00:00 Check this boy out, check the giant pea stock.
00:07 [music]
00:17 So here as you can see are some of the seeds we planted the last time if you remember.
00:22 Now this is the hollyhock and I'm really pleased with how this has come on.
00:30 A lot of germination after about a week or so using medicine as well, California poppies.
00:35 Now they exploded after about six days of being in the, after planting them.
00:40 And this is just some of the many, many seeds that germinated.
00:46 I think there must have been a hundred percent germination rate on these
00:49 because I have two pots full of them that I've put outdoors now.
00:53 And still have these ones here.
00:55 If I was to grow them again I would just direct sow them either on the big pots or under the ground
01:01 because they're just, they have really long roots on them like and I don't think they take well the transplanting.
01:08 So we'll see if they do come on, they may die off.
01:11 Moving on over then, I was showing you I was soaking the sweet peas the last time.
01:15 Well this is the results and it's some difference. I didn't soak the last sweet peas
01:19 and actually put them somewhere hot, wrongly, they germinate and only a few come up.
01:24 This time I've just left them at room temperature, soaked them for about between,
01:29 I think maybe about 12 and 24 hours beforehand.
01:33 Hello, I thought I'd just finish off the video here by giving you five tips.
01:38 Things that I've found would have been useful to know before I started planting the seeds,
01:46 or started germinating seeds in February. It's now the end of March.
01:49 Here are a couple of tomato seedlings which have come up quite well.
01:54 These are about a month old, I planted these the first week in March, so about four weeks old.
02:01 They're looking very healthy, I have about 13 seedlings for tomatoes growing on a windowsill.
02:10 And then at night I try to keep them somewhere warm.
02:13 So my first piece of advice is don't plant too many seeds because you end up with a little shop of ours.
02:22 I've found that I now have so many seedlings and we're still a couple of weeks off from the last frost date here.
02:29 So I can't put them all outside yet.
02:33 There's some hardy ones which are already outside and which will tolerate a light frost if it happens.
02:39 But, and that's another thing as well, keep an eye on the weather forecast.
02:44 I've been glued to mid-air and mid-office just to see how the weather's going to be for the next week.
02:51 And keep an eye out for any frosty nights so that you can prepare.
02:55 If you are putting hardened seedlings off at this time of year, make sure and bring them in if it's going to dip near or below freezing.
03:03 Second thing is keep a diary.
03:06 When you start, make a note of when you planted seeds.
03:10 Keep a date on what they are and also label the seedlings as well.
03:15 You can buy little labels, you can make them yourself.
03:19 And just plop them in with the trays whenever you're planting them because it's very easy to forget how long ago you planted them.
03:27 It's very easy to mix up seeds.
03:30 A lot of seedlings look the same, especially when they get their first leaves.
03:33 Not their true leaves, but the leaves that are inside the seed.
03:37 And a lot of them are very similar looking.
03:39 So if you haven't got a marker on them, if you haven't written it down in a little diary.
03:45 I use, somebody bought me this little How Stark Game of Thrones book.
03:51 And I've just been writing in here since the start of February all the things I've been planting.
03:57 And then transplanting as well.
04:01 So it's worth looking back.
04:03 And you can see then if something says, you know, after a few weeks then transplant or leave for a month.
04:12 You'll know then when they pot it on, but also how long it takes to germinate.
04:17 Because you can sometimes think, oh I planted that ages ago or I put them seeds in ages ago.
04:22 And there's no sign of them, I'll chuck the compost out.
04:25 But some seeds I've planted have taken almost a month to germinate and then they've all come up together.
04:31 So just keep a diary.
04:33 Another thing is watering.
04:35 I would highly recommend under-watering in a tray.
04:39 Like I use an old baking tray, which I'll put a wee demo at the end of this actually.
04:43 Put the compost mix in before you sow your seeds.
04:48 And then let the water seep up into the seed tray.
04:55 And then plant your seeds and then just spray them with a water bottle.
