Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Winter seed sowing and indoor planting
Frigid temps are but a memory, as I write this Garden Bite. In colder climates, you still have a week to get outside and plant native seed. Yes, I said plant! According to Prairie Moon Nursery, from late October thru the month of February is a good time to broadcast native seed for a prairie.
Planting now gives Mother Nature time to stratify seeds and work them into the ground through freeze-thaw cycles.
Of course, most of us don’t have prairies, so what can WE get started on? How about a primer for indoor seed starting. Start with a cheap shoplight that you can raise and lower with a pulley system.
It works great, there’s no need for fancy/expensive grow lights unless you were growing flowers indoors. Yogurt containers are good planters but you need to poke drainage holes in the bottom and be sure they’re thoroughly clean. For my part, I prefer to use peat pots.
You can then plant the seedling directly in the ground rather than have to transfer them to another container or pull them out to plant.
- I recommend a heat mat. Most seeds need warmth to germinate but not all of them need light. A heat mat also helps prevent Damping Off, a fungus that will kill your seedlings.
- READ the label on your seed packet. It’s a wealth of information!
- Once your seeds sprout, they all need light. Keep your shoplight about 4 inches from the tops of your seedlings and on for about 12 to 16 hours a day.
- Let those seedlings feel a breeze! Use a small fan to gently blow across your seedlings for about an hour a day.
DON’T START TOO EARLY! I’LL BE GIVING YOU AN UPDATE IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS ON WHEN TO START.