SOIL-LESS MIX
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Sow Seeds of Success in Homegrown
| Homegrown Seed-starting Mix is a soil-less mix specially-formulated to provide seeds the ideal environment they need to start right. Homegrown is like 'Gerber for your plants'! It's a baby-mild formulation that gives delicate plant roots the right blend of nutrients delivering a high-germination rate in a healthful, sterile formula. Its ultra fine texture also ensures good contact between the seeds and the potting mixture. Its high moisture retention properties also help prevent your pots and seedling trays from drying out easily. Here's a simple step-by-step guide on how to grow seeds easily with Homegrown. | ||
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Purchase Good Seed Seeds should have been stored where they weren't constantly exposed to sunlight or extreme shifts in temperature. Many salespeople or store keepers aren't gardeners themselves so they don't know that how they store, transport or display the seed packets for sale actually affect the seeds' viability. Check expiration dates as well. | |
| Before Planting If you’re not planting your seeds right away, store them in a cool, dry place. Ideally, seeds should be stored at or under 15°C and 30% humidity. In our hot and humid country, that means an airtight container in the vegetable crisper of your refrigerator. Heat can greatly shorten the “shelf life” of your seeds. Leftover seeds should be sealed tightly in their packs and returned inside the airtight container, preferably with bags of desiccants (like the tiny bags, at right, that you find in medicine bottles). |
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Planting Fill pots or seedling trays with HOMEGROWN Soil-less Seed-starting Mix. This high-quality mix is disease-free, provides good aeration, and retains moisture crucial to successful germination. Homegrown is ready-to-use. You can simply fill small pots or seedling trays with it and sow. | |
| [A tip to speed up growth: You may prefer to first fill the seedling trays halfway with the potting mix you will use for the grown plant. For example, you can fill halfway with Plantastic RED EARTH for ornamentals; for edible plants, use ENRICO. Then fill the remaining top half of your containers with HOMEGROWN. This way, you conveniently give your seedlings a boost of nutrients once the roots are long and strong enough.] | ||
| Water Thoroughly Level the surface but do not tamp down or compress. Water the mix and allow it to drain thoroughly before sowing the seeds. |
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How Deep to Sow The No.1 reason seeds don’t germinate is that they were sown too deeply. Sow seeds to the recommended depth (check the seed packet), then gently firm the growing mix to ensure good contact between seeds and seed-starting mix. The general rule is they should not go deeper than the thickness of the seed itself. Super fine seeds should not even be buried and should just be pressed firmly onto the surface. | |
 Mark What You Sow Don't forget to write down the name of the plants you've sown and what date you planted them. If you end up an avid gardener, you can soon get confused on what it is that's growing where! |
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Keep the Moisture In Cover the pots
or trays with a clear plastic sheet (for seeds that need
sunlight to germinate) or a wet newspaper (many seeds prefer
total darkness) to increase the humidity. As soon as the seeds
germinate, remove the covering to allow room for growth. If the
seed-starting mix was well moistened when you sowed the
seeds, you probably won’t need to water until the seedlings
emerge. (Too mu If the surface of the mix does dry out, water gently. Moistening the surface with a spray bottle may be all that’s needed provided you’re careful not to dislodge the seeds. Watering from underneath (by dipping the bottom of the pot or tray in a pan of water) is another choice. |
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| Heat Helps Most seeds germinate well under warm temperatures. Bottom heating even hastens germination so laying your seedling tray on a surface that gets warm would actually be good. (Same principle as incubating eggs.) But once the seedlings have broken the surface of the soil, the plants should be grown at slightly cooler temperatures. High temperatures can cause weak, leggy growth. Once germinated, all seedlings need light to develop into strong, healthy plants. Make sure your seedlings receive enough light or they will tend to stretch. |
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Care After Germination The care you give your seedlings in the weeks following germination is critical. Keep the potting mix moist, but not soggy. Small pots and trays dry out quickly, so check them often. If your seedlings are growing in a windowsill, turn the containers every few days to encourage straight stems. The first two leaves you will see on the plant are not true leaves but food storage cells called cotyledons. Once the first true leaves have developed, it’s time to start fertilizing. Use a weak solution once a week. You can transplant your seedlings as soon as they get their second set of true leaves. | |
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ch
moisture will cause the seeds to rot.)
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When propagating plants from stem cuttings, it's important to use good, sterile rooting media. Garden soil is not a good choice because of all the diseases it may harbor.
Use Plantastic
All-Purpose Soil-less Potting Mix to give your cuttings a healthy start
in life.
