Welcome to The Rusted Garden today I
want to fully explain how to bottom
water your seed starts and how to
determine when it's time to water your
seed starts a lot of people ask me how
often should you water them should you
use a humidity Dome should you water on
top of the soil what's exact what
exactly is the best way this is a method
I've been using for probably 10 to 15
years now and it really works well first
off a humidity Dome I don't use you
don't really need it for 99% of the
seeds that you're going to be
germinating you can use it but when you
put a dome across the top it creates
humidity and I think it creates a better
environment for molden fungus to grow
all right so when do you water your seed
starts this is how I do it if you look
this is cocoa core here you see how dark
this cocoa core is this is fully watered
I just bottom watered these four uh
cells before we start the video these
two are completely dry when your seed
cells start to dry out they're going to
dry on the top first the top is going to
dry out because of the light uh creates
heat the top of the soil dries out so
that's good for you because when this
dries out and becomes light it goes from
dark to light that's when you know you
need to bottom water the moisture is
going to
stay down here so your seeds are going
to be okay your little uh seedlings are
going to be okay but the top will start
drying out so as soon as you see the top
dry out that's when you bottom water
same thing over here this is a different
mix this is actually this organic mix
over here you can see how dark it is
when it's watered and then when it's
completely dry it gets light so you're
looking for the change in the top of
your starting mix to begin to look like
how it looks when it's totally dry
here's some um plants that I'm already
starting this is chamomile and you can
see how dark this is they look let's see
do it this way they look very similar
these don't need to be watered yet
there's plenty of moisture in this so I
wouldn't water that tray yet over here
is my Rosemary and you can see that it's
still dark like this but parts of it are
starting to lighten up so probably in
about two days I'm going to have to
water this so you're always just looking
for the dark color when there's moisture
in it to transition over to how your
starting medium looks when it's light
and that's how I determine when I need
to water my my seed cells so to bottom
water and again I bottom water for two
reasons one it'll save you a lot of time
you'll see how quickly you can do it and
when you water on top you end up putting
a stream of water on here you can Splash
out your seed you can Splash disease and
fungus around and it makes a mess and it
takes a long time to go over this either
pouring it this way or even with a
watering can then it gets messy best way
to do it take out two
cells this table is not flat you have to
do it on a on a level surface but just
fill up the tray just like that until
it's about a qu or a third the way full
you'll get use to how much water you
have to put in and you can
see that the water is just sitting in
there and on a level surface you're
going to have about a third of the way
of the bottom of the tray filled up just
pop your trays back in let this sit on a
leveled surface for 20 to 30 minutes it
will absorb all the water into it after
20 to 30 minutes it's really important
you don't
want to let your roots sit in water
although you're rot so I just pour the
excess out into a bucket after 20 or 30
minutes and it's that simple
really now that was a lot of water of
course when you get used to doing it
this way you're going to be able to
eyeball the amount of water that's
needed and you know that the tray is
ready when well when of course the
lights starting mix like like this turns
dark that's that's when you know you've
watered your seed starts completely so
hopefully this gives you a good idea of
how to bottom water bottom water again
will save you time it'll keep from
splashing seeds and disease around it'll
evenly water everything and when you
want to water your plants or when you go
to check to see if your plants need
watering just look for the transition
from dark color to light color and
that's when you know they're going to be
ready to be watered hope you enjoyed the
video please check out my blog at ww.
theist garden. blogspot.com and also
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