Here I chat about what I have learned from more experienced gardeners and through trial and error some best practices to give your young seedlings the best chance of surviving after germination and how to chart their progress. Topics covered include how and when to water, why you should keep a diary, the wobble effect and potting on.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 Check this boy out, check the giant pea stock.
00:07 [music]
00:17 So here as you can see are some of the seeds we planted the last time if you remember.
00:22 Now this is the hollyhock and I'm really pleased with how this has come on.
00:30 A lot of germination after about a week or so using medicine as well, California poppies.
00:35 Now they exploded after about six days of being in the, after planting them.
00:40 And this is just some of the many, many seeds that germinated.
00:46 I think there must have been a hundred percent germination rate on these
00:49 because I have two pots full of them that I've put outdoors now.
00:53 And still have these ones here.
00:55 If I was to grow them again I would just direct sow them either on the big pots or under the ground
01:01 because they're just, they have really long roots on them like and I don't think they take well the transplanting.
01:08 So we'll see if they do come on, they may die off.
01:11 Moving on over then, I was showing you I was soaking the sweet peas the last time.
01:15 Well this is the results and it's some difference. I didn't soak the last sweet peas
01:19 and actually put them somewhere hot, wrongly, they germinate and only a few come up.
01:24 This time I've just left them at room temperature, soaked them for about between,
01:29 I think maybe about 12 and 24 hours beforehand.
01:33 Hello, I thought I'd just finish off the video here by giving you five tips.
01:38 Things that I've found would have been useful to know before I started planting the seeds,
01:46 or started germinating seeds in February. It's now the end of March.
01:49 Here are a couple of tomato seedlings which have come up quite well.
01:54 These are about a month old, I planted these the first week in March, so about four weeks old.
02:01 They're looking very healthy, I have about 13 seedlings for tomatoes growing on a windowsill.
02:10 And then at night I try to keep them somewhere warm.
02:13 So my first piece of advice is don't plant too many seeds because you end up with a little shop of ours.
02:22 I've found that I now have so many seedlings and we're still a couple of weeks off from the last frost date here.
02:29 So I can't put them all outside yet.
02:33 There's some hardy ones which are already outside and which will tolerate a light frost if it happens.
02:39 But, and that's another thing as well, keep an eye on the weather forecast.
02:44 I've been glued to mid-air and mid-office just to see how the weather's going to be for the next week.
02:51 And keep an eye out for any frosty nights so that you can prepare.
02:55 If you are putting hardened seedlings off at this time of year, make sure and bring them in if it's going to dip near or below freezing.
03:03 Second thing is keep a diary.
03:06 When you start, make a note of when you planted seeds.
03:10 Keep a date on what they are and also label the seedlings as well.
03:15 You can buy little labels, you can make them yourself.
03:19 And just plop them in with the trays whenever you're planting them because it's very easy to forget how long ago you planted them.
03:27 It's very easy to mix up seeds.
03:30 A lot of seedlings look the same, especially when they get their first leaves.
03:33 Not their true leaves, but the leaves that are inside the seed.
03:37 And a lot of them are very similar looking.
03:39 So if you haven't got a marker on them, if you haven't written it down in a little diary.
03:45 I use, somebody bought me this little How Stark Game of Thrones book.
03:51 And I've just been writing in here since the start of February all the things I've been planting.
03:57 And then transplanting as well.
04:01 So it's worth looking back.
04:03 And you can see then if something says, you know, after a few weeks then transplant or leave for a month.
04:12 You'll know then when they pot it on, but also how long it takes to germinate.
04:17 Because you can sometimes think, oh I planted that ages ago or I put them seeds in ages ago.
04:22 And there's no sign of them, I'll chuck the compost out.
04:25 But some seeds I've planted have taken almost a month to germinate and then they've all come up together.
04:31 So just keep a diary.
04:33 Another thing is watering.
04:35 I would highly recommend under-watering in a tray.
04:39 Like I use an old baking tray, which I'll put a wee demo at the end of this actually.
04:43 Put the compost mix in before you sow your seeds.
04:48 And then let the water seep up into the seed tray.
