A COMPLETE GUIDE TO STARTING VEGETABLE SEEDS
packets and then pick out the best summer vegetables that you're planning
to plant in the upcoming season and today's episode we will look at how to
start some of your favorite summer vegetables very easily so let's look at
some of the options you have to start seeds you can buy kits like these that
are called greenhouses or mini greenhouses and these are pretty cheaply
available I'll provide some links to some good products in the video
description below and in the comments basically if these are ready to use peat
pellets that you will be starting your seeds in and it's pretty basic concept
the peat is dried and compressed into a pellet as you can see here and this is
also available in different sizes for example this greenhouse kit that I had
reviewed in my monthly video as well and they all work on the same basic
principle they have a water reservoir at the bottom of the tray and then they
have the peat pellets that will help you grow your seedlings now when you add
water the peat pellets swell to about the size that you see here and then you
sow your seeds into these peat pellets directly and these are sterile peat
pellets and as you can see here they've been pretty good for me so far I've used
them for a while now and if you want to use your own seed starting mix you can
use these hex containers or hex seed starting kit and if you want to create
your own seed starting medium you can buy coco coir now coco coir by itself
is sufficient for you to grow your seeds start your seedlings and then transplant
them into your ground or the raised beds and as you can see here the coconut coir
is also compressed and when you add water you can
and them and store them as well to start seeds so you don't really need anything
fancy just coco coir is quite sufficient for you to start seeds and
coco coir is such a versatile growing medium that you will be amazed I just
used coco coir to start a lot of my seeds and I was pleasantly surprised now
what you do not want in your seed starting mix is anything from outside
your garden like compost or reused potting mix or potting soil any kind of
soil or dirt and the reason you don't want to have them is because you're
gonna get a lot of pathogens a lot of insects, diseases that you do not want
your seedlings to get now remember that seedlings are very fragile and you do
not want your seedlings to get any kinds of insects or diseases while they are
growing now an addition to coco coir or peat moss is either vermiculite or
perlite and it's pretty commonly used to start seedlings and although it doesn't
really create a difference it's more like a filler
although vermiculite does retain a lot more water than perlite so if you're
planning to use vermiculite or perlite just mix equal parts of either peat moss
or coco coir with vermiculite or perlite and you will have a very good seed
starting mix now if you want to buy some more time before you transplant your
seedlings outdoors what you can do is transplant your seedlings once they've
grown to about this size into slightly larger containers so that you buy about
four to six weeks more these seedlings will grow in this larger container for a
few more weeks before you can transplant them outside to your raised bed or to
the ground now let's talk a little bit about adding nutrients to your plants
while you're growing them or germinating them now once your plants reach about
this size that you see here they do need nutrients remember that coco coir peat
moss perlite vermiculite are all mediums that do not have any nutrients so
you do have to add nutrients so I recommend that you use a salt based
fertilizer at this stage and this will give you a really good boost to starting
your seedlings and you can use it at half-strength I usually use about a
capful or a spoonful of this fertilizer in two gallons of water and then just
water my plants with it and it forms a really good nutrient solution that the
plants can use and once your seedlings are ready you can transplant them into
the raised beds or on the ground and you will see that by following this method
you will be right in time to plant your seedlings or your plants after your last
frost date so just make sure you calculate your time correctly go back
about 6 to 8 weeks from your last frost date and start your seedlings and for
most growers in Southern California that time is now made of Jan so from the
beginning of Jan to the mid of Jan is a good time to start seedlings and I've
been mentioning that in my monthly videos as well and in no time you will
be on your way to harvesting some great summer vegetables from your garden so
there we have it folks that was our episode on starting your summer
vegetable seedlings and I would like to know from you if you have already
started your seedlings or are you still waiting for some more time because of
the frost date in your area
