Learning from Experience

Learning from Experience

I have really learned a lot in the last few days. A high learning curve can be painful. Soaking seeds over night in water is stupid. You will not believe how hard it is to take them out and lay them on paper towels to soak them for germination. That is stupid too. They are really hard to pick up and put into the planting system.

About planting systems… I have used potting soil and cups in the past. It is cheap and the cups are really easy to label with a permanent marker. Planting the pre-germinated seeds in the little cups is a lot of work. Every cup has to be labeled and filled. The seeds have to be picked up with tweezers and put into the cups. The whole thing has to be covered with a little bit of potting soil and tamped. They can be bottom watered; but the wicking is really slow.

Jiffy cubes are better. They are really easy to plant. They are virtually impossible to label. Just put them in water until they swell up. Put the seed in the little hole and smash the cube a little to cover the seed. The seeds do not really need to be germinated in advance. The jiffy cube is a great germinating place. Jiffy cubes cost $.16 each. Rockwool comes in 98 cube sheets that fit inside a flat. Just soak the rockwool for a few hours and put the seed in the hole. Break off a little piece of rockwool from somewhere to plug the hole. The seeds do not need to be pre-germinated. I have already germinated way more seeds than I really need to plant. What a mess.



David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/.