SEED SAVING
SEED GERMINATION
Jasmin Hill
During spring time it's still not warm enough to germinate many of our precious seeds so it is a great idea to have a germination station inside where it's a bit warmer to get them started.
I have re-purposed an old tea trolley (actually I have made 2 of them) that works really well! I bought a couple of LED lights from Trade me and strung them up easily under the top shelf. Under the trays I have a heat pad to help my seeds germinate faster, I have used a brewers heat pad here, I have found they work just fine. Also the LED lights create a little bit of heat so it's a perfect place to pre-germinate some seeds on top of the lights.. bonus! And with everything together on the trolley I can wheel them out of the way when I need to.
During spring time it's still not warm enough to germinate many of our precious seeds so it is a great idea to have a germination station inside where it's a bit warmer to get them started.
I have re-purposed an old tea trolley (actually I have made 2 of them) that works really well! I bought a couple of LED lights from Trade me and strung them up easily under the top shelf. Under the trays I have a heat pad to help my seeds germinate faster, I have used a brewers heat pad here, I have found they work just fine. Also the LED lights create a little bit of heat so it's a perfect place to pre-germinate some seeds on top of the lights.. bonus! And with everything together on the trolley I can wheel them out of the way when I need to.
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I have limited space for germinating seeds so I love to pre germinate in ziplock bags first.
Put a wet paper towel inside a ziplock bag an place the seeds on top of the paper towel. Place the bag in a warm place, the hot water cabinet or on top of a heat pad works well.
Always best to use boiled water to avoid mould forming around your seeds, especially if they are seeds that take a long time to germinate.
Put a wet paper towel inside a ziplock bag an place the seeds on top of the paper towel. Place the bag in a warm place, the hot water cabinet or on top of a heat pad works well.
Always best to use boiled water to avoid mould forming around your seeds, especially if they are seeds that take a long time to germinate.
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Alice Le Brun
On top of my tropical fish tanks are fantastic for germinating seeds. 600 corn seeds in these trays. |
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This is my anti slug station, the seed tray is on two bricks and the bottom has a few inches of water in it.
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Minette Tonoli
My amazing hubby built me a new hotbox for seedling raising this season! I'm over the moon. It's been working exceptionally well.
I've had variations on this idea for ages... starting with a sunny windowsill, then heated mats on the dining room, then a little cold frame with sand and heating cables, and now, the "deluxe model"
It's a purpose built box covered in greenhouse plastic, with a hinged lid. It is built to fit two red heating piglet plates, which I learnt could be used as heating mats last season (I got 4 of these dirt cheap second hand last season from a retiring pig farmer).
The seedbox is situated outside, in the sun, north facing, so it gets full day sun all day long.
The heating plates heat up to 30C, but I've found they don't actually heat the soil in seedling trays put on top of them to much more than 25C. Which is ideal.
We've also automated the plates, so that when the seedling soil temperature reaches 10C it switches on, to heat up, and if it reaches 20C, it switches off, otherwise it gets too hot. So we aim to keep the seedling soil stable between 15 and 25C - even if we get frost! The coldest it got to was 9C and the hottest (in full sun, unopened) was 32C.
I also get a text alert on my phone to tell me it gets too hot, so I can go and open the hinged lid and get some airflow going.
It's specifically set up to start my heat loving seedlings such as tomatoes, peppers and chillies, and some summer flowers.
For those seeds that don't specifically need heating (like the ones in the hotbox above), but still need some protection, I've got a seedling house (also built by my hubby ;-)) - this is a propagation house, not a grow house, although because I did not yet have my tunnel houses up last season, I did grow my chillies in pots in here... but strictly speaking, it's a seed starting house, and a quick frost cover for plants in pots that I can move about, late and early in the season (e.g. potted scented pelargoniums).
My amazing hubby built me a new hotbox for seedling raising this season! I'm over the moon. It's been working exceptionally well.
I've had variations on this idea for ages... starting with a sunny windowsill, then heated mats on the dining room, then a little cold frame with sand and heating cables, and now, the "deluxe model"
It's a purpose built box covered in greenhouse plastic, with a hinged lid. It is built to fit two red heating piglet plates, which I learnt could be used as heating mats last season (I got 4 of these dirt cheap second hand last season from a retiring pig farmer).
The seedbox is situated outside, in the sun, north facing, so it gets full day sun all day long.
The heating plates heat up to 30C, but I've found they don't actually heat the soil in seedling trays put on top of them to much more than 25C. Which is ideal.
We've also automated the plates, so that when the seedling soil temperature reaches 10C it switches on, to heat up, and if it reaches 20C, it switches off, otherwise it gets too hot. So we aim to keep the seedling soil stable between 15 and 25C - even if we get frost! The coldest it got to was 9C and the hottest (in full sun, unopened) was 32C.
I also get a text alert on my phone to tell me it gets too hot, so I can go and open the hinged lid and get some airflow going.
It's specifically set up to start my heat loving seedlings such as tomatoes, peppers and chillies, and some summer flowers.
For those seeds that don't specifically need heating (like the ones in the hotbox above), but still need some protection, I've got a seedling house (also built by my hubby ;-)) - this is a propagation house, not a grow house, although because I did not yet have my tunnel houses up last season, I did grow my chillies in pots in here... but strictly speaking, it's a seed starting house, and a quick frost cover for plants in pots that I can move about, late and early in the season (e.g. potted scented pelargoniums).
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Melita Johnston
Finally got my homemade greenhouse for propagation! But bringing in storage containers at night for the peppers and eggplants.
Finally got my homemade greenhouse for propagation! But bringing in storage containers at night for the peppers and eggplants.
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