Hello my name is Martha Smith and I'm a horticulture educator with the
University of Illinois Extension and today I'm going to be talking about seed
starting. I'm going to be giving you a basic overall introduction. This is the
first of a four-part series and we will walk you through the entire process-
starting seeds, germinating, seedling growth, transplanting and hardening off
before you put them out. Starting a community garden or you might have an
existing community garden many of you might be interested in starting your own
seeds so that you can have transplants to set out later. Well hopefully with
this four-part series you'll be able to do that. But what is seed starting? Well
this is the official definition. Selecting viable seeds and providing
them with all the complements of their natural environment which are necessary
for germination, in a form, or sequence which sets off the chain of events which
leads to the production of seedlings. Yeah it's it's there's a lot of words in
there and really what does it really mean. Well I like to make it more simpler
or easier. What we're doing is we are mimicking nature in order to get seeds
to germinate and grow in an artificial environment. We are starting with those
viable seeds and in an artificial environment setting off that chain, that
sequence of germination all the way through seedling growth. So I find this
easier to understand because for many of us we're not going to be starting our
seeds outdoors we're going to be starting them indoors. Perhaps you have a
greenhouse or you're gonna be dealing with just using grow lights
either way you're dealing with an artificial environment. So we're going to
talk about why we start seeds. We're going to talk about the timing of when
you should start them indoors. We'll talk about seed selection then we're going to
discuss the growing process starting with germination, seedling growth and
then hardening off before we set them outdoors. But first ask yourself why
start your own seeds? Well there's many reasons. For a lot of people they want to
get a head start on the season. For some of your seeds when you start them
indoors it will be recommended to start them maybe four to six weeks before you
set them out. This will give you a more mature plant to set in the garden that
will come to production earlier than if you direct seeded those directly into
the garden after the last chance of frost. So you'll have a six week head
start and you'll get harvest earlier. So a head start on the season should lead
you to an earlier harvest, When you start seeds you have a greater variety. You're
not limited to what's available at the garden centers and the nurseries. You can
grow what what seeds you can find you can experiment and try many
different things. Cost savings well I put a question mark after that because yes
you can start seeds on a shoestring budget. It doesn't take a lot.
But as with any hobby or something that we start up there's a lot of bells and
whistles and depending on your budget what you're able to afford sometimes
that cost savings isn't as big as we realize. But then I like to do it because
I enjoy it. I get a sense of satisfaction knowing that I
started these seeds indoors and they're now growing in my garden. I like and
enjoy the growing process. But before you start you gotta ask yourself some
questions. Are you and your group able to devote time to this process and if so do
you have enough space to do this correctly and are you ready? Do you have
all your supplies. So do you and your group have enough time. Well annuals
which vegetables and our bedding plants fall under are grouped into three
general categories based on time needed. Some will need eight to 12 weeks of
growing before being set out. Others will need six to eight weeks and then we have
those that require four to six weeks to start indoors before setting them out. So
you can't start your seeds and say well I'm gonna go head off in Florida for a
couple weeks you've got to be there or somebody has to be there to take care of
them. Because you might be starting some seeds in mid-february and they're gonna
need your attention all the way through May. Do you have enough space for what
you properly want to grow. Now when we get into seed starting there's various
methods that you can do. You might be using a seed starting tray or maybe a
plug tray and here a seed starting tray is just going to be a shallow small
container where you're gonna put some media in and you're gonna start all your
seeds in there. So in this small container let's say it's maybe a
rectangle of four inches by eight inches you could have a hundred seedlings. They
can't stay in there, That's not going to be sustainable for them. They have to be
bumped up to a larger container. So now that little space that you had
for that seed tray becomes maybe four flats and a flat is much larger. It's
going to take up more space so do you really have enough space for what you
properly want to grow. And this is always a challenge for me because I grow under
grow lights in my basement and I have very limited grow space so it's valuable
real estate and I only want to grow what I know I can't find elsewhere and I want
to be able to properly grow it in the space that I have. And then are you ready?
