Wow, it’s time to sow tomato, eggplant and capsicum seeds! Now doesn’t that make it feel like the warmer weather is approaching.
We discuss sowing tomato seeds in our blog every year, but it’s the way we sow all seeds, so no harm for those who’ve read this before to have a refresher (we hope!).
It takes me a little bit of planning to work out how many seeds I want to sow. I’m sowing for our community garden as well – and you may sow extra for friends. I’ve only put one extra seed in my tally, as I’m banking on a good germination rate.
We start by washing out punnets before re-using them. We add a splash of white vinegar to the water to help sterilise them.
The equipment we use is:
a piece of dowel or angle iron (something that has a sharp V-edge to create the rows);
ice block sticks to label everything (we write the variety and number of seeds on one side and the date of sowing on the other side so you know when seeds should be up by);
potting mix and sieve to make seed-raising mix;
and all the seeds.
Create the rows with your piece of dowel and label the rows.
Evenly space out your seeds, then with another ice block stick, fold the soil back over the seeds, and press down gently but firmly with your hand.
Sit the punnets in recycled meat or vege trays and find a nice spot inside or in your greenhouse (if you have one). Water from above and I also add some water to the tray, as a good amount of moisture is needed for even germination.
Now you need to look at your garden and plan where everything’s going to go this summer. We call this process: planning our crop rotation. At the least you need to change the type of crop you’ve had in a bed during winter for the summer. At best, you’re rotating nitrogen-fixing crops to root crops to fruiting crops to green leafy crops.
Once you’ve got your plan sorted, you’ll know when you need to dig in your green manure crop, if you have one planted up. Here’s our plan. So as the potatoes will start to go in in a month’s time, I’ll be digging in our lupins in a week’s time to give the material enough time to break down.
And it’s time to chit the first of the early potatoes, namely Jersey Bennes and Cliffs Kidney. Soak the seed potatoes in a solution of water to which a dash of liquid seaweed’s been added. Pop in an egg container and leave for the Full Moon in September to plant out. You can give them another couple of soaks before planting time. Make sure you put the liquid seaweed to good use on the garden.
And here’s a growing duration guide from Morton Smith-Dawe which you may find handy.
Our grape is pruned and just in time – buds are starting to swell. Be tough!
Enjoy the last of the winter!
From Jan and Rob
8 Responses
Hi were do you leave the potatoes in the egg carton after you’ve soaked them ..in full sun ..hot water container or dark and cool ?? How long do you soak them ??
Hi Louise I keep our potatoes which are chitting in the egg container on the windowsill of our laundry which is on the east side of our house – so a little bit of morning sun, but basically a cool environment and not sunny. I soak them for 15-30 minutes ☺️
Thanks so much ..useful information
☺️
I enjoy these little updates. I like knowing what other gardeners are doing in nz and how they do it. Also it helps me to know what I should be doing….and when.
Would appreciate it if you could do a weekly blog of what you’ve done in your garden.
Hi Marion Nice comments. Probably a bit much for me to do the blog weekly, but we can be a bit more frequent (read, weekly) with smaller tips on our Instagram https://www.instagram.com/organicediblegarden/ Maybe follow us there? ☺️
Once the tomatoes have sprouted and have their true leaves, at what height of tomato plant do you transfer to a larger container or plant them out? Thanks.
Besides Kings were do you source your seeds from ? I was getting mine from Koanga but their various payment options are monthly and you cant stop the debits from your credit card. Thx