seed sowing

february 14 2013. 

seed sowing

the seeds are sown. most were very tiny seeds. all purchased from Horizon Herbs in oregon. great company, I highly recommend. I wanted to use a local seed supplier (southeast usa) but I couldn't find a company that had the selection of certified organic seed. for my own use non-organic seed is fine, but since I intend to sell to the public I want to follow organic practices so that I can become organic certified.

trays set out and ready for sowing.

 you can see how tiny the yarrow seeds are. I use a sharpened wood dowel that is moistened by dipping in water to grab the seeds. nice little trick due to the adhesion property of water.

then you simply touch the seed to the soil block and it (usually)  drops  off. sometimes you have to give it a little nudge against the soil.

the sowing goes pretty fast with this method. you can use old chopsticks or a sharpened twig.

finished trays with labels and vermiculite sprinkled over top. vermiculite on the surface helps prevent damping-off - a disease you don't want your seeds to contract. over-watering, too moist conditions and poor air circulation create favorable damping-off conditions.

                                                                                                                                                                

I hope they stay warm enough tonight. I left a space heater on in the shed and a pan of water on the bottom shelf so it would stay nice and humid in the germination chamber. I bought an inexpensive humidity/temp monitor, with the daily high and low's recorded. at night, without any heat, the temps were going into the 40's - a bit too cold for seed germination. 

I've seen folks put large, deep crock pots filled with water and set to low to provide warm, moist air. I have a small one that I will try.

I made this seed starter rack/germination chamber from scrap lumber I had on hand. it is 5.5' tall, 2' deep and 48' wide. I used one 4x8' sheet insulation (left over from a friend's house), on 3 sides and the bottom. I used 6 mil plastic to cover the front. it rolls up for access the shelves.

view without the plastic. I  used plans from  Black & Decker's The Complete Guide to Greenhouses & Garden Projects that I borrowed from my local library. I had to make it shorter than the plans specified as my ceiling in the shed is low. the shelves are tall enough that you can hang grow lights and allow room for the plants to grow in height.

february 13 2013. soil mixing

first batch of seeds will be sown tomorrow, valentine's day. I will infuse them with lots of love to grow strong and healthy.

I mixed up the soil and made all the soil blocks a day ahead. I borrowed the soil blockers from the student farm so saved some money. Johnny's Selected Seeds sells them. Johnny's also sells cowpots - containers made from cow manure! yes. great idea.

I took the recipe from Eliot Coleman's New Organic Grower book and modified it a bit. I don't want to use peat moss as that is mined from peat bogs and it takes hundreds to thousands of years to form and even though some say that it's sustainable since it regrows, not in our lifetime it won't. and I am a huge fan of any sort of bog, swamp or wetland and it makes me really sad to see them destroyed. read more about it here.

so I am substituting coir for the peat moss. coir (pronounced like koy ir), is derived from coconut husks. not long ago it was considered waste, but smart creatures we are, and somebody figured out it made a good growing medium. 'course coconuts grow in tropical climates (though I do find some on the NC coast now and then), sooo getting it to the usa does involve large vessels and fuels. and lots of water is used to process it.

so, which is a better, or a more sustainable product? I'm choosing to use coir. some coir is produced in mexico, at least that is the same continent. ideally, I'd like to figure out what materials I can gather myself and use that. vermicompost for one, maybe ground up leaves for another component...anyways, back to the present.

here is my recipe for a mini-block soil mix: 

3.5 gallons coir
1.5 gallon fine compost (vermicompost or mushroom compost work well)
28 ounces vermiculite
1/2 cup greensand
1/2 cup calphos (colloidal phosphate)

I added the vermiculite for aeration and to help retain moisture. I used less greensand and calphos since coir has a higher pH and has more nutrients than peat moss.

this is an experimental soil mix. I wish I had time to send it off to ncda soil labs to analyze it. let's hope my seeds germinate and grow up big and strong.

here is Eliot Coleman's original mini-block recipe:

4 gallons peat
1 gallon compost
1 cup greensand
1 cup calphos

For the larger soil blocks, I am using soil conditioner and coir. soil conditioner is often pine bark fines, by-product waste from pulp industry. the brand I bought, enrich, was a little too chunky to use for the mini-blocks.

the recipe for the larger soil blocks will look something like this:

4 gallons soil conditioner
2 gallons coir
2 gallons compost (or 1.5 gallons compost and 0.5 gallons vermiculite)
1 cup greensand
1 cup calphos
1 cup bloodmeal


first experiment with soil mix. this recipe was pretty good but I used soil conditioner and it had some chunks in it that didn't fit into the blocker. this mix would be fine for the larger blocks so I dumped all the little blocks back into the wheelbarow and will reuse the soil.

I enjoyed making the blocks. its pretty easy. you need to really pack the soil in the blocker.

I want to avoid plastic as much as possible in the herb production. I followed the practices of organic farmer Eliot Coleman (his books are great resources), and built wooden trays out of scrap lumber to seed my herbs. The seeds will be sown into mini-blocks of soil. No plastic trays no plastic containers. The mini-blocks can be set into larger blocks.

this is the mini-block tray with plant labels and tongs made from wood scraps. the mini-block tray inside dimensions need to be 18 3/4" x 4" x 3/4" and will hold 120 blocks.