is your growing area and all of your supplies clean. Sanitation is going to be
your best defense against pests, diseases and insects. You're growing in an
artificial environment. Your best defense is making sure that you're not
introducing any pathogens. So you want to clean down everything, You want to wash
down your growing tables. If you're using old containers clean them out wash them
with soap and water and let them air dry. Use fresh growing media. Don't reuse what
you used last year. Once you're done with this process whatever you've used I put
it in my compost pile. I'm not going to reintroduce that next
year because there's a good chance I'll be bringing in diseases and possibly
insects. I just clean up the room I make sure everything's clean I have
everything ready because you could have pests. Maybe some of you have done
this maybe you've grown seedlings and you're growing them maybe upstairs in
your living environment in a window and they're doing great and then all of a
sudden one morning you come downstairs and they're all knocked over
and there might be a little bit of fuzz growing on the media surface. Well you've
been hit with one of the many diseases that can occur early on in the the
seedlings lifecycle and that really just tells me that something wasn't clean. The
container maybe had some residues left over from the year before or if you're
using old media. So really do do your best to make sure that everything is
clean. And then do you have all your supplies I like to order my seeds early.
I'd like to order them before the first of the year. I hate when I get that
little notice saying sold out so I like to have them on hand. I make sure I have
clean media. My containers are cleaned. I use artificial light so I want to make
sure my lights are ready and I have the most efficient light bulbs because again once
you start you've got to keep this going until you're gonna transplant them out.
So when to begin. Let's talk a little bit about timing. Wen is it safe to put
most bedding vegetable plants outdoors where you live. Okay once you know that
then take that date and you start backwards counting backwards. So you're
gonna start these seeds six to eight weeks ahead of time. Let's say you're
going to target May 15th as your transplant date. Well you're just gonna
get a calendar out and you're going to count backwards and that's when you're
going to start those seeds. Now when is the recommended planting date for
Illinois. Well we have southern central and northern. I'm going to talk about
northern Illinois. In northern Illinois the average date of
our last frost is April 25th. Now you're thinking I can't plant at April 25th!
Well some cool season crops you might be able to but for many of the things that
we're going to be growing indoors that's going to be too early. Now that is
the average date of last frost that means we have a 50/50 chance of getting
a frost. So we give about a 10 day or 2 week buffer and we recommend in northern
Illinois May 10th or mid month. For me, my target date is May 15th and that's
the date that I count backwards for all the different seeds I'm going to be
starting. So I've got May 15th as my target date. I'm gonna order my seeds
early so I have them. I'm going to start to do some research - what's the
information that I have on the back of the seed packet or maybe I'm going to go
to the seed catalog and find out some more information about growing this type
of seed. Or maybe I can go online and see what information I can find there. Count
backwards from your planting date. Set your seed planting schedule because once
you start remember you've got to pay attention. I usually set my schedule to
start the first of the month or the 15th of the month depending on the seed. So
where can you go for your information? Well this is a seed packet and a seed
packet will give you a lot of information. This is Zinnia
Thumbelina mixed a little annual flower I was growing. In the top section it
tells you about how to direct seed. "Sow in ordinary garden soil sunny area in
spring after danger of frost" It's giving you all of that
information but if you drop down in garden hints it says for earlier bloom
seeds may be started indoors five to seven weeks before outdoor planting time.
Now if this was the first year that I was growing this little Thumbelina mix
I would probably start them six weeks ahead of when I needed them and I would
keep it in a log book and make notes so if I want to plant this again I can say
okay, no I really needed an extra week or I think I could have started them at
five week. So the seed packet has a lot of information. Also notice on on this
seed packet that it was packed for 1996. This was the year that you can
anticipate the greatest percentage of germination. This was the year it was
packed for and you have seeds that are at their highest viability. We're
going to talk about viability. It's the ability to germinate. If you save those
seeds - every seed is different and some seeds will hold their viability
for a long time many years and others will lose it very quickly. So you want to
store them properly. In the coming years if you used some of this old seed you
probably wouldn't get the 98% germination that you would that very
first year. Now with some seeds they're only going to tell you to direct seed
they're not gonna say to bother with starting them indoors. Radishes - radishes are
cool season they don't have a lot of very long days to harvest so in
here it's just telling you just plant directly how many seeds how deep. They've got a
little map of the United States so you have a little timing scheduled there.
