Master gardener in training: learning to love seeds and nurture seedlings

For the first time in my gardening life, I feel like a parent. I’ve grown a selection of plants from seed and teased out more seedlings from some adopted mini-plugs. I've eased them into the ground and through their transplant shock. They’ve developed their first true leaves, taken on an identity.

In the UC Extension Master Gardener program this spring, I've gained a new respect for the seed in all the forms it takes, from the fine powder of lettuces to the softball-sized coconut from an oil palm. For the first time, I’m reading closely the information on the seed packets. 

All seeds are embryos and contain the starchy energy for their first growth in the cotyledon. A monocot, such as corn, has one cotyledon, but the majority of flowering plants are dicots, with two halves. When the first leaf surfaces, if it's grass-like or hollow (like an onion), it's a monocot. If there are two first leaves (like a pepper), it's a dicot.

If a small seed is planted too deeply, all its reserves will be used trying to get to the surface, leaving nothing to feed these first leaves. For this reason it’s best to plant seeds no deeper than their length. 

Newly planted seeds should be watered twice a day until the first leaves emerge -- when they can be transplanted from trays or pots. Water once a day until the second set of leaves appears and then start a less frequent/deeper watering pattern to encourage deeper root growth. (Some seeds are best sowed directly in the ground -- peas, melons, carrots, beans and flowers -- because they don’t transplant well.)

And when a batch of seedlings is ready to move from pot to ground, remember that the general rule is to plant anything at the same level it was in the pot. The exception: tomatoes. The fuzzy hairs on a tomato stem are future roots, so it can be planted up to its top leaves. If the leaves are large, cut them in half.

Jim Folson, the director of the Huntington Botanical Gardens, who gave a guest lecture on botany during our field trip to the San Marino garden, framed plant growth in a deceptively simple way: They make roots, stems and leaves. Roots, he said, are brutish and primitive, existing  in a tough world of soil and rocks. Stems are elegant, following a architectural plan for where leaves and flowers will grow, marking each spot with a bud. “They’re very French,” he said approvingly.

Why bother to grow from seed? For one thing, it can be cheaper and deliver a variety you won’t find at your typical nursery. A home-germinated plant also may have fewer diseases and pests, which can hitch a ride from the nursery or store to your garden.

But the best reason -- besides the satisfaction of parenthood -- is successive planting. You can sow a new group of seeds every three weeks to extend the growing season.

-- Jeff Spurrier

Photos, from top: A young bean plant grown from seed; orange Italian bean seeds and pink pea seeds; black sunflower seeds and white cucumber seeds. Credit: Ann Summa

Follow along: Join our Facebook page for California gardening and track Spurrier as he shares lessons from the master gardener class.   

Comments

[charlie hw]

hi there - this is awesome. you might enjoy the writings of anastasia. her witchy work developing seeds into medicine is extraordinary. She suggests that we can germinate them in our own saliva and thereby build our dna into the plant - amplify her healing power when we eat her fruits. here is a sample:
Excerpt:

The seed as physician

Anastasia stated:

"Every seed you plant contains within itself an enormous amount of information about the Universe. Nothing made by human hands can compare with this information either in size or accuracy. Through the help of these data the seed knows the exact time, down to the millisecond, when it is to come alive, grow � what juices it is to take from the Earth, how to make use of the rays of the celestial bodies � the Sun, Moon and stars, what it is to grow into, what fruit to bring forth. These fruits are designed to sustain Man's life. More powerfully and effectively than any manufactured drugs of the present or future, these fruits are capable of counteracting and withstanding any disease of the human body. But to this end the seed must know about the human condition. So that during the maturation process it can satiate its fruit with the right correlation of substances to heal a specific individual of his disease, if indeed he has it or is prone to it.

"In order for the seed of a cucumber, tomato or any other plant grown in one�s plot to have such information, the following steps are necessary:

"Before planting, put into your mouth one or more little seeds, hold them in your mouth, under the tongue, for at least nine minutes.

"Then place the seed between the palms of your hands and hold it there for about thirty seconds. During this time it is important that you be standing barefoot on the spot of earth where you will later be planting it.

"Open your hands, and carefully raise the seed which you are holding to your mouth. Then blow on it lightly, warming it with your breath, and the wee little seed will know everything that is within you.

"Then you need to hold it with your hands open another thirty seconds, presenting the seed to the celestial bodies. And the seed will determine the moment of its awakening. The planets will all help it! And will give the sprouts the light they need to produce fruit especially for you.

"After that you may plant the seed in the ground. In no case should you water it right off, so as not to wash away the saliva which is now covering it, along with other information about you that the seed will take in. It can be watered three days after planting.

[Sue Bauman]

Thanks Charlie hw, for posting the Anastasia excerpt. I like that concept!