SOWING SEEDS FOR AN EARLY START 



W. L. WILSON 



ITH or without a greenhouse, an effort to get early 

 germination on many vegetable seeds for the spring 

 garden means much in ultimate results. If seedlings 

 are started under protection, when outdoor planting 

 time arrives an advantageous beginning can be made with grow- 

 ing plants instead of dormant seeds. 



This is equally true of plants for the flower garden. Early 

 starting of annuals means flowers weeks ahead of outdoor sow- 

 ing. With space available on a greenhouse bench, seeds may 

 be sown during February in flats and the flats set down on 

 the bench, or they may be sown directly in the soil of the 

 benches. 



The heat of a cellar window frame (as described in The Gar- 

 den Magazine, November, 192 1, page 148), can be utilized 

 in like manner, or the window of a " sunny room " of the dwelling. 

 First provide a table about fifteen inches wide, as long as the 

 width of the window and as high as the window sill. On this 

 put a galvanized iron pan of like dimensions with the top flaring 

 slightly, and about two and a half inches deep. For appear- 

 ance's sake it might be painted to match the table. Have a 

 supply of shallow boxes (flats) of such size that a certain number 

 of them will fill the pan without waste of space. And don't 

 make them too big! In a box 7x4 in., fifty or more Cabbage 

 or Tomato plants can be grown to the first transplanting stage 

 without difficulty; two of these boxes will go lengthwise across 

 a fifteen-inch pan. It will also be a convenience to have some 

 boxes that will fit three 

 across the pan for plants 

 of which only a small 

 number is needed. 



These boxes, with the 

 seeds sown on a layer 

 of clean sand on top of 



Pan containing seed 

 boxes by a sunny win- 

 dow; seedlings to be 

 transplanted to frames 

 or other cool quarters as 

 soon as big enough to 

 handle 



the earth, are fitted into the pan, which prevents all possibil- 

 ity of soil getting upon the floor. Another advantage of the 

 pan is realized when it comes to watering. Fill it with water 

 and keep it full by adding more water until the seed boxes show 

 a wet surface. Then plunge a quarter-inch piece of soft rubber 

 tubing into a bucket partly filled with water and when the tube 

 is entirely filled leave one end in the bucket, bending the other end 

 sharply back on itself so that the water cannot run out when it 

 is lifted; plunge the bent end into the water in the pan and re- 

 lease it, and in a few minutes the water will all be siphoned out 

 — and, what's more, without getting into trouble with the house- 

 keeper by making a mess on the floor. With this method, and 

 a sand surface on the seed boxes to serve as a dust mulch, one 

 watering a week ordinarily should be sufficient, especially if 

 the boxes are covered with pieces of glass. 



Start, of course, with the hardier vegetables, such as Lettuce, 

 Cabbage, Cauliflower, Kohlrabi, Beets, etc.; follow with Toma- 

 toes and some of the hardier flowers, and finish with Eggplants, 

 Peppers, and the tenderer annual flowers. The routine is the same 

 for all: germination in the sunny window, and perhaps, but not 

 necessarily, staying there until the transplanting size is reached; 

 transplanting into flats, or better still into paper potsor cells, with 

 a period in the window frames; then removal to the coldframe for 

 better light and air and for hardening as the weather improves; 

 and finally transplanting into the garden. With limited facilities 

 it sometimes takes pretty resourceful management to prevent the 



marching plants from 

 treading on each 

 other's heels, so fast 

 they follow; but it can 

 be done, and the oft- 

 ener it is donethemore 

 smoothly it works. 



Taking advantage of 

 warm, sunny days to 

 give the plants in the 

 coldframe all the air 

 possible 



Flat holding six pots of 

 wintered-over Lettuce, 

 March 1 8th, just before 

 setting out in the garden 

 under portable frames 



310 



