an early gardening start?!?

[digitS']

Here's something I tried last year that worked really well for the not early but late starting of seed in the garden. You should know that the seedlings emerged much better if I didn't bother to pre-sprout them. That made the process much, much easier.

I still don't know if I'm going for a really early trial of the method in 2008 but it sure worked with those "tricky" carrots as well as the "easy" lettuce seed.

Steve

 

[sunnychooks]

What do you mean by "pre-sprout"?

 

[Reinbeau]

Ooh, that's cool, I've saved that page for March '08!

 

[digitS']

Sunny, I should have said I don't germinate the seed before planting. Well, not after the 1st time and they didn't come up worth a dang.

I just made the cornstarch gel, put it in a sandwich bag, grabbed the seed packet and headed out to the garden.

Once there, I mixed the seed into the gel, squeezed it out and covered with soil. I had seedlings coming up very thickly - too much so.

The 3rd try, I squeezed the gel out and then sprinkled the seed ON the line of gel. That seemed to work best because the amount of seed going into the ground was under better control.

This wasn't tried at the very 1st opportunity to plant seed - in March, say. And, it didn't really make much difference with the lettuce seed which comes up easily. The great advantage was with carrot seed.

I've had soooo much trouble hitting the narrow window in April here for carrot planting. 'Sides, I like to grow little, fast-maturing carrots and have them right thru the season. I want to plant seed right thru May and June. They take as long as 3 weeks to come up, are only down a fraction of an inch below the surface, and this is arid country so that surface soil dries out easily.

I have regularly used pelleted carrot seed after I discovered the stuff - works great!! Problems are it is expensive, there's no broad choice of varieties, and, as I learned last year, the seed won't keep well!

Gel planting may have solved the problems and be as effective as pellets. I'd very much like to know if anyone can plant germinated seed 6 weeks before last frost, however. THAT would be an accomplishment!

Steve