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Grow
Your Own Starts
 Starting
your own plants from seed can give you a wider choice of cultivars than
what you can often find as transplants at the local garden center. It
also ensures that you will have healthy plants at the right time to set
out.
Many seeds retain their viability for several years if stored
correctly. There's a simple test called the "rolled towel" or "rag
doll" test that, though simple, is used by the pros.
Place
a known quantity of seeds on a paper towel. For example, use 10 for
large seeds such as squash and beans or 25 for smaller seeds like
cabbage. Fold the towel around the seeds, moisten it and squeeze out
the excess water. This is your "rag doll". Place the rag doll in a jar
or plastic bag. Loosely cover the jar or bag, and in about 10 days,
count how many seeds germinated. If 75 to 100 percent germinate, plant
as you normally would. If 50 percent germinate, plant the seeds twice
as thickly as recommended. If substantially below 50 percent, toss the
old seeds and head for the local garden center.
Short season crops, like radish, spinach, peas and beans, don't need that extra time and so are rarely transplanted.
Beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, chard, kale,
lettuce, parsley and tomato benefit from a longer season, reestablish
easily and are good candidates for transplanting.
Celery, eggplant, onion and peppers also need a little longer season,
but have more difficulty establishing a new root system after
transplanting. Transplant these, but try not to disturb the root system
much.
Sweet corn, cucumber, muskmelon, summer squash
(including zucchini) and watermelon regenerate damaged roots slowly.
Grow them in individual containers such as peat pots that can be set
into the ground without disturbing the roots. Set the transplanted pot
with the rim below the soil level to prevent water from being wicked up
and away from the roots.
- As a general rule, try not to disturb the roots of any transplant more than necessary.
The
time it takes to grow a transplant depends upon the species, growing
temperature, and how large a transplant you want. Most vegetable
transplants should be stocky and about six inches tall. Taller plants
are more apt to bend or break when set outside.
- Seedlings
and transplants grow better with night temperatures about 5 to 10
degrees cooler than day temperatures, though we don't completely
understand why. This can be difficult to do in the home, but try it if
you have the equipment.
Keep daytime temperature for tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and the vine crops at about 75 degrees and the night time temperatures about 65 degrees.
Cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts do better with
daytime temperatures at about 68 degrees and nighttime temperatures at
about 58 degrees. If you have no easy way to control temperatures, then
aim for the middle of these temperature ranges.
To determine when to start your transplants, ask your local County
Extension office for the right date to set plants outdoors in your
area, and then count back the number of weeks you need to grow the
transplants. You should never let transplants become old enough to
flower or set fruit before planting them in the garden so don't be in a
hurry to start your seeds. And don't be in too big a rush to set them
outdoors, either. Give them a hardening period to adjust to outdoor
conditions by watering less and exposing them to wind, intense sun and
cold gradually.
In general, eggplant and pepper seeds require 8 to 10 weeks, while
tomato, cabbage and brassicas need 6 to 8 weeks, and lettuce, melons
and cucumber about 4 weeks. While you're at it, start flowering plants
to add a bit more color to the vegetable garden. Seed petunias when you
seed peppers, marigolds and asters when you seed cabbage and cosmos
when you plant cucumbers.
- You
can use just about anything for a growing container, but be sure it's
clean. Wash them with hot soapy water, rinse and dip in a 10 percent
chlorine bleach solution and rinse again.
Your
growing media needs to be clean, too. Purchase starting mix or make
your own soil-less mix with 50 percent vermiculite or perlite and 50
percent fine peat moss. If you must use your garden soil, bake it at
200 degrees until the internal temperature is 180 degrees, and hold for
30 minutes. This is a stinky business, but it will kill any disease
organism present. If your garden soil is high in clay, you can lighten
it up by adding perlite or vermiculite.
Cover your flat or pots with saran wrap and tuck somewhere warm until
the seeds germinate, like the top of the refrigerator or in the laundry
room.
After the seeds germinate, set your plants in a sunny room or an
enclosed back porch. If the light is week, supplement it or your
transplants may be weak and leggy. You can use a fluorescent fixture
with one cool and one warm bulb or grow-lights, which provide a full
spectrum.
Source: Cheryl Moore-Gough, Montana State University Extension horticulturist
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