planting cycle
The first seedlings are in the ground, so it’s time to plant once again using the Burpee Ultimate Growing System. This time around I’ve got lots of annual seeds that I purchased, so we’ll see how they do sprouting in 7-10 days and once they’re in the soil as well.
I never got to explain how wonderful this little system is the first time around, since I was eager to plant and didn’t want to mess up my camera with dirt, but I documented the process a bit better today. The system is set up with a water tray, a stand for the plants, a watering mat to absorb and deliver water to the roots, seedling cases, and a plastic dome lid for germinating.
To start everything up, you simply set everything up as you see in the first photo. Then, you add the instant dirt, known as a “super soil cube.” They’re little dirt pellets that simply expand to fill the container when you add hot water, but it makes the whole process really quick and easy!
Once the pellets have expanded, you just need to dig a little hole and plant your seeds. I grabbed one of my fondue forks, since it has a bit more grip to push into the soil than a straw or pencil. Then all you do is drop the seed in at the appropriate depth, cover it up, add water to the base, and cover them up to germinate!
I just love having so many new plants in the windowsill… it makes everyday a fun discovery to see what’s there!
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Now that you’ve done this once and have experience in the whole sowing, seedling, and planting process, you can forgo those pellets and the trays with the individual spaces. I find it a real pain to pull the seedling and root ball out of the trays come planting time and you want to disturb the seedling as little as possible. I use aluminum baking (lasagna) trays (which are a little too deep so go more shallow).
I read different forums and someone once saved a clear, plastic container that held cookies (like the kind you get at the bakery section of your supermarket-nothing fancy). It’s perfect bc it has a “dome” already. Mix your own potting soil (peat moss, vermiculite and compost) or buy it. Fill the tray with 2-3″ of soil. Do as you normally would do from there. Come planting time, I take a butter knife and literally cut my desired seedling out that I want to plant into the ground like a piece of brownie cake. It doesn’t disturb the rest of the tray and is easier to pop out of the tray and right into the ground. I don’t buy premade starting soil and mixes because they just don’t have enough staying power for me. They dry out quickly.