Green Gardening: Starting your seeds with What?? Egg Cartons

As you may have figured from my thematic posts regarding green gardening, I've been a little nutso about cheap and green methods.  This one was suggested to me by a friend, and since I had a bunch of egg cartons hanging around for another project, I figured I could use one or two for this experiment as well. 

It's pretty straight forward, just put dirt in the egg carton and you're good to go!  I'd recommend only using the cardboard type, as this will allow for proper drainage for your soil.  Another thing I would recommend, because these dry out so easily, is to put them in a tupperware or other plastic receptacle and pour the water in it, and let it soak up through the bottom of the egg carton.  Seeds seem to like indirect moisture better than having it dumped straight onto the soil, and this seems to work better with this method.

We didn't start many plants in these this year, as I've been pretty obsessed with my Newspaper Seed Starters, but the ones we did are looking ok.  I'm going to have to either transplant them or get them in the ground soon, though, in order to keep them alive.

Have you done any green seed starting this year?  If so, let me know!  I would love to hear about all your trials, even if they're failures! :)

Tomatoes: Seed Starting and General Information

Tomatoes:

Tomatoes are fun to grow.  The only problem is that they take up plenty of room, you need to make sure that you account for this along the way.

I started my seedlings in my toilet paper roll starters to begin.   I prefer to start seeds out in a small setting and then move from there.  There are many different varieties, and it is always important to pay attention to the packaging and the specific directions for your varieties.  This year, I am growing Roma, Tiny Tim, Best Boy, Mana Lucie and Black Krim tomatoes.  Each of these came with slightly different directions to start.  I'm going to talk here in generic terms, and occasionally talk about more specific varieties.

Tomatoes need about 60 degree temperature to germinate and can take anywhere from 3-8 weeks to germinate depending on the variety.  Start these seedlings about 6-8 weeks before the last frost to ensure that they will have enough time to grow and be healthy before they have to go outside.  When they have two to three leaves, you'll want to transplant them into larger pots, and for these, I used my newspaper seed pods.  You'll need them in about a 3" pot at this point.  As with all indoor starting seeds, you will want to harden them off before they go outside, as they will not be used to the wind and varying degrees of temperature that await them in the garden.

When you go to place them in your garden, you'll want to plant them deeply, with the first true leaves from the plant just above the soil level.  This will stimulate root growth on the base of the stem and make the plant much more sturdy as it grows.  Another thing that you can do to make sure that your plant is stable is to trellis it, or to put it in a cage.

Remember they like warm, sunny, sheltered places and do not like to be overheated.  Depending upon the variety, you can expect to see fruit in about 70-130 days after you plant the tomatoes. 

If you have any helpful hints on growing tomatoes, please let us know!  I will share with you how our tomatoes do :)

Green Gardening: Starting Seedlings with What?? (Toilet paper tubes)

So as I've mentioned before, this year I'm trying to be "green" with my gardening.  I've already told you how eggshells can be used to start your seedlings, now here's another tip for you!!!

All you'll need for this is to save some toilet paper tubes and keep around a small container that you don't care about.  In this case, I used an old Glad Ovenware that I had bought and lost or destroyed the lid to.

First, you'll cut your toilet paper tubes in half, like this:

Then you'll set them in the container like this:

Then, go ahead and fill them with your seed starting mix!  After this is done, I add water, but not directly to the dirt, but to the outside of the container surrounding the little tubes.  The water will soak up through the toilet paper tubes and into the dirt. 

After everything looks like it's moist, go ahead and plant your seeds!  When you're ready to plant, you can either choose to leave the toilet paper tube in place or just rip it and it will come right off.  I'm going to take mine out only because I don't know how fast they'll decompose.  Perhaps I'll leave one or two as an experiment. :)

Are you a "green gardener"?  If so, share your tips!  We would love to experiment with more green gardening!

Let the Gardening Begin... How to start seeds!

What do Eggshells, Dirt and seeds have in common?  Nothing if you are a normal person... but if you're a gardener, it could mean a lot to you.  There are many different ways to start a seed.

For most, Jiffy Greenhouses are the way to go.  They're easy, the dirt is already there, all you have to do is add water and the little peat pellets puff up and you can press in your seeds, pop the lid on and you're done.

I've done these in the past, and they are easy, they are probably the most compact of all of the options out there, but they aren't very green.  I have to dispose of, or store, this large plastic case, and there have been times I've found that my little seedlings weren't able to push their roots through the meshy casing that is supposed to dissolve over time, and their growth has been stunted.

Plus, I'm all about being green, so this year we're trying several new "green"  seed starting techniques.

The first of these techniques we put into effect this past weekend when we started our first batch of seeds (only 4 varieties of plants, of the longest germinating variety.)  Next week, we'll be starting a larger batch, and sharing another green seed starting technique with you.

I read about this technique on some website, I really wish I had bookmarked it, because it was a great website...  *facepalm*  For this technique, it requires some planning ahead.  Whenever you use an egg, try to crack just the top off on the smaller end of the egg.  Rinse it out and let it dry upside down, and then when it's dry, store it in a spare egg carton.  When you've got a dozen or two, you're ready to start some seeds.

I labeled my egg shells with a permanent marker indicating what seeds I was going to plant inside, then filled them with dirt.  After they were filled, I watered them a little bit, then put my seeds in, and misted the eggshells all with water to help the seeds settle a little.  I think they not only are useful, but kind of pretty in their own way.  I think they'll look very cool when all the seeds have sprouted :)

When you're ready to plant them in the ground, all you have to do is crush the egg in your hand and put it in the ground.  The egg shells are very good for the dirt and the seedling and will help them grow.

The Kohlrabi is already sprouting!  Just 3 days after planting!!

I also saved the shards from the top of the egg that I cracked and have crushed them up and will mix them into my soil before I add my plants.

You may be asking yourself, how do I know when to start my seeds?  You don't want to start them too early and have to transplant them inside before they can go outside, but you also don't want to get too late of a start and shorten your available harvesting time.

First, know your zone.  You can find your gardening zone here, and by knowing your zone, you'll become familiar with what types of plants you can grow.

Second, know your Average Last Frost Date.  This will give you the baseline to time your seed starting.

Third, read your seed packet.  Each seed packet usually comes with information such as; whether the plant prefers sun or shade, what depth to plant your seed, any germination instructions, how long it will take to bear fruit, how long it will take to sprout, when to plant in the ground and any other information that you need to know in order to start the seed.

I started these four because their instructions all indicated that they should be started 8-10 weeks before the average last frost date.  For my area, my average last frost date is April 25th.  Right around this time, I'll be able to begin hardening off my seedlings and getting them ready to go into the ground or pots. 

 

These are the four different types of plants that were started on 3/4/12.   Expect some articles on the individual plants themselves coming this week!