Starting Seeds: Part Two

(To view my first post on starting seeds, click here.)

Seedlings Ready to Go

I've mentioned it before and I'm going to mention it again - It's seed starting time in Phoenix!  I have seeds and seedlings on the mind these days.  

This past weekend I planted a ton of seeds for the spring/summer.  I planted cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash, various winter squashes, beans, and a bunch of flowers.  However, as you can see above, I have a lot of seedlings ready to go into the ground and still in my four inch pots.  With all of these seedlings ready to go, I found myself low on pots.  To remedy this situation, my husband and I have been saving all of the plastic food containers that we use during the week and then I'm planting in them (in lieu of traditional pots) on the weekends. I'm blow away by how many small, plastic containers we go through every single day.  So pay attention!  Save your plastic containers and you'll never need to buy pots to start seeds in again.  (You'll see in the picture that I gave toilet paper and paper towel rolls a try.  We must buy the cheap ones because once moisture hit them, the glue gave way and they all began falling apart.)  I also found a great article on making seed starting pots from newspaper.  You can find it here.  We don't get the newspaper but if we did, I would be using this technique.

Having a 10 month old helps.  Baby food containers are perfect.

I also took time this weekend to fertilize my seedlings.  I did a foliar feeding with a spray bottle and then watered the seedlings with the left over. 

I use fish emulsion which is organic, though not vegetarian.  Since the plants are still very small, I used a slightly less concentrated mixture than the bottle recommends. (A little less than two tablespoons per gallon.)  I swear that I could tell a difference the next day. (Though that may have been wishful thinking.)  It was too rainy to check on the little guys today, but you better believe I'll be out there tomorrow seeing how they look.  

Bunches of seeds planted and waiting to sprout in the cold frame.

In my original seed starting post, I mentioned the difficulty I had trying to find peat moss.  Since I wrote that post, I read this article on peat moss and why it might not be the best thing to use.  I also mentioned that I had found a coir product at Target.  After reading Susan's article, I'll be using coir products all of the time. Just something to think about. 

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