Tuesday, June 7, 2016

A multitude of choices

This time I will post about how I started out with 
planting seeds.
Online I found different pages that promoted to "winter sow" seeds in milk jugs and just leave them alone 
until you are ready to plant your garden. 
Winter sowing in milk jugs
Others praised to do your own cheap, neat,
"biodegradable" pots 
made out of newspaper, or toilet rolls. 

Well, I found all this intriguing and wanted to give it a try.
And that's what I found out about:
Seeds planted in milk jugs
It is easy to prepare the milk jugs and pots for the seedlings. I sowed cabbage and kale, lettuce and yellow cosmos. 
Kale - did not like it at all
The first batch was sown February 19th. 
A month later the plants were either there or not at all. 
On May 15th I was not impressed at all. 
Lettuce - neither
The only seeds that thrived somewhat in the milk jugs 
was cosmos. 
Cosmos - doing ok
The seeds in the newspaper pots did not thrive  
because the pots did retain the water. 
The tiny roots were not able to penetrate the newspaper 
at the bottom of the pot
The paper did not disintegrate. 
There is not enough room for the seedling to expand.
I had to peel off the paper to "rescue" the seedlings.
Lettuce got stuck in a soggy pot
Ditto with the toilet paper rolls.  
Seedlings in paper coffee mugs did way better. 
Additional I also used paper coffee mugs.
Lettuce seedlings.
Difference between coffee mugs and toilet roll
Maybe I am clumsy, but needles to say, I won't use newspaper, toilet rolls or milk jugs any more. 
I rather go back to my old way 
of starting the seeds -
in seed trays.
The water drains well, the seedlings thrive and are easily to be pushed out for transplanting when necessary.

2 comments:

  1. Interesting experiment, now you know first hand.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great experiment. What works for one person doesn't always work for another. Now you know what will make your job easier.
    If Peter expands your greenhouse you will definitely be busy getting the seeds an early start.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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