05:01 Because that way then, if you keep doing it that way, you're not disturbing the seeds at the top.
05:09 You're not loading the moisture onto the seed either.
05:12 And it encourages root growth down through the soil as well.
05:16 So you get much healthier roots that way.
05:19 One of the other things I would say about seedlings, young seedlings as well, is the stems are very, very brittle.
05:28 And they have to support that whole plant.
05:30 So my next tip would be the wobble effect.
05:35 So if you can, leave them somewhere with a bit of a draft in the spring.
05:39 So what that does is it strengthens the stems of the plant, makes for a much healthier plant then.
05:46 And it prepares them then for going outside into the elements.
05:49 If you have a very windy day then, they can withstand that.
05:53 So it's a little exercise for them.
05:57 Before they get to that stage.
06:00 The fifth thing I would advise is use the right compost and pot size.
06:04 But take out big lumps.
06:05 If there's any bits of root branch or anything on it, take them out.
06:10 And that has worked. Everything has germinated fine.
06:13 And just our new multi-purpose compost, which also tends to have more nutrients than the seed compost.
06:19 Which is really just for starting seeds and tends to be a bit devoid of nutrients.
06:23 But, you know, it's up to you.
06:25 It should be fine either way, but I just find the multi-purpose compost is just handier.
06:30 And you don't have to feed them as much as well.
06:33 And then in terms of pot size, I would say, you know, don't plant your seedlings.
06:39 If you're transplanting the seedlings, don't plant them in the big, big containers.
06:43 Because it seems to hamper their growth.
06:46 They have all this room and they're more likely to become waterlogged, the root system.
06:52 So if you're transplanting them on, put them in small containers.
06:56 Unless they have a big taproot and then they will need that deeper pot.
07:01 Because like lupines, things like that, they prefer to have a lot of room to go down.
07:07 A lot of plants do actually.
07:11 Vegetables especially. And also root vegetables especially actually.
07:16 And a lot of like hollyhock as well.
07:20 So I think I'll be planting them in deeper pots whenever they come up a bit.
07:26 The others I would just keep in cell trays because I find that I planted delphiniums,
07:31 which don't like being transplanted anyway. Or larkspur, the type of delphinium.
07:36 And they have kind of suffered through transplanting.
07:41 I put them in too big of pots. I think they were too wet.
07:44 So over-watering is another thing.
07:47 Just because something looks dry on the top, you should lift the pot really.
07:51 They see how it feels because there's probably a lot of water that the root can access under the top.
07:58 So if it feels very light, then you know it's time to water it.
08:02 And again, seedlings, just put a tray of water. Let the water soak up.
08:07 That will encourage the roots down.
08:10 And that is more or less everything.
08:12 And just finally I would say, don't be too hard on yourself.
08:15 Because you can lose heart if you've killed off seedlings.
08:19 Some seedlings are going to die. They're going to die from transplant shock.
08:22 They're going to die because maybe you have a very cold morning.
08:26 Maybe the light's not right.
08:31 Our weather's very changeable here in Ireland.
08:33 So there's lots of different things that can go wrong with them.
08:39 But you will, if you don't succeed at first, just keep trying.
08:42 Because you will, and you'll learn so much from just doing it.
08:48 So I'm just going to show you here how I under water.
08:52 And this is a good idea for before you plant your seeds and when you have young seedlings like these.
09:06 So this is a 24 cell for seedlings or for germinating seeds.
09:16 And they're quite deep. It's quite a good one.
09:19 I've just filled it with dry compost here.
09:22 Just a normal multi-purpose compost.
09:25 And here I have an old baking tray.
09:28 You can use anything really that doesn't have holes in it.
09:31 And this, I've just put about maybe a centimetre, two centimetres of water into it.
09:40 And then I'm just going to plop this in here like so.
09:47 And leave that now and let the water soak up through it.
09:50 If it needs more water I'll just pour a bit more in.
09:53 So you want it to be nice and damp then at the top.
09:57 And that's before I plant the seeds.
10:01 And that's after I plant.
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