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- Home >> Lifestyle: Gardening Basics:
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- Invite
Spring Early - Grow in Your Basement
- By Jim Kennard
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- Now's the
time to get ready to grow your own seedlings! It's not really
difficult, and can extend your growing season by many weeks.
For example, by planting brassica's (cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower)
in February in your basement under grow-lights, you can put large,
sturdy transplants into your garden by the end of March or early
April, and be eating them when others are just seeing them come
up! However, remembering that photosynthesis, using light, heat
and moisture causes plant growth, you must follow a few key natural
principles very carefully, or you will be disappointed.
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- First, seeds
must have moisture to germinate and grow. And the soil mix must
be moist, but not soggy, or you'll drown the new plant, since
it must also have oxygen!
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- Second, while
heat is essential, temperatures must be maintained in a narrow
range for ideal germination to occur. Most vegetable seeds germinate
quickly between 75 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. After plants are
up, many of them will grow in cooler temperatures, but most all
will become dormant (stop growing) at temperatures below 50 degrees.
- Third, light
is not necessary for seed germination, but as soon as your seedlings
begin to emerge from the soil, maximum light is required immediately
for proper development. Therefore, to grow in your house, make
sure your plants have a strong (but not hot!) light source directly
on the plants, for up to 16 hours per day. Pictures of two grow-light
shelves can be seen in the Photos section of the free gardening
group at MittleiderMethodGardening@yahoogroups.com. The metal one is
6-shelf Commercial Chrome Shelving, from Sam's Club costing only
$70, and will hold 20 flats of plants. Suspend shop lights with
2 cool and 2 warm 40-watt tubes 2 to 4" above the plants.
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- The fourth
principle relates to feeding. A balanced nutrient mix of 13 minerals
is essential to plants immediately after germination. Those nutrients
are mineral salts and must be very dilute in the soil moisture,
otherwise osmosis will cause the salt to draw the life-giving
moisture out of the plants, and they will die. To ensure you
never burn your plants, water seedlings daily using the "Constant
Feed Solution" of one ounce (2 level tablespoons) of Weekly
Feed dissolved in 3 gallons of water. For the free Weekly Feed
formula, go to the Gardening Techniques section at www.foodforeveryone.org,
and look on the Fertilizer page.
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- Next, it is
important to separate your small plants before their leaves begin
to overlap with others', or the tiny stems will become very weak
and spindly as the plants all stretch - looking for more light.
By the time the plants have their first or second true leaf,
this step should be completed. Failure to wait even a few hours
can result in spindly, weak plants, which never recover. Transplanting
seedlings into 2" 6-paks or pots will provide adequate space
for them to grow an additional 2-3 weeks, depending on variety.
If it's still too early to put them out into the garden by the
time plant leaves are again beginning to overlap, prune the leaves,
transplant again into larger pots, or separate pots, so the plant
leaves always have maximum light.
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- Before transplanting
into the garden, "harden-off" your plants outside,
off the ground for 2 to 3 days, to acclimate them to direct sunlight,
temperature, wind, etc. This is important so the plant doesn't
have the shock of a new environment added to the shock to its
root system caused by transplanting. If the weather turns cold
at night, bring the plants back in the house. The temperature
adjustment needs to be gradual.
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- For many of
your plants, the pruning process does double duty. In addition
to assuring maximum light, it shocks the plant mildly, causing
it to pause in its growth and produce a thicker, sturdier stem.
This process makes the plant much better able to endure the vicissitudes
of the outside environment, such as cutworms, ants, etc. that
often quickly decimate plants with weak, spindly stems.
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- For tall-growing
plants, like tomatoes, by the time they are 12" tall, provide
small stakes tied to the plant stem to prevent them from falling
over. And with tomatoes, begin immediately to remove all sucker
stems as soon as they appear, to assure a single, strong stem
and maximum production from your plant.
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- Jim Kennard, President
Food For Everyone Foundation
"Teaching the world to grow food one family at a time."
www.foodforeveryone.org
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- _______________________________________
- ARTICLE POSTED
FEBRUARY 23, 2005
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