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Seed Starting and Grafting

Jim Boxberger
Posted 1/10/25

Last week I talked about selecting and getting your seeds that you will want to start this spring and this week will be getting all your seed starting supplies in order. Make your seed starting …

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Garden Guru

Seed Starting and Grafting

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Last week I talked about selecting and getting your seeds that you will want to start this spring and this week will be getting all your seed starting supplies in order. Make your seed starting checklist to be sure that you have what you need, when you need it. There is nothing worse than getting ninety percent done with your project only to run out of something and have to stop to go to the store again. Here are some of the essentials you will need; seed starting soil. There are different types depending on the seeds your are going to start, a simple rule is, the smaller the seed the finer the soil. Most starting soils contain course peat which is great for larger seeds, but fine seeds like a mix with more vermiculite and ground peat so that the seeds do not fall deep into gaps in the soil. Peat pots or seeding flats to start your seeds in are also essential, but you can use egg cartons, old milk jugs and soda bottles as well. 

Just about anything that can hold soil can be used as a seed starting container. Last spring when I did some seed starting with my granddaughters, we used peat pots for some marigolds and sunflowers, so that once the seeds had sprouted the whole pot could just be planted out into the flowerbed. Grow lights and heating pads for seed starting are a plus, these items are readily available but you may find some substitutes around your house. If you’ve ever had a lizard, you can use the same heating pad for your seeds that the lizard used. And some wide spectrum aquarium lights can also be used as grow lights. So if you had these pets in the past, their equipment can be repurposed and save you even more money. I’m not a hoarder, but I am a pack rat and I don’t throw anything away that can be repurposed later, much to my wife’s dismay.

Plan on where you are going to start your seeds. Southern and western windows are best as the heat from the sun is just as important as the sun itself. Make sure the area is not drafty, so not right next to the front or kitchen door. We have two large west facing windows in our living room. One is already filled with our houseplants and the other has a couch in front of it, but for seed starting, I pull the couch out a foot from the wall and put my seed flats on TV trays in back of the couch. They stay out of the way yet easy to get to for watering. When it comes to seed starting always remember the five “P” rule, prior planning prevents poor performance.

Another project that I am going to try to attempt this spring is grafting. I have tried it in the past with only about a ten percent success rate which is appalling. But now having more time, I’ve watching YouTube videos on grafting techniques so that when the time is right, I will be ready. You can do a lot of fun things with grafting, but it does take time. You can’t start by trying to graft a six foot long branch onto a tree, it has to be a small two to three inch slip that will take years to grow. SO grafting is not going to give you instant results and, as a result, it has really become the forgotten art form of gardening. 

Of course every spring we have items like 4 in 1 apple trees that have been grafted so that you can get four different types of apples off the same tree. Besides being a great conversation piece, they provide people with small yards to get the benefits of having multiple apple trees all in one. So grafting does have a purpose and can be very useful. I just need to practice the art form a little. Gardening is always a learning experience, I may know a lot, be there is always more to learn. Solving a math equation is easy as there is only one right answer (unless it’s common core), but there is not one right answer with gardening, it’s what works for you that is the right answer.

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