Since late May, I’ve been experimenting with patio gardening. I’ll just say up front that I have almost no real gardening experience and so everything has been a trial-and-error thing. It’s been going pretty good so far except for the blight (I think) that my plants caught recently. I’ve been spraying them with a baking soda/soapy water/Miracle Grow concoction and it seems to have helped (I hope!). Anyway, I wanted to share some information about how I’ve been germinating my seeds in less than a week (and in some cases less than 24 hours) after “planting” them.
It’s not a secret or even a real novel way of doing things. However, I didn’t find a whole lot of information via the Internet about it so I figured I might as well share what I’ve learned from it. It’s what I see being called the “wet paper towel” method. It’s not a science and I know it’s been around forever (I remember my mom doing it) but still when I was thinking about doing it there just wasn’t a lot of information out there.
I use an extremely lazy approach to germinate seeds this way. I fold a paper towel into quarters. Then I wet the paper towel (it needs to be quite damp but there must not be a lot of excess water because this will drown the seeds) and place the seeds between the two sides and fold the paper towel over them. Most people at this point seem to just leave the paper towel on a plate or something similar but I have been putting the paper towel inside of a plastic sandwich bag to create something like a greenhouse — at least I think that’s what it’s doing.
Now where to place the bag? On most seed packets (and on the internet if the seed packet does not provide information), you can find out what the optimum conditions under which the seeds will germinate. For seeds that need lots of sun, you can put the bag on a windowsill. All my seeds except for my tomatoes have germinated laying on the floor in a corner of my room with little sunlight. The average temperature was around 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit with little humidity.
I haven’t tried this with very many varieties of seeds but here are my findings:
Basil (Sweet) – less than 24 hours
Lettuce (Black-seeded simpson) – less than 24 hours
Lettuce (Beet Bull’s Blood) – 3 days
Lettuce (Red Salad Bowl) – 4 days
Cilantro – did not germinate – possibly too much water?
Parsley – 7 days – but had to soak overnight in a bowl of water before germination
Tomatoes (Red Robin) – 2 days
The only seed which I was completely unable to germinate was the cilantro. I still don’t know why they didn’t germinate because they were put under the same conditions as the parsley (which has similar growing conditions) but it may have been due to too much water or perhaps the seeds were just bad. All in all, I think the experiment was successful because in all cases the seeds germinated far before the packages reported I would see seedlings if they were planted directly in the dirt.
What to do with the seedlings once they have emerged? Oddly enough, I found that it is best to leave them in the paper towel for several days until their leaves (cotyledons) have emerged, are a healthy green color, and the root is about a half-inch to a full-inch long. I tried planting the seeds in the soil directly after they germinated and after waiting for the above conditions and almost every single time the seeds grew faster and stronger when I waited. I keep the paper towel consistently damp from the time I first put the seeds in the paper towel to when I move them to soil. I transplant the seeds from the paper towel to Jiffy grow pots with Miracle Grow organic choice potting mix. So far all of the plants I have started this way look great and are growing quickly. The only plants I have that have caught the blight have been ones bought at Walmart and Home Depot!
Anyway, that’s my experience so far with patio/container gardening. I’m no expert so take what I’ve said so far with a grain of salt. I just wanted to share what I’ve found in hopes that it will help someone else who wants to venture into a little gardening.