hello everyone this is my official
on-screen introduction steve gardens85
here and uh going to be doing a video
today about how to start seedlings as a
response to a lot of emails i received
from new gardeners
the materials i have here in front of me
are the soil mix that i use to start
seeds which is typically
about 50 compost with um
a mix of pumice or hummus and um
peat moss so you want to have a nice
fine mix when you're going to be
starting seeds because if you don't get
good contact with the seed
you're not going to
really be able to keep the seed moist
and it's going to take longer if they
even germinate that way so today we're
going to be
filling these seed trays that i've
gotten from my local nursery um for
about 10 cents a piece
you can buy these at lowe's or home
depot or any of your local hardware
stores typically you can get some
version of a seed starting tray
typically more expensive i like to go a
little bit cheaper route i usually talk
to the owner of my nursery and he sells
these for you know 10 cents a piece or
so
today today we're going to be starting
some zucchini
as well as some yellow squash
so what i'm going to start out doing
here is you're going to fill the seed
tray
with your soil
go ahead and do both of these here
now when you when you're starting seeds
you don't want a lot of uh large clumps
or uh pieces of matter inside your your
seed cells so
be sure to screen out or
break up your soil as much as possible
and make it nice and fine
what i like to use to
put my seeds in is typically
i'll just grab a popsicle stick
and
use that to make us make the hole for
the seed
and
when you're planting seeds a good rule
of thumb would be
to
plant the seed
equal in depth
to the length of the seed so
this is zucchini seed and we're
basically going to go twice the depth of
that seed
deep into the dirt so
start by making six holes here
that depth
i find the popsicle sticks pretty easy
because it lets you push the soil to the
side make a little slot in the
seed cell to be able to plant
and then you're going to drop the seeds
in
best way that i've found to do it is to
find the point of the seed and let that
face up
seems like when i do that i get quicker
germination times
and that's it and once you've got your
seeds in
take a fine sprinkling of soil
just to cover them up
you don't want to pack them in
leave them like that
and uh what you want to do is water them
in
really well the first time
and make sure you do it really gently
because you don't want to disturb the
seed too much
when you water them the first time
otherwise they may come to the surface
or
get placed towards the side of the cell
and they don't get good
good root production so
that's it we've got our finished product
and uh just keep them moist for
three to four weeks and usually zucchini
and squash you will have
quick germination times i did some
earlier this year
and they germinated within three weeks
so
be patient sometimes it doesn't happen
that fast
and
that's it that's how you start seeds
you