As temperatures dip tonight to fifteen degrees its a pleasure to look at all my little seedlings waiting patiently for last week’s

Pressing seed blocker into moistened seed starting mix.

tease of balmy weather to be more consistent.  Different vegetables thrive under different growing conditions. Most members of the cabbage (Brassicaceae) family are cool weather crops and need to be multi-leaved young plants when they are set out in mid April. Broccoli and Cabbage should be started indoor as early as 12 weeks before our average last frost date of May 15 so they have enough time to come to maturity before the hot weather arrives and they become toast.  Many of the veggie members of the Nightshade  or Tobacco family (Solanaceae) such as peppers, eggplants and tomatoes are tender, warm weather vegetables that require a longer growing season than our New England climate can provide. Time  is running out for starting pepper and eggplant seedlings as require a 9 week head start when they are planted around Memorial Day. The time for planting tomato seeds is around April 1.

Putting pressure on the seed block compresses the soil into 2" square soil cubes.

This year at New Eden, we invested in a couple of soil blockers to make our own dirt seed blocks. I used some left over seed starting mix and they held together quite well until I left a few out in last weeks deluge .

Charlotte Dion, our Permaculture expert and all around garden mentor, recommends Eliot Coleman’s ( 4 Season Gardening) seed starting mix:

Mix together

2 10-quart buckets of sustainable peat or choir, 1/2 cup lime, and 2 cups of azomite (mineral rich, volcanic ash).

Add

2 10-quart buckets  of sand, 2 more buckets of peat or choir, 1 cup of phosphate, 1 cup of greensand, 1 cup of bloodsandmeal and 1 more cup of azomite.

Mix well and add

My first soil block. See her little dimple for placing the seed? Isn't she cute?

1 10-quart bucket of compost and 1 bucket of soil and mix again. Add water until soggy and start making blocks.

This sounds like an amazing  formula for uber seedlings. I’m going to try this next year.

While the brassicas like cooler temperatures to  germinate like the 50’s and 60’s. Peppers and Eggplants like it warm into the higher 70’s and 80’s. To get the warmer tempatures I put my nightshades by the furnace and cover them in a plastic bag so they do not dry out. Keeping seeds in plastic till they sprout is one way to make sure they stay evenly moist. Make sure you look at them daily as seeds will sprout more quickly in room tempatures and you don’t want to” keep them in the dark” once they sprout.

After the seeds have sprouted, it is best to water your seedling from below so as not to drown your tender seedlings  to help avert the dreaded “damping off” fungus. Make sure that your seedlings get enough sunlight or at least 14 hours exposure via gro-lite or florescent lights at just a 6 inches above the plants to keep your seedlings from getting leggy.