Seed Sowing Journal
Ideal things to have:
Seed Raising Mix or potting mix
Vermiculite or perlite
Wooden Plant Labels, recycled ice block sticks or ice cream container lids cut up
Recycled or Biodegradable pots. You can use toilet rolls or even newspaper to make pots too, here is a video on making toilet roll pots.
Watering can, Spray bottle or hose with a sprinkle head attached.
Plastic trays to catch the water
Notes from my observations:
Fill your pots up with seed raising mix (follow health and safety guide lines) and give the pots a good bang on a hard surface to get rid of the main air pockets. Add more seed raising mix if needed. If you want to mix in some perlite or vermiculite with your seed raising mix. By doing that it will improve the drainage and aerate your mix more.
Name each label with the seed type you’re going to sow in each pot. Don’t think that you will remember! You won’t…. I am speaking from experience lol.
Either make small holes or lines in the seed raising mix using your dibber.
Sow a few seeds, approximately 2 x the depth of the seed, in each pot. Some seeds like light to germinate so only sprinkle a little bit of soil on top of these seeds such as Achillea, Fox Gloves, Dill or Scabiosa.
Gently firm the seeds down into the soil so the seeds are in contact with the seed raising mix.
Use a fine mist hose or a spray bottle to gently water the seeds so you don’t move the seeds around too much. Reminder to not soak them and just to keep the soil moist.
Keep the seeds under cover, in a tunnel house or indoors until the risk of frost is over. If you don’t have a tunnel house you can use my milk bottle hack which you can see if you click here.
Water your seeds as required and don’t let them dry out, especially during germination period.
Once the seeds have germinated and have some roots down, you can change your watering to help encourage root growth. See the guide at the bottom of this page.
When the seedlings are approximately 1-3cm tall you can thin them out and transplant them or pot them up.
Just remember, It’s all about trial and error. They may not all germinate but keep trying and you will be sure to see success! It’s addicting once you start growing from seed.
For the next steps, click here to read - Transplanting Journal.
Tray Watering:
In some of the images above, you can see that the seedling trays are sitting in a plastic tray.
I would only ever do this once the seeds have germinated.
This helps to encourage root growth by causing the roots to grow down towards the water and suck it up. This is called Hydrotropism.
You only need a plastic tray or something that will hold a bit of water and you can sit your seedling tray on it.
Each day or as needed, water to the bottom of the tray and the soil and seedlings will suck it up from the bottom.
If the soil is really damp and wet you don’t need to water them. You just want the soil to be moist not soaking nor dry.
I have made a video about how to do it and all the benefits if you click the link below.
Milk Bottle Hack
If you are low on space or money, this is a great way to use up something you likely already have around your house.
It works like a mini tunnel house and lasts really well.
Grow Kit Instructions:
Click on the links below for specific Seed Sowing Guides for each of the kits:
The Cocktail Herb Kit, The Bee Pasture Kit , The Kitchen Herb Kit, The Cut Flower Kit, The My First Garden Kit, The Edible Flower Kit , The Taco Tuesday Kit , The Pizza Night Kit , The Healing Herb Kit , The Groovy Greens Kit