04:55 And then plant your seeds and then just spray them with a water bottle.
05:01 Because that way then, if you keep doing it that way, you're not disturbing the seeds at the top.
05:09 You're not loading the moisture onto the seed either.
05:12 And it encourages root growth down through the soil as well.
05:16 So you get much healthier roots that way.
05:19 One of the other things I would say about seedlings, young seedlings as well, is the stems are very, very brittle.
05:28 And they have to support that whole plant.
05:30 So my next tip would be the wobble effect.
05:35 So if you can, leave them somewhere with a bit of a draft in the spring.
05:39 So what that does is it strengthens the stems of the plant, makes for a much healthier plant then.
05:46 And it prepares them then for going outside into the elements.
05:49 If you have a very windy day then, they can withstand that.
05:53 So it's a little exercise for them.
05:57 Before they get to that stage.
06:00 The fifth thing I would advise is use the right compost and pot size.
06:04 But take out big lumps.
06:05 If there's any bits of root branch or anything on it, take them out.
06:10 And that has worked. Everything has germinated fine.
06:13 And just our new multi-purpose compost, which also tends to have more nutrients than the seed compost.
06:19 Which is really just for starting seeds and tends to be a bit devoid of nutrients.
06:23 But, you know, it's up to you.
06:25 It should be fine either way, but I just find the multi-purpose compost is just handier.
06:30 And you don't have to feed them as much as well.
06:33 And then in terms of pot size, I would say, you know, don't plant your seedlings.
06:39 If you're transplanting the seedlings, don't plant them in the big, big containers.
06:43 Because it seems to hamper their growth.
06:46 They have all this room and they're more likely to become waterlogged, the root system.
06:52 So if you're transplanting them on, put them in small containers.
06:56 Unless they have a big taproot and then they will need that deeper pot.
07:01 Because like lupines, things like that, they prefer to have a lot of room to go down.
07:07 A lot of plants do actually.
07:11 Vegetables especially. And also root vegetables especially actually.
07:16 And a lot of like hollyhock as well.
07:20 So I think I'll be planting them in deeper pots whenever they come up a bit.
07:26 The others I would just keep in cell trays because I find that I planted delphiniums,
07:31 which don't like being transplanted anyway. Or larkspur, the type of delphinium.
07:36 And they have kind of suffered through transplanting.
07:41 I put them in too big of pots. I think they were too wet.
07:44 So over-watering is another thing.
07:47 Just because something looks dry on the top, you should lift the pot really.
07:51 They see how it feels because there's probably a lot of water that the root can access under the top.
07:58 So if it feels very light, then you know it's time to water it.
08:02 And again, seedlings, just put a tray of water. Let the water soak up.
08:07 That will encourage the roots down.
08:10 And that is more or less everything.
08:12 And just finally I would say, don't be too hard on yourself.
08:15 Because you can lose heart if you've killed off seedlings.
08:19 Some seedlings are going to die. They're going to die from transplant shock.
08:22 They're going to die because maybe you have a very cold morning.
08:26 Maybe the light's not right.
08:31 Our weather's very changeable here in Ireland.
08:33 So there's lots of different things that can go wrong with them.
08:39 But you will, if you don't succeed at first, just keep trying.
08:42 Because you will, and you'll learn so much from just doing it.
08:48 So I'm just going to show you here how I under water.
08:52 And this is a good idea for before you plant your seeds and when you have young seedlings like these.
09:06 So this is a 24 cell for seedlings or for germinating seeds.
09:16 And they're quite deep. It's quite a good one.
09:19 I've just filled it with dry compost here.
09:22 Just a normal multi-purpose compost.
09:25 And here I have an old baking tray.
09:28 You can use anything really that doesn't have holes in it.
09:31 And this, I've just put about maybe a centimetre, two centimetres of water into it.
09:40 And then I'm just going to plop this in here like so.
09:47 And leave that now and let the water soak up through it.
09:50 If it needs more water I'll just pour a bit more in.
09:53 So you want it to be nice and damp then at the top.
09:57 And that's before I plant the seeds.
10:01 And that's after I plant.