A gardener always wants to get those newly sown seeds off to the healthiest start, but what methods best support that goal?
Germane advice on the topic can be found in a new book by Steve Solomon, who as founder of Oregon’s Territorial Seed Company has a special connection with those little nuggets of life. Consider this example: When we till the garden bed, he says, the capillary nature of the soil is temporarily lost, and soil that would normally “wick” up moisture from below has lost its ability to do so. A simple technique to restore capillarity is to tamp down the furrow before sowing. Sow into the furrow, then cover it with compost. The seeds can draw necessary water from below, thus reducing the need for overhead watering, which lowers soil temperature and increases the danger of damping off problems. The compost hold more moisture than regular soil, and will provide less resistance through which the sprout must push. If tamping, damping, furrows and such terms are a bit foreign or scary, dig into Solomon’s latest book, Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times. In patient, comfortable pro
Make sure that your soil temperature is warm enough (or cool enough some seeds actually prefer cooler temperatures, read the seed packet) to germinate the seed that you are sowing. Make your furrow at the appropriate depth (read the seed packet), cover your seeds and then tamp down the row so that the seed is in firm contact with the soil. Then just relax and wait for the seeds to germinate. Thin is necessary and keep WEEDED, which is probably the hardest chore you will have.
Plant Grower
