#seed starting

i started this business in 2019 as a plant nursery, but quickly jumped into the rabbit hole that is seeds. seeing a sapling emerge from the seed or soil is top 5 things that make me happiest in life. to fuel this serotonin and to save money for my nursery business i taught myself how to save seeds, and in the process learned how seeds are legit the most important aspect of successfully growing a garden.

there are a lot of non-profits that focus on non-perishable food pantries, saving produce from being discarded and redistributing, and cooking fresh meals for those who need them. all amazing food going where it needs to go, today. but what about the food for tomorrow? how do we ensure that we can keep feeding ourselves, and our community?

that's where seeds come in.

my non-profit exists to help people obtain food security for the future. by saving seeds from plants that grew in your own environment - with your own schedule, resources, and ability - those plants are now passing down the genetics and what they learned to thrive in your environment to their off-spring. the more often you save those seeds and repeat this process, the more fruitful your plants will be the next time you start those seeds.

Have a community rights and defense class later around trans and immigrant rights - preparing to be stressed but take good notes to relay within my community

Meanwhile, its seed sorting day - where I go through the 1 million reused pill containers to combine seeds that are almost identical but were harvested a month or two apart, grab what I need to start seeding in the greenhouse and testing my new mini indoor setup, and sort things out by planting time and direct sow vs container planting.

I've been watching videos on 'winter sowing', which is an old method of getting seedlings without using indoor space. You take a big milk jug, or a big plastic water bottle and cut it in half, put soil in the lower half, put seeds in it, tape the top part back, and you leave it outside. It acts like a mini greenhouse. The plastic bottle protects the seeds from extreme temperatures with a level of insulation, and adds extra warmth whenever the sun hits the bottle, so the seeds germinate early, and you get a big bottle of seedlings, that you didn't have do to a lot to care for. The lid is removed from the bottle so the rain falls in and waters the seedlings automatically.

Now this is usually done in January, to get seedlings for cabbage, kale, broccoli, lavender, all the winter-hardy crops that need cold stratification. I think if I did in now, on the first of March, I might be able to get some tomato and pepper plants for planting in May, and I've heard people say they did get very resilient tomatoes this way.

My first order of business was to actually find a big jug or a water bottle, and I did, people throw them away. I cut it in half and poked holes at the bottom. I'm gonna get some good soil from the forest, and the last thing is – the seeds.

I'll put some seeds into the soil immediately, but it's too cold outside for them to germinate anytime soon. I know people with greenhouses put their seeds on heat mats in order for them to germinate, even if they grow in a cold greenhouse afterwards. Not only I do not have a heat mat, but my room is unheated, it's cold everywhere. The only source of heat is me. So my plan is to germinate my seeds in a little bag with a wet paper towel, that I will keep in my pocket. So I will be the heat mat.

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I have plant babies in my pocket. These are so precious to me now, they're my only seedlings I'll be growing this month so I'm ready to shower them with attention.

If this works it would be a great way to get seedlings, because it's so little work with great rewards, resources for it are easily gathered on the fly if you already have seeds. The only thing that could ruin it are the extreme temperatures. The bottle would not protect against a -10° freeze in the night, and if it's +20° in the day, temperatures in the bottle would be too hot for the plants to survive. So I do have to watch out and bring the bottle inside if it's a hard freeze, and put them in the shade if it's a hot day, or open the bottle up.

And progress on round 1. The cosmos already have one set of true leaves and the sweet peas are getting a little silly