How to Plant Tomato & Pepper Seeds

Like I wrote earlier, I have began planting the first of this season's seeds. Today I planted Missouri Pink Love Apple, Evergreen Emerald, and Campbell's tomatoes. I also planted Red Cheese and Mix Bell peppers. To start with soil, I use professional grade Pro-Mix, purchased from a local greenhouse. This is not a seed starting soil, but I believe if the local nurseries can start seeds with this so can I. Pro-Mix is soil-less and made up of sphagnum moss, bark, vermiculite, perilite and few other ingredients that makes this a lightweight dirt-less soil. Make sure to buy sterile soil and non-fertilizer added soil, this prevents disease and other plant complication that come from over fertilizing and contamination. Starting with good soil is the best foundation to start your own plants.

To sterilize containers wash with 10 parts hot water and 1 part bleach.

Pour dry soil into the sterilized cells or whatever container preferred, do not pack tightly. Gently tap down the soil evenly with your fingers. Remove any obtrusive pieces of bark or perilite, like the piece of perilite above.

Using the seedling irirgator water the soil until the soil is saturated, but not dripping or pooling water.

I poured the seeds out on a large index card and determined how many seeds I had. (I may be a bit OCD for lining up the seeds, but they look great lined up like that.) Make sure to make labels, above labels are made for specifically for plant labeling. You can make labels out of Popsicle sticks or pieces of plastic. Make sure to write in permanent marker since water and sun can deteriorate other markers.

Store any seeds that you don't plant in dry containers.

Place the seeds individually into their own area, as centralized as possible to provide enough room for roots to stabilize the plant. Above is a pepper seed, when planting small seeds check to see if the seed is stuck to another. Separate any stuck seeds and plant.

Place a label on each row to identify the seedlings. Tomato and pepper seedlings look a bit different from one another. I alternated the tomato and peppers, just in case I loose any of the labels.

Cover the seeds gently with loose dry soil. Gently cover each seeds, do not move the soil to much because you can carry seeds from one place to another. Re-water the finished layer to settle the soil and to begin germination.

Place a layer of plastic wrap over the seeds to create a temporary hothouse. Set the tray or whatever you planted in on top of the fridge. Use your fridge as a heat mat and remember to check daily for moisture level. If the soil turns light brown then the seeds need water. When plants begin to emerge, remove the plastic wrap and set in a south facing window.

Watch for more plantings and tutorials on gardening soon. Have fun planting and God bless your gardens to be bountiful.

South Facing Window

For many home gardeners that start their own seeds, the south facing window is the most important place in the house during the late winter and early spring. The south facing windows holds the best light for plants to thrive and provides warmth for the soil. I started a few plants about a month ago to see the germination rate of some seeds I had saved. This is how I found out that my eggplants were a loss, but I have one butternut squash out of three seeds, three cantaloupe seeds out of three, and one pink tomato out of three; the germination rates were pretty good.

It is important to test seeds, one method is: place a certain about of seeds in between a layer of moist paper towels, place the paper towels in a Ziploc. Be sure to write what and how many seeds you place in between paper towels. Store the package on top of your fridge, this is most likely the warmest and least disturbed place in your house. Check the bag in three to five days, re-moisten if the paper towels begin to dry. Once the sprouted seeds have at least visible dicot, first, leaves appear you can determine germination rate. Example: you placed ten seeds in the baggie, seven sprouted. Your germination rate is 70%, this is based on a one hundred percent scale.

The living Pink Brandywine Tomato, I collected the seeds from a tomato I bought from the Delano Mennonite Farmers Market near Athens, Tennessee. Here it is with the seed packets that will hopefully grow as strong as this one, tomorrow is planting day.

I recycled a worm tub from the fishing store in town. These are cantaloupes, also harvested from fruit from the Delano market.

 

An up and personal look at a cantaloupe wannabe. The two leaves on the right are the first leaves, dicot leaves; look for these during the first stage of sprouting.


Top middle: Butternut Squash, left: tomato, bottom middle: cutting of a Wandering Jew. The Coke bottle on the left hold a pretty mum; I love collecting old glass bottles and jars and turning them into vases and what not.

I will be back tommorw to show coverage of my 2011 planting.

Updated Planting List for March 4

After searching through some containers, that I save seeds in, I found packet upon packet of seeds that had never been opened or were opened last season. This is the updated list of what I will be giving writ ting about Friday; this is not the total list of what will go into our garden. I tried to purchase seeds that were heirlooms and could be saved for the following season. I hope that I am able to teach readers more about plants, what possibly could every other blog out there already provide? I will try and provide another view of gardening. Since our garden is in Georgia we battle against drought ,nutrient loss, and clay that can cause big messes; I will try and provide help with these problems that I personaly use to cope with these problems and others. Now onto this Friday's list:

Basil: Sweet

Brussels Sprouts: Catskill

Chives

Echinacea: Purpurea

Lavender: Lavendula Vera

Parsley: Extra Triple Curled

Pepper: Red Cheese & Grand Bell Mix

Poppy: Mother of Pearl

Tomato: Brandywine, Campbell's, Emerald Evergreen, Missouri Pink Love Apple, & Pink Brandywine

~We will be butchering the first of two hogs probably this week, I will try and provide some recipes of what we do with the meat; such as salting ham(country ham), sausage, and other southern greats. Because of ethical reasons there will be no pictures of the slaughtering itself, but there maybe kitchen shots that have more than what some may be used to; I will try and censor. The post will be about what we create with the meat.

This is one of the hogs, late October 2010.

Preparing for Spring

According to the Farmer's Almanac I can start a few of my seeds, I ordered last month from Baker's Creek Heirlooms and a few from other locations, on March 4th. I will upload my progress over the next few plantings of what I plant and how each variety should be cared for.

This Friday I will plant:
Brussels Sprouts-Catskill
Pepper-Red Cheese
Tomatoes-Emerald Green, Missouri Pink Love Apple, & Pink Brandywine

I have already tested a few seeds that I saved from the past two years: Butternut Squash, Pink Brandywine Tomato, Eggplant, and Cantaloupe; all were successful except for the eggplant which had a 0% germination rate. I will try and provide a detailed inventory and how well this season goes to provide a guide for next year's planting.

To find out when the best time to start seeds indoors and outdoors

check out the following best planting days. Happy Planting.