Making our own seedbed.
Peliti has the logic of self-sufficiency.
In this context we present you here how to make your own nursery.
Construction materials. To make our own nursery we will need some materials for its construction. The plant pots that we will put the soil in can be bought from an agricultural store, this is the simplest step. But we can use styrofoam boxes that are thrown away by the dozens in the street markets. We can recycle plastic cups or coffee cups or even milk cartons.
We should make one or more holes in the bottom of our glasses to drain the water. If we do our sowing inside the house or in an area that we have to make sure is clean, we should make sure that the water from the irrigation is collected in saucers. The soil for our seeds. We can buy from an agricultural shop or a special potting soil for sowing, it is very important to be careful, the soil we buy commercially in bags must have an indication of Organic Crops, otherwise the risk is very high that it contains chemical substances (e.g. fungicides, bactericides, etc.)
with the result that they contaminate our soil and its health, and very important problems in vegetation (e.g. delayed growth, etc.). But we can also make our own, 70% peat, 30% compost or digested manure. We recommend peat as an easy solution, but if we can avoid it for environmental reasons, let’s do it. We should also make sure that the manures are from organic farms so that they do not contain antibiotics. We can also collect leaves from the forest, etc. Fill our glasses with the mixture we have made. We make sure that our soil is a finger lower than the rim of the glass. Sowing the seeds. In our glasses we can put one seed when they are for pumpkins, cucumbers, watermelons, melons, etc. but we can put four together when they are peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, etc. and transplant them when they grow up. In the case of eg beets, carrots, generally in most bulbs, I would put 4-6 seeds together (they will come out much faster “pareoula”) and we will transplant them as they are. We harvest carefully, the first one that will have the largest – desired size and let the rest continue. I haven’t seen any problems, eg competition, etc. and in fact I grow a very significant amount of food in a limited space. Perfect technique for urban environments even in large pots.
The seeds go into the soil twice as deep as they are thick. That is, the tomato seeds just enough to be covered. We can put the seeds and pour light soil on top of them or open a small hole and put the seeds inside. Watering. We water the seeds every day or every other day, we make sure that our soil has a slight moisture. Lighting. Our seeds should be in such a place that the sun should see the plants. This is a common mistake. We put our seeds in a bright spot and the plants look for the sun and thus “stain” they create a large stem and are destroyed. Temperature.
The place where we will have our seedling is good to have a temperature close to 20oC Sowing season. When we do our sowing depends on when we want to take out our plants in the garden or in the greenhouse. We will calculate that our plants need about two months to be transplanted. Transplant the tomatoes to their permanent positions when they become as thick as a pencil. If we have put more than one plant in our plant containers, for example tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc., when they reach a height of about ten centimeters, we transplant the plants into more plant containers so that they can grow normally. Before sowing. We can put the seeds for four hours, in warm to hot water, that is 30-40°C” to wake up the seeds with a warmth (positive “shock”). Some seeds may sprout like eggplant seeds.
If we have seeds that we may not know if they will germinate then we do pre-germination. We take kitchen paper, put the seeds inside the paper, cover them and soak the paper. We put the paper with the seeds in a plastic bag. We close them and leave them in a warm place. Within 34 hours our seeds will have sprouted. We will remove those seeds that do not germinate, the rest we will put them in our plant pots carefully so as not to damage their roots.
Growing our own plants gives us a sense of self-sufficiency and freedom in choosing our food and an economy in our pocket.
I thank Mr. Harry F. Houliaras for his advice.
Good luck.