August is too early, and the soil’s too cold to sow tomatoes and other summer veggies but there is a way to get them started early and have pickable fruit sooner than usual.
Tomatoes, brinjals, peppers, cucumbers and summer squash need warm soil to germinate. But did you know that they can be germinated in seed trays that are heated from bottom up and kept in a warm place? Here’s a step by step guide from Kirchhoffs.
Getting started
Before sowing, wash and sterilise seed trays and pots. Use water and Jik or vinegar, with a little liquid soap.
Buy a germination mix from the garden centre or make your own with a 50/50 mix of sifted garden soil and fine compost. The finer the soil texture the better the contact between the seed and the sowing medium. If it is too coarse, air pockets form around the seed which traps water and the seeds rot.
Make sure the soil mix is damp before sowing and check the seed packet for recommended sowing depth.
After sowing dampen the soil with a fine spray, using a spritzer bottle.
How to turn up the heat
- Use a hot pad turned down low, or an old electric blanket on setting 1, or a Salton hot tray on its lowest setting. Any of these will heat up the soil for germination.
- Put the planted up seed trays on top of the heat pad or blanket. If using a hot tray, first put down a layer of newspaper and the seedling trays on top of that. .
- Cover seedling trays with a sheet of glass and lay brown paper on top of that. Keep the trays in a warm room with good light but not direct sunlight.
- Take the seedling trays off to water them and return them once they have drained. A hot tray with a lid works even better to keep the environment warm.
- Don’t let the soil dry out while the seeds are geminating. When the little growing tips emerge from the seeds they dry out very quickly unless the soil is moist.
Growing on:
Once the seeds are up feed with organic Margaret Roberts Supercharger and repeat two weeks later.
Harden the young seedlings by putting the seed tray outside in the sun during the day but bring it indoors at night.
Transplant seedlings once they are sturdy and the last frost date has past.
When transplanting, disturb the roots as little as possible by keeping a clump of soil around the roots.
Try these Kirchhoffs heirloom veggies from seed
Article posted on Caxton Online
