Seedling Care

by John Yazo

When nature germinates seeds it provides sun for light and warmth, moisture from rainfall and nutrients from the soil. To grow your own plants from seed you need to create an environment that is similar to nature. Nature isn't always perfect and from time to time will provide to much or to little of the needed ingredients and a crop will fail. Growing under a controlled condition will allow you to monitor and supply the proper environment to grow a healthy and strong plant.

Starting your plants from seed is easy. Once they have germinated is when the care needs to start. Once your seedlings have emerged and start to grow you will need thin them out. Plants don't like to be crowded.

Light is a very important part of turning a seedling into a healthy and strong plant. Once your seedlings emerge they immediately seek for light. They need as much light as they can possible get to for a strong and healthy plant. Lack of light will form a tin and lanky plant that will be weak and can easily get damaged by winds when planted outdoors. Natural sunlight in the spring is not always enough due to the short days and also cloud cover from rainy days. Artificial growing lights may be needed to supply enough light during these times.

Watering your seedlings is another part that needs some care and attention. Seedlings need water to grow. The best method of watering is from the bottom. This allows for a healthy root system to develop. Once your start to grow slow down on watering from the surface and place a tray filled with water under the plant pot. This will allow the water to be soaked up through the bottom holes in the pots keeping the soil moist.

Seedlings don't need allot of nutrients the first few days of there life. Nutrients in the soil or potting soil mix usually are sufficient to get seedlings started. After a week or two a light feeding of a diluted liquid fertilizer will help keep the plants healthy and strong.

Organic Heirloom Gardening

Seedling Care