WIth direct seeding you're just working up your garden soil and planting them
according to the label instructions. Now for some plants as I said I like to grow
things that I readily can't find and this was a plant that I started many
years ago this was in October of '03 when I took this picture and this
is a Cynara cardunculus sometimes called cardoon. It's a member of the
artichoke family. I grow it primarily for this big architectural foliage in my
garden. I needed to do some research because I had never grown this before.
The seed packet didn't have a lot of information so I turned to the seed
catalog and to the seed company's website so here (this was off of their
website) and it's telling me what I need to know to grow this particular bedding
plant. So I'm looking at flower, height, hardiness rating, I dropped down to
sowing instructions and it tells me that I want to sow them in trays or pots what
temperature how deep, but notice it says sowing time "February to March the seed
can also be sown outdoors where it will flower in mid spring". Ok let's talk a
little bit about hardiness. This plant for us in in Illinois is going to be an
annual it's not going to be able to survive our winters. Illinois is
divided into five different USDA hardiness zones and these zones are
based on the annual average cold temperature. Illinois is a long narrow
state the very far northwest corner is Zone 5a which tells
me that the average annual cold temperature is minus 20 to minus 15
degrees Fahrenheit. Then you go all the way to the southern
tip of Illinois and they're in zone 7 which their cold temperatures are zero
to five degrees above. In the Quad Cities where I'm located we are zone 5b
so our average annual cold temperature is minus 15 to minus 10 degrees
Fahrenheit. Notice the hardiness rating I have it underline up on top.
This plant is Hardy to zones 7, 8 & 9. 7, 8 & 9 is going to be your state's south of
Illinois all the way to the tip of the Florida Keys and the southern tip of
Texas. In fact when you get down to zone 9 their average annual cold temperature
is only 25 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit above zero. So reading this there's no
way I could swo these outdoors to have them flower in mid spring. You need to
do your research especially if you're trying something a little more unusua.l
Find out and read and understand where is this Hardy to and when should I start
it. Now from experience I have just learned through trial and error that I
start this March first. The plant is then a good size for me to
set it out in at the end of May. But also with our shorter growing season, our
cooling temperatures, I don't expect it to flower and fruit I just want the
foliage.
Let's start with the seed. When you're selecting remember your space
your growing area. If you have restricted growing space remember what you can
adequately grow. Purchase new viable seed and choose the desired characteristics
you want, how many do you think you need and then I like to order maybe a little
buffer zone of 20%. Up in the upper right corner there's a little flower called
Gazania and I was growing Gazania because I like the color and it was
going to be able to tolerate the hot dry spot I was putting it in. So I was
choosing it for those desired characteristics. I knew I needed 24 they
came packed 20 seeds per packet I got 2 packets because not every single seed is
going to germinate. You can anticipate maybe 95 to 98% germination from that
first year. I like to order early because it ensures the availability and I can
start my seeds on schedule. Now what are some good seeders. Annuals we
generally think of as our flowering plants our impatiens and our zinnias and
our marigolds. By definition an annual is a plant that's going to complete its life
cycle in one growing season. They emerge in the spring we plant them and they set
flower set seed and then with the cold temperatures they die. Really our
vegetables that we grow here in Illinois are for the majority annuals. We only
expect them to to live for that one season. So a lot of our flowering plants
are bedding plants are good seeders. Some of our herbs are good seeders,
what comes to mind is dill and then a lot of the vegetables that you're
probably interested in are good seeders. We often get good germination, fast growth
they're readily available. If you're going to collect seed they often produce
abundant seeds. Now notice I'm not talking about perennial plants those
plants that come back year after year. These are things that we have in our
garden like hosta or day lilies. And I'm not talking about woody plant material
which would be your trees and shrubs. For these plants seeding can be a bit more
challenging because they often will have a dormancy restriction and we'll discuss
that later. So we want to have viability we want to have good viable seed and
that really just is the germination capability. On the seed packet
there's a date if it doesn't I write the year on the packet that I bought those
seeds. Improperly stored seed or old seed can lose its viability and this is based
on the seed they're all different. Some will hold their viability longer than
others so if you're going to store the seeds you want to put them in a dark,
cool, dry, pest proof location. So here if you're thinking where are my seeds?
