Seed Starting and Labeling

Seed starting season is well under way.  I've been starting onions, perennial herbs, flowers, and tomatillos so far; I'll start tomatoes today.  I've never included many flowers in my garden before, but I will this year, partly just for pleasure, partly to feed the bees I anticipate having, and partly to increase diversity in my garden.  If you, like me, get a kick out of seeing seeds germinate, I recommend planting a flower called stocks.  They are sprouting like crazy in my flats!  

My seed-starting techniques have evolved a bit over the years.   I'll share a few tips with you that I've learned.

When planting perennial herbs, I put down a lot of seed.  I mean about 20 seeds per cell or pot.  For one, I've had a lot of germination failures with these plants, and I hate watering empty pots for weeks.  For two, I'm not interested in having a bunch of leftover seed for perennials.  Some germinate well and I'll have to thin mercilessly, but others have only a 5 or 10% germination for me, and putting down a lot of seed is the key to success.

Don't buy plastic seed flats.  You think they'll last you several seasons, but you'll end up leaving them on the edge of your garden with a few leftover plants in them, and the sun is no friend to plastic.  By the second year they'll be broken and leaky.  Here are two better options.  This one I learned from a farmer: if you have some sheet plastic lying around, pick up some low-sided boxes, like the ones they give away in Costco, Sam's and BJ's.  Cut out a piece of plastic big enough to line the box and fold over the side, and staple it in.  Option 2: buy aluminum baking pans.  I just picked up a package of them at BJ's, which fit my electric seedling heat mat perfectly.  These will last longer than plastic and they're recyclable.  For seed containers, you can use salvaged containers, such as beverage cups, yogurt cups, and cut-down bottles.  This is awkward because they don't fit very well in a flat, but I use it for larger plants that I plan to leave in the pot for a while.  For smaller plants, I use peat or coir pots or pellets.  I don't recommend using egg cartons, as some people do, because the cells are just too small and will dry out too fast.

Be sure to label your starts well.  In pots and flats, I use masking tape, popsicle sticks, and clothes pins to label.  I've read a cool tip on the internet though, you can cut up an old set of mini-blinds to make labels.  Don't transfer these pot labels to the garden though, because they will get lost.  Last year I ended up with a bunch of peppers and tomatoes I couldn't identify.  This year, I'm making aluminum hanging labels for my larger plants.  Cut up a soda or beer can or a pie plate, punch a hole in each label with a paper hole punch, and write on them with a ball-point pen.  It will not ink on the aluminum but will make a permanent, readable impression.  Then hang them on your plants with twine.  I'm putting these on my fruit trees too, with the variety name and planting date, for the benefit of whoever might live here after us, but using wire (very loose to allow for tree growth)  instead of twine.