Monday, March 5, 2012

Starting Summer Flowers from Seed

With Spring coming early this year, the Minnesota Gardener starts to get that flower itch. This time last year, we still had a layer of snow. Bored the other day, I decided to start some seeds - tomato and marigolds, using the pellet system below for the first time.

The pellets come in a variety of containers and are flat. I chose this "window" variety so that it easily fits on the window sill to get all that lovely sunshine.

 Just add some water and the pellets swell up and the top netting breaks.

 Once the top netting is broken, make a small well in the center, place a couple of seeds in the hole you made, and cover up with some of the soil.

Put the top on and do not remove until you see the first true leaves start to form.I think I am going to stick with this system as you can buy additional pellets by the bag so that I don't have to buy new containers each time.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I did this too, but some of my stuff came up faster than others. I'm worried about leaving the lid on until they're all sprouting. I'm just not sure it's okay to plant yet here in MN. I remember some pretty cold April and May months in the past!

Jennifer Kirby said...

No it is not safe to plant anything but pansies and cold weather crops right now. But it's a good idea to get tomato seeds going.

Billie Jo said...

This is my second year starting plants with the same pellets, and someone told me that the netting doesn't breakdown in the garden, so this year I removed the netting before transplanting my tomatoes into bigger pots.

I planted lettuce last week! YAY spring in Minnesota! :) Hope you have good luck with your seedlings!

Jennifer Kirby said...

I am putting compost in my vegetable garden and then planting lettuce and spinach too. Can't believe it is this early.