Q: How do I go about seeding plants from scratch organically?
A: It could be miserably grey and 30 below out there and serious gardeners would still have a spring in their step and a glint in their eye right about now. Why? Because hope is sprouting in their hearts thanks to the recent start of seeding season.
To be totally honest with you, while I bliss out with a spade in my hand, I’ve never started seeds indoors, because: a) my apartments have never had many south-facing windows (I could have got myself some grow lights) b) I never thought I’d remember to do the requisite frequent waterings c) my old friend Sarah Mulholland from digginthedirt.ca always gives me a whack of heirloom seedlings every spring. So I’ve asked her to be my green-thumbed consultant for this week!
Of course, you could head to your local hardware store/garden centre for a few seed packs and plant-starting kits, but your whole operation ain’t likely to be genuinely green. Unless otherwise specified, those seeds come from conventionally grown, often GM plants treated with fossil-fuel-heavy fertilizers. Not exactly wholesome beginnings.
Start on the right foot with certified organic seeds from sites like T.O.-based uharvest.ca. As well, you can find certified and uncertified organic heirloom, open-pollinated (pollinated by insects, birds or wind rather than human intervention), non-GMO seeds on Terraedibles.ca or Saltspringseeds.com.
All of the above get their seeds from small gardens rather than monoculture mega-operations. If you’ve got heirloom seeds of your own to swap, you definitely want to be at the next Seedy Saturday. (Evergreen Brick Works hosts one March 10, or check out Seeds of Diversity’s seeds.ca for a swap near you.)
Next, you need to do a green check on your soil. Whatever you do, skip those peat-based seed-starting pellets, pots and potting soils: harvesting peat is seriously contentious. Peat is regularly strip-mined from sensitive bogs, especially bad news when the stuff only grows a millimetre a year.
Once harvested, peat bogs take hundreds of years to grow back. And as I’ve reported before in the column, peat bogs play such a vital role in carbon-sequestering that the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service has compared preserving bogs to saving the rainforests.
What to use instead? Well, it depends who you ask. One garden centre employee told me he uses plain top soil for his seeds, no problem. Stratford’s Anything Grows newsletter says coir (coconut fibre from waste husks) is particularly recommended for starting seeds, since it guarantees good drainage “while it encourages strong and early growth.” Plus, it’s wicked at water retention. Many use straight coir, while others mix it with a little compost. You can also buy coconut coir all-purpose potting mix from specialty garden shops like bustan.ca.
DIY seeding soil mix recipes with vermiculite are a little dodgier, since they may expose you to trace asbestos dust. (The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends only using vermiculite outside and keeping it damp during use to avoid breathing its dust.)
Now that you’ve got your seed and soil sorted, what containers are you going to put them in if you’re not using ready-made trays? Just pop your seeds in half a recycled toilet paper roll! Google “toilet paper seed starter” to get all the instructions (though you’ll need quite a stash of rolls to get moving). Or do a quick online search for newspaper seed starter pots.
Old egg cartons work, too, but they dry out really quickly (your soil has to stay moist, which may involve watering every one to three days, depending on your container, sun exposure, windowsill warmth).
Once you’ve popped your seeds in, Sarah’s trick is to put a clear plastic garbage bag over the whole tray to create a greenhouse effect until they’ve germinated. Just keep an eye out for mould. You may want to punch a few holes in your bag.
By the time your baby seedlings are a couple of inches high, you can keep reducing and reusing by transferring them into old yogurt cups, cottage cheese or sour cream containers. If you tend to overwater, it’s good to punch little holes in the bottom of your pots so they can drain.
Once your babies have grown enough, you can bring them outside even earlier (and keep them out longer in fall’s cold months) if you get yourself some cold frames. Consider them your eco-friendly makeshift greenhouse.
Got a question?
Send your green queries to ecoholic@nowtoronto.com
