by Many of us imagine how to grow seedlings from seeds. Sow in the ground, wait for shoots to emerge, pick, grow and plant on the plot. But this is only in theory, and in practice, things are sometimes different. Our efforts often go down the drain at the seedling growing stage. Why?
Growing seedlings from seeds at a summer cottage can turn into a Sisyphean task for many reasons. For example, you bought low-quality seed material, stored it incorrectly, prepared it incorrectly for sowing, or made other mistakes at the stage of caring for the sprouts. But it also happens that you seem to follow the technology, and are no longer a newbie in these matters, but there is still no success. So maybe the reason is not in you at all, but in the seedlings of the plants themselves, which were easier to buy than to grow?
Petunia
The sowing of seeds of this plant for seedlings is not an easy task, which takes a lot of time. For convenience, each seed should be carefully taken with small tweezers or a toothpick. It is extremely important not to deepen the seeds and not to overwater them.
Growing petunia seedlings is also not as easy as it seems. It can get black leg disease at the stage of emergence, and it will be impossible to save your plants. Root collar rot of seedlings can appear due to over-moistening of the soil. Therefore, the entire period from sowing to the final transplantation of seedlings, the soil should be supplied with water carefully (preferably from a syringe) and the soil moisture should be carefully monitored.
Another problem is the size of the sprouts. They grow quite small, and for this reason it is difficult to pick them. But if this does not stop you, go for it! And let the advice of an experienced gardener help you with this.
By the way, about flowers. According to many gardeners, seedlings of any flowers are really easier and cheaper to buy than to grow yourself.
Celery root
And here sowing for seedlings does not guarantee success, because what you see in the picture is the result of your efforts in an ideal way. It is clear that lovers of a healthy lifestyle and adherents of diets, of course, cannot do without this vegetable crop. And if suddenly there are no potatoes in the cellar, then instead of them, along with sweet potatoes, turnips and rutabagas, you can also add root celery to dishes.
Now about sowing seeds for seedlings. They are small and do not germinate quickly. For full plant development, the shoots must be carefully looked after, providing them with proper watering, temperature conditions and lighting. And the sprouted seedlings must be picked on time – otherwise they will stretch out. This must be done carefully so as not to damage the fragile sprouts.
In order to avoid additional actions, you can, of course, initially sow the seeds for seedlings at a large distance from each other, albeit in one container. But this is another job – no less long and painstaking, and you will need too many containers for sowing. And placing each of the seeds in a separate small pot does not make sense, since some of them may not sprout and it turns out that you have wasted both the soil and the container.
Ready to take a risk? Then read the instructions.
Garden strawberry
Another example is strawberries. Sowing seeds for seedlings of this beloved crop, as well as caring for it at this stage, is also associated with great difficulties. But now growing garden strawberries on the windowsill has become so fashionable that inquisitive experimenters spare neither time, nor effort, nor even money for this. And, meanwhile, it should be known that they will sprout for a long time, and germinate poorly.
After all, an apartment or even a private house with all the amenities is not the kind of space that strawberry seeds sown for seedlings require. The soil for germinating the seeds of the crop needs to be special, the container is transparent, and strawberries generally do not tolerate picking well, i.e. you will have to stock up on containers in large quantities and find a spacious and light windowsill.
But natural light will not be enough for strawberries, and you will have to buy phytolamps. By the way, when sowing strawberry seeds for seedlings, they are not buried deep, which increases the likelihood of the roots appearing on the surface along with the sprout itself. And since they are fragile, you will also have to deepen them for a long time and painstakingly, using a toothpick or a match. By the way, garden strawberries, like petunias, can get black leg disease at the seedling stage, which means you will have to moisten the soil extremely carefully.
Garden nightshade crops
In addition to the real flowerbed decoration – petunia, which also belongs to the Solanaceae family of plants, according to the results of a survey of our readers, we have included several of its garden “relatives” in the list. Sowing tomato, pepper or eggplant seedlings in some cases also loses out to buying ready-made seedlings. For example, if you are a beginner and want to plant just a few pepper or eggplant bushes, messing around with seedlings will be unprofitable. Unless you decide to do this for your own pleasure.
Another important point is lighting for tomato, pepper and eggplant seedlings. So, if your apartment windows “look” exclusively to the north, then the sprouts will not have enough lighting. At the same time, not every gardener has the opportunity to provide seedlings with additional lighting. As a result, the seedlings will be fragile and unsightly, which will complicate their adaptation when transplanting into a greenhouse or, especially, into open ground.
The weather also plays its part in the development cycle of your vegetables. After an unexpectedly warm winter, frosts can suddenly come just as suddenly. The seedlings you carefully prepared, grown from seeds, risk freezing in such weather. And to save the situation, you would rather buy ready-made seedlings than waste time growing them again.
Of course, “purchased” seedlings have their own potential drawbacks. You cannot assess the quality of the seeds from which they were grown, as well as their belonging to the declared variety. You probably do not know whether the seedlings themselves and the soil in which they were sold are healthy. And, of course, you have no information about how they were cared for and what products were used. But there is a way out here: buy seedlings only from a producer you have personally verified, preferably from a specialized nursery.
