The Easter season heralds planting time
The spring season marked by Easter and Passover is a time for
family tradition. My tradition is to plant my starter pots the day
before Easter.
No matter how early, or how late, Easter appears, the day before
is plant-the-seeds day.
The Easter season heralds planting time
The spring season marked by Easter and Passover is a time for family tradition. My tradition is to plant my starter pots the day before Easter.
No matter how early, or how late, Easter appears, the day before is plant-the-seeds day.
Starting seed involves more than plucking a couple of cute seed packets off the display rack. While some seeds can be started in the ground, smart gardeners rely on starter pots, either home made and from the garden center. Many things can be used as starter pots including egg cartons, juice boxes, paper coffee cups, recycled newspaper and store-bought peat or fiber pots.
The pots that caught my eye this year are fiber pots under the Planters’ Pride label. Made from a fiber material, the pot with its started plant is put in the ground, and the roots grow through the sides and bottom of the somewhat-porous pot.
But what is most interesting about these fiber pots is that they are peat-free. With all the talk about saving the rain forest, few people are aware of an ecological move to save the peat bogs. Many, many garden products are made from peat, since it is biodegradable in the soil. But peat is being used up much faster than it can form in the bogs. So, expect to see less peat and more fiber, paper, and similar materials in the nursery.
I bought my fiber pots at Orchard Supply Hardware, where there were no peat pots on the shelves. If you want to know more about the threat to peat bogs, check www.saveourpeatbogs.com
To start seeds in pots, the best product is a seed starting mix, readily available under a number of labels such as Miracle-Gro.
Bottom heat helps seeds germinate, and for this you cannot beat a heating mat. My “good find” was HydroFarm’s Seedling Heat Mat. The mat, which is the exact size of a common seed flat, raises the root temperature 10 to 20 degrees and speeds germmination. (www.hydrofarm.com).
The National Garden Bureau has trademarked the motto “Great Gardeners Start With Seeds” in its program to encourage the use of seeds. This makes sense for the National Garden Bureau, which happens to be public relations arm of the seed industry. However, I’m not sure I buy it: I think seeds are important, and I think bedding plants from the nursery are also necessary.
My motto is: Whatever works.”
A Reader Wants to Know: I read a story in another newspaper about making starter pots from torn up newspaper. I tried this, and got six made before I wondered if it was worth the effort. Have you ever tried this? – Jake
Joan Says: Well, Jake, you did better than me. I got to four newspaper pots and wondered why I was bothering. It is time consuming and the pots are somewhat fragile. If a person has a lot of time and a lot of patience, this is a good way to recycle newspaper and create pots on the cheap. Actually this appears to be the garden craft of the year. For readers who are interested, do a Google search of “seed starter pots from newspaper” to find an assortment of directions.
E-mail Joan Jackson at [email protected].
