Tag Archives: Seed Starting

How to Start Seeds Indoors

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Because our growing season in Toronto is fairly short, many of my favourite vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, onions, and leeks, need an early start. It is easy to start seeds in your own home and I know many people that have had success with little or no experience.
The following post highlights the basic steps for starting seeds indoors. For a more detailed description and answers to any questions you might have check out: The New Seed-Starters Handbook http://www.green-seeds.com/pdf/seed_starters.pdf

When to Start Seedlings

Timing is one of the most important considerations when starting seeds indoors. This is often based on the last expected date of frost. In Toronto this is May 9th. Other last frost dates can be found at: http://usagardener.com/breaking_ground/frost_dates_canada.php
Some plants, like onions, leeks, cauliflower, broccoli and cabbages can be started inside as early as February. Others plants, like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants, should be started by the end of March or early April. Finally, there are a number of plants that do well in our short growing season, like beans, peas, beets, and greens, which can be planted directly into the ground once the snow melts and temperatures rise.

What you will need:
- Seeds
- A potting soil mix
- Containers (a few inches deep and with bottom drainage)
- Water
- A south facing window (or a “grow-light”)
- Newspapers (for easy clean up)
- Labels (to remember what you planted)
- A bit of time

Steps to Starting Seeds:

1. Prepare the seeds if necessary (for example some may require pre-soaking – check the specific information for the type of plants you are growing before you start)
2. Gather the equipment (containers, soil, newspapers, labels, markers)
3. Prepare the work space (make sure you have room and spread newspapers to gather the dirt for easy clean up)
4. Review seeds and prepare labels for each to prevent later confusion
5. Prepare the containers by putting a layer of newspaper on the bottom if the drainage holes are large; this will prevent soil loss from the bottom of the container
6. Moisten the soil in a separate container – do not water log the soil since this may promote mold growth or cause the seeds to rot
7. Fill the containers loosely with the moist soil – do not pack the soil tightly
8. Plant the seeds: first spread them on the soil the appropriate distance apart and then cover the seeds with the appropriate depth of soil (this will vary according to plant type)
9. Cover the container – it does not have to be airtight and seeds do not need light to germinate (but watch for mold, which can be remedied with greater ventilation).
10. Place the seeds in a warm place to await germination.

Germination:

Basically this is the sprouting phase for the seeds which can be anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks. Factors that influence germination include:
- The condition of the seeds and the type of plant
- The presence of water (keep moist but careful of drowning and if possible water by filling a tray underneath the container with water rather than pouring water on top)
- Sufficient air (which is why seeds need to be planting shallowly and the soil should not be packed too tightly)
- Temperature (germination requires warmth, usually 24-32oC)
- Light usually doesn’t matter for vegetable seeds but may for flowers
- Soil conditions (do not need much if any fertilization because it may slow germination)
What you should do:
- Check the seeds containers at least once a day
- Ensure that the soil is moist by not soggy
- Provide regular intervals of air (i.e. uncover the containers for a couple of hours especially if mould develops)

What Seedlings Need:
Once the seedlings start to appear their requirements start to change.
- Light – as soon as they germinate they will require light, either artificial or natural (6 hours minimum)
- Temperature – they do not need to be as warm as they did for germination, often slightly cooler than room temperature is ideal
- Space – soon after the leaves unfold the seedlings will require more space (so that they are not competing for light, moisture, or nutrients) and it is at this point some seedlings will be thinned out by cutting them off with scissors (uprooting them may damage the roots of the remaining seedlings).
- Soil – the seedling will quickly use up the nutrients in the container, which is one of the reasons that seedlings grown indoors often need to be transplanted to a larger container with more nutrient rich soil

Urban Tomatoes

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My engagement with urban agriculture started with a gift to my husband Jim a few months before we moved to Toronto.  A close friend gave him eight small yellow envelops of seeds as a birthday present.  The uneven typing  on the envelopes read “White Queen,” “Tigerella,” “Lime Salad,” “Purple Cherokee,” “Yellow Pear,” “Black Seaman,” “Peasant’s Paste,” and “Druzba.”  They were heirloom tomato seeds from a Seed Sanctuary in Kingston, Ontario.

The following February we bought a seed starting tray, potting soil and a cheap grow light and planted a full tray of seeds.  The thought of growing tomatoes from seed, especially in a basement apartment with a north facing window, seemed like we were setting ourselves up for failure.  Up until this point the only tomato plants in my life had come from garden centres.  Every June, my parents would take us to buy tomato seedlings from warm, humid greenhouses scented with chemical fertilizers.  And now here we were starting tomato seeds in February, months before the potential plants would head outside in what seemed to be a totally inhospitable environment for heat and sun-loving tomatoes.

I was wrong about the tomatoes.  We ended up with over 40 healthy seedlings when it came time to transplant them to larger pots.  And then there was the question of where to put them.  The patch of grass outside our apartment window was ours to use but our landlord was insistent that we were only allowed to plant in pots.  It could handle a few plants, but what about the rest?  The need to find a place for our tomatoes led us to find Maloca Community Garden at York University, where Jim and I were both studying.  The initial e-mails sent to the garden were slow to be answered but in a short time we were showing up to regular community work days and had negotiated a plot for most of our tomatoes.  This was my introduction to community gardening and urban agriculture.

A lot has happened since that first introduction to growing food in the city.  That first year we invited a couple of on campus friends to help us out with our plot of tomatoes.  The tomatoes grew into a dense thicket (and were delicious).  That fall Jim and I were elected to the community garden’s steering committee and we spent the following season leading workdays, setting up a blog, fighting to get the garden on the campus map and trying to grow the “community” part of the garden in addition to the vegetables.  The third year we passed responsibilities of the garden over to a new steering committee but helped to get a new water tank and grew not only enough tomatoes for ourselves but also many for our communal plots.  That summer was when I started working in Markham, a large suburb north of Toronto, with a big part of what I’m focusing on related to local food and urban agriculture planning.

Community gardens and urban agriculture are moving into the mainstream.  And whether the trendiness of the 100 mile diet or the necessity caused by a global recession is the source of this current interest, there are a lot of reasons why our Canadian cities should be embracing community gardens and figuring out how agriculture can work in cities and suburbs.  Beyond the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of our food by growing and eating food we grow, there are other environmental benefits including reduced use of pesticides (most community gardens prohibit the use of all but the most natural pesticides), onsite management of organic waste through composting and much needed plant variety for our pollinators.  Plus community gardens can serve as great site for eco education and with a bit of management can help beautify communities.  Beyond the environmental benefits, there are also social, cultural and economic benefits to community gardens, including healthy food and physical activity, improved community safety, access to culturally appropriate foods, welcoming public space, increased food knowledge, affordable program to maintain, and improved partnerships throughout the community.  And there are also a lot of ways that cities can support community gardens including supportive land use policies, financial support, public-private partnerships, technical assistance with site and design, management of programs, education and design.