Lesson 5: Seedlings; Diary

Lesson 5 – Part A

GROWING SEEDLINGS

Today's lesson is outdoors; so don't forget your hat and gloves!

Now that you have decided what
you want to grow in your garden,
it is time to sow some seeds.

As you learnt in the first lesson,
each seed contains a 'program'
to tell it how to grow. Part of
that program tells it which soil
temperature it needs to grow well,
because not all seeds will grow
every month of the year.

To get your garden started you will
need some seeds that will germinate at this time of year, a container to sow the seeds in, and some growing mix to fill the container. You will also need a safe place to keep the small seedlings until they are strong enough to plant out into a garden bed.

You can sow your vegetable seeds in small pots or yoghurt containers that your class has collected. Some tiny plants don't like having their roots disturbed and will sulk for a couple of weeks after being moved from seedling trays into garden beds. If you start each plant in its own little pot instead of shared pots it will help to avoid this problem, as it will be easier for you to plant out the seedlings without disturbing their roots.

Before filling the pots, make sure that the pots are clean, and that they have plenty of holes near the bottom of the pot so that water can drain away easily.

FILLING POTS

Garden soil in pots for seeds can be too heavy and wet, making it hard for roots to push through the soil, and seeds can rot if they are too wet. Seeds germinate and grow more quickly in a mix especially made for growing seedlings. Fill each pot to the top with organic-allowed seed-raising mix, but don't press it down. If you water the pots gently, the mix will settle a little bit.

SOWING SEED

How deep should you sow the seeds? The seed packet should tell you how deep to sow the type of seed you are growing. If not, your garden supervisor will be able to tell you.

The general rule for seeds that need darkness to germinate is to cover each seed with seed-raising mix 2–3 times the width of the seed. (Seeds for broccoli and tomato plants are sown 5 mm deep, pea seeds are sown 2.5 cm deep, and the very large seeds for broad beans are sown 5 cm deep.) Dill, German chamomile and some types of lettuce need some light to germinate. Just cover these seeds with a sprinkling of seed-raising mix to stop them washing to the edges of the pots when you are watering them.

Only sow one or two seeds in each pot. If you sow too many seeds in each pot, leaves won't dry quickly enough after watering in the crowded conditions, and your seedlings will become slimy, and rot. This problem is called 'damping-off'. If you sow two seeds in each pot, sow them 2 cm apart and pull out the smallest one when the seedlings have 2 or 3 pairs of leaves. After covering the seeds, give the pots a light sprinkling of water – just enough to make sure the seed-raising mix is settled around the seeds – and don't forget to label your plants!

Some seeds can be sown directly in garden beds. Pea
and broad bean seeds (in cool weather) and green and
snake bean seeds (in warm weather) prefer to grow this
way. Climbing peas and beans will need a 2 metre high
frame to support them.

Or, you can make a tepee or wigwam shape with 3 long
garden stakes or bamboo poles tied together at the top.
Place the bottoms of the poles an equal distance apart.
Water the bed thoroughly, then sow a seed on each
side of each pole – six seeds for each tepee. Gently
firm soil around the seeds. Don't water the bed again
until the seeds have germinated. Don't sow too many
seeds around the tepee as the plants will produce a lot
of leaves where the poles are close together and it will be hard to see which pods are ready to harvest. Too much foliage bunched together also lets bad fungi cause mildew on leaves in wet weather.

CARING FOR SEEDLINGS

Put the pots where they are protected from wind and the hot sun, but remember that they need some sunlight to grow. If they don't get enough light your seedlings will be thin and weak. Water the pots when necessary to keep
the seed-raising mix damp.

Soft drink and large juice bottles (with their bases removed and lids on) can be placed over the pots to help to keep the seed-raising mix damp so that the pots don't need watering very often.

Both native mice and house mice love eating seeds and, if they are short of food, they may sometimes dig them up and steal your seeds at night. The drink bottles will also protect your seeds from mice.

When your seeds have germinated, unscrew the lids of the bottles to allow air to move around the plants. Seed-raising mixes do not contain a lot of plant food. When your seeds have formed seed leaves, you will have to give them some plant food to keep them growing. Worm castings dissolved in water are an excellent plant food for seedlings. Add enough water to the dissolved worm castings to make the liquid as dark as weak black tea. This is the usual strength for organic liquid fertiliser. However, seedlings are baby plants and need gentle feeding, so add some more water to make the liquid the colour of very weak black tea. Water seedlings with the weak fertiliser every 5-7 days.

When your seedlings have fully formed their first true leaves (these may look very different from the seed leaves), you can remove the bottles and keep them for your next lot of seedlings. When the seedlings have 2 or 3 pairs of true leaves, you can start allowing them to get a little more sunlight each day so that they won't get sunburnt when you plant them into garden beds.

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Lesson 5 – Part B

GARDENING DIARY

It is a good idea to keep a diary of what you grow in your garden so that you will know how long vegetables and fruits take to be ready for picking in your local climate conditions. Allow one page for each vegetable or fruit.

As well as keeping a record of when you sow seed and when it is ready to pick, you can write down if plants need extra fertiliser, or when frosts or heavy rain periods start and end so that you can decide whether to sow the same plants earlier or later next time.

If a particular crop has grown very well, you may want to save seed from it, or buy the same variety next time you sow seed. If the plants didn't grow well, your diary will remind you to try a different variety of that vegetable next time.