Potting up when you've over-seeded your trays
Or, how to cope when you want to save as many seedling babies as possible.
Welcome to our first blog post! I really should have posted first about seed-starting, but when I tried to document that process a few weeks ago, I got a lot of not-so-fabulous footage of my hands, and nothing related to putting seeds in dirt. Fortunately, I'll be doing some seed-starting tomorrow, and will endeavour to get great content!
The first round of seeds were started on March 18, and I'm pleased to say that their germinations rates are really good! At least 90% in most cases, and that's kind of a big deal, as the vast majority of the seeds I sowed were seeds that we grew out at the farm. There is nothing more satisfying than successfully growing out seeds that you grew, collected, processed and saved. It's also incredibly nerve-wracking, WHAT IF THEY ALL FAIL??? But they didn't, and I'm not afraid to say that I am so proud of our team for doing such a fab job of growing good seed 🏆
"The reason we have horns is so that we may toot them" - unknown wise person
There were a couple of flats that I seeded with a heavy hand. They are both flower blends, and I wasn't sure if they would germinate. I also seeded them early, I hadn't written down what was in the blends, just the names of the places I collected them. Sometimes I just get so wrapped-up in seed collecting that I completely forget about the practicalities! Turns out, those blends germed just fine, thank-you-very-much, and they desperately needed potting up! Check out this this flat 11 days ago vs today:
Dang, plants are so cool!
At this stage, given that I didn't write anything down, I want to save as many of these seedlings as possible. I want as much variety as I can get from them, I can thin them out later. once I know what we've got After the rain passed, I got my gear and got outside. And then I made some videos!
Part 1: In which I boldly document potting up the very first 6-pack of seedlings, without first finding my process.
Part 2: In which I do the same thing as above, but having done it a few times, so I've got my flow figured out.
Part 3. In which I run out of pots and decide to transplant the rest into a full flat. Once again documenting the new method on the very first pass.
Part 4. In which I transplant into the full flats with my groove on.
Part 5. In which I show off the Maya House Blend, because it's just so lush!
I ended up having a lot of the West Side Blend seedlings left over, so I went around the garden and did some transplanting outdoors. Is it too soon and will they all wither in the cold? Only one way to find out!
All of the potted up babies went back to their créche in the basement, where it's nice and cosy warm. I said nice things to them, made sure to water them from below, and now I wait to see how they fared!
And now that I have my crop plan in front of me, I have a much better idea of what's in the Maya House Blend! What do you think? Can you identify any of the flowers from the last video? Pop your guesses into the comments below! If you've had experience doing this type of potting up, what worked, or didn't work for you? Any tips or tricks to share?
With seedy hopes and dreams,
Loki