[Homestead] seed starting in paper towels?
Sage Austin | Eureka! Design
eureka at hctc.net
Thu Feb 26 12:03:07 EST 2009
Lisa, it works well only for those seeds that need cold stratification,
like purple coneflower, milkweeds, etc. Usually the seed package will
say cold stratification is needed. Some people use paper towels, some
use damp sand, but I use coffee filters and small plastic bags for
starting my prairie plants in the fridge.
But most vegetables need warmth to sprout (temps are usually on the
backs of the packages), so I have not used this method for them.
Instead, I plant them in flats in the laundry room where I can control
the temperature, and have the flats sitting in large upturned plastic
lids (from storage bins) in about half an inch of water (with some
Medina Plus mixed in). I have a heating pad on medium underneath the
lids until they sprout, then I move them off so the roots don't get
damaged.
I don't cover them with plastic as this causes damp off here, and I keep
a ceiling fan going in the room to prevent this. Once they have their
second set (first true set) of leaves I pot them up into 3" pots, and
after they have stabilized in a couple of days, move them out to the
green house where the temps fluctuate more but they get plenty of light.
>From there I begin to harden them off, 2 hours extra every day outside
until they are fully hardened. That's when they go into the garden. The
only things I plant directly in the garden is lettuce & mesclun, grains,
and root crops.
I've gotten almost all my flats and pots from nurseries who discard
them, as they can't be recycled. I just sterilize them first in a bleach
water bath before use.
--Sage
Way Out in Texas
Lisa Kae Van Meter Perry wrote:
> Have any of you tried this or use this method?
>
> Read recently in gardening forum of a person who start their seeds in damp
> paper towels that are put in a plastic bag in the fridge for certain seeds.
> After they sprout, that's when this person plants the seeds.
>
> My initial thought was that it seemed like extra work, though not much. But
> it might work better with old seed--to find out which seeds will germinate
> and then plant those.
>
> Just curious.
>
> Lisa
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