soil – seeds are sprinkled on top, lightly pressed into the soil and watered well with a spritzer. A good rule of thumb – for those seeds that germinate in the dark is to plant at a depth equal to twice the size of the seeds.

The madman puts his Pansy flats in a plastic bag which is tightly sealed to keep the moisture level high. Since the seeds germinate best at around 70˚, flats are placed on a heating pad available from garden supply centers. Pansies will take a week or longer to germinate, but some over-excited ones will pop in a day or two so they need close monitoring. 

Keeping Pansy Flats Happy

As soon as they germinate, the pansies are moved to a spot under grow lights. The seedlings have to be kept under real good light or they will reach and get leggy. The madman’s dance signified that it is time to consider moving these flats. He will spend the next few days checking growth progress.  Once the plants get their first set of true leaves, he will transplant them into plastic 6-paks. Over the years we have acquired millions of these – we do occasionally buy plants from local nurseries and it seems we never throw anything out.

Easy Starting

For those of you who don’t want to mess with flats, plastic bags and constant monitoring we have a fun alternative. When the madman was a student in optometry school, his roommate had some fairly exotic house plants. For a joke, the madman stuck a grapefruit seed in one of the pots. A few weeks later, his roommate noticed “something weird” in the pot. It was a grapefruit sprout. That sprout was carefully removed, potted and grew into a beautiful grapefruit tree. It is still alive today.

The madman saves all his citrus seeds – since we eat grapefruit and oranges, and cook with lemons and limes, we have a ready supply. We keep a couple of pots with potting soil near the table and cooking area ready to accept any seeds we find. Eventually we have a supply of citrus trees that make good decorative plants. At Christmas time the madman likes to hang some ornaments on the trees. A quick note, as easy as these seeds are to germinate, they do not like to dry out.

The bulk of our seed starting will take place next February/March. Until then, we will pour over the catalogs to find what we want to grow in 2019. And, that’s best done with a cup of cocoa. It’s ready.