They're out in the shed and boy last winter it got down to zero and it got
over a hundred this past summer - those aren't good seed storing temperatures!
Store them dark, cool, dry, away from pests such as mice who can often get into to
your seeds. If you're going to collect seed rather than buy seed
there's a couple things that we have to talk about. We have to talk about
genetics. You might see the terms hybrid or F1 hybrid on a seed packet and
I'm going to explain what those are. Now when we propagate plants there's two
methods. One is sexual and the other is asexual. Sexual is where
you take two parents you cross them pollination the the fruits are produced
and you get seeds. That's sexual reproduction. Asexual is where there's a
characteristic of a plant that does not come true from seed. You grow the seeds
and the characteristic - let's say you wanted a certain height or maybe a
certain fruit size- doesn't come true. So we have to take a piece of that plant
and grow it on. So we're taking some part of the plant. I'm showing you in the
picture we're taking cuttings and those cuttings will root. So we are taking the
exact same genetic material off the plant and we're growing it on. This is
also done with tissue culture. Where they take cells and they grow them on to
produce a plant and this is called vegetative growth. So what we're talking
about is an exchange of material between parents pollination and we're producing
seed.
When we talk about seeds you might have heard the terms heirloom and then you
might have heard hybrid or on a seed packet you might see a little symbol
that says F1. What's the difference? Well this is where we have to
talk about genetics. An heirloom those, that you see pictured on the top are
those that have stood the test of time and maintain the desired characteristic
that you want. These will grow true from seed so they've stood the test of time
you collect seed every year and when you grow them out the next year you get the
exact type of fruit - what you expected. Because whatever characteristics those
are, they're dominant. And these are open pollinated they're not doing any special
cross pollination they're just letting the wind and the bees and all the
pollinators across back and forth because the characteristic that you
desire is going to be dominant and that's where we get the expression will
grow true from seed. Heirlooms I've heard the definition you know a 50 years or
more have been in the trade producing the same characteristics.
Now hybrids. A hybrid is where man has intervened and they've taken two known
parents with specific desired features and they cross pollinate them. It's under
controlled pollination. They're not letting wind or any of the other
pollinators come around so that they know that the seed that's resulting will
have the desired characteristics. Now I'm showing you they're a little tomato. It's
called Red Racer and notice it says F1. The easiest way to explain F1 is first
generation after pollination. Red Racer is a cocktail size tomato that
produce a small uniform fruit with great taste. It has a compact size. It's got an
early yield - all these good things. So you grow it and you say wow I really like
this well I'm gonna save the seeds for next year.
Well the seeds that you're collecting are not first-generation anymore they're
actually going to be second-generation and they've been open pollinated so
you're getting everything crossing with everybody else.
Most often the trait that a hybrid has that we want is recessive and now
through this open pollination, dominant traits can start to show through. So
often with your hybrids you'll hear the term they don't come true from seed. So
you collect these seeds when you grow them on and next year boy, maybe you have
some plants that are popping up to six feet. Maybe some of them are giving you
big like four inch diameter fruit. Nothing compared to what you had the
year before. So if there are certain plants that you want certain specific
characteristics and it says hybrid or F1 you really need to consider buying fresh
seed every year. and people comment well those seeds are so expensive. Why are
they so much more expensive? Well across the controlled pollination
there's money there's
cost recovery. So the seeds are going to cost
more. Okay now one last thing that I want to talk about when we talk about seed
starting is dormancy and dormancy is a condition that prevents the seeds from
germinating even when given proper conditions. When you think about it this
really is kind of a survival mechanism for seeds because seeds right -
today is the last Friday in September - so a lot of our plants are
shutting down a lot of our produce in our gardens we're getting to the final
harvests and if any fruit drop and start to break down those seeds if they
germinated right now would not make it through the winter. So many of them have
some type of dormancy that will actually prevent them from germinating until the
following spring when the growing conditions are advantageous. Now with
the dormancy there are external factors and there's internal factors. External
factors, physical is where you have a very hard seed coat and the seed just
can't take up moisture to start the germination process and that's
physical so maybe we have to nick or scratch or crack the seed coat.
Mechanical even though the seed can absorb moisture it just that the seed
coat is too hard it's too hard and there again you might have to crack it or nick
it or scratch it. Chemical is where chemicals accumulate and prevent
germination and really just need to be leached out. So you think about that seed
dropping in the fall through the winter months
snow fall, rain all of that is leaching out that chemical so that they can
germinate in the spring. So there's all of these and there's many
that could be a combination of these three. Internal we have physiological and
morphological. Physiological the seeds have specific environmental germination
requirements - maybe they need light some seeds need
light to germinate or they have to have dark. Or they have to have cool
temperatures or they're not going to germinate until a certain day time
temperature is reached. Morphological is when the embryo isn't
fully developed and it needs time to mature and again you might have
combinations of all the above. So do your research the two most common dormancy
treatments that you'll probably be faced with is stratification and scarification.
Stratification often is a cold treatment given to the seed to
hasten germination and you should find this on the seed packet or you might
find it in the seed catalog or maybe at the website. Here it might say place
in refrigerator for four weeks before starting indoors. It might say place seed
with some moist media in a ziplock bag place it in the refrigerator for four
weeks. When you think about this remember when we started this topic I
said you're going to mimic nature to get those seeds to germinate. Well with
stratification what you're doing is you're artificially giving them winter.
You're just speeding up the process. The other is Scarification and this is
where that seed coat isn't permeable to water or gases. You might have to scratch
it or crack the seed coat. Some will tell you to soak in a mild acid solution to
soften the seed coat others might say to put overnight in a hot or warm water
soak, again to soften the seed coat. Scratching or cracking this could be in
replacement of maybe animals grazing and chewing on the seeds and cracked them
open or maybe animals walking over them and cracking their seed coats. And an
acid soak what would that mimic well passing through the intestines of an
animal and being treated with the stomach acids softens the seeds and then
they come out the other end and they're ready to go. So if you've had trouble
with some seeds in the past do the research and find out maybe there's a
dormancy situation. So we've talked about just the basics of seed starting in our
next session we're going to talk about germinating and things that you need to
consider. You need to have water. Seeds need oxygen. You have to think about
light - some need light and some need darkness. You have to think about
temperature. Bottom heat will be discussed. And then what are you growing?
Some have specific preferences. Some are cool temperature - crops broccoli, lettuce,
pansies, onions all of those really do best at forty to sixty degrees Fahrenheit.
But then there are those that have to have warm temperatures. We can't set
those out until we know the soil temperatures and the air temperatures are
warm. 65 to 85 degrees. Beans, peppers, melons, tomatoes, and understand you want
to have viable seed that is going to have the highest percentage for
germination for that seed and the seed must not be dormant so you're going to
have to do some research. So that ends introduction at the next session which
Alicia will be teaching you will be actually starting the seeds and walking
you through germination. Then I'll be back and I'll talk about seedling growth
and then Alicia is going to finish off with transplanting, seedlings growth,
and hardening off This is our horticulture website. We have lots of
information up there if there's other things that you'd like to learn about I
strongly recommend that you visit and you'll find stuff on composting, trees
shrub,s herbs, planting bulbs all sorts of information! Here's my contact
information. That's my email and if you have any questions at a further date
please don't hesitate to contact me. Thank You
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