Hello and a very warm welcome back to the Kellogg Garden Channel! I'm your host Resh Gala,
coming to you from my kitchen! No but seriously, I'm coming to you from New Jersey growing zone 6b,
and I'm going to teach you today, five very important seed starting hacks that's going to
transform your indoor seed starting game. So, let's go. But, before we get started
don't forget to hit the subscribe button and the notification bell so you don't miss another
great gardening video from Kellogg again. So, the number one hack for seed starting; can you
hear it, can you guess it? Well, it is to use hot boiling water to moisten your seed starting mix,
and the reason I like to use boiling water is because your seed starting mixes are sitting in
your department store, or wherever you're buying it from, from your nursery. They're sitting there
on the shelves for months and months, maybe even years, and they harbor fungus gnat eggs. You know
those pesky little black flies that fly around your bananas all the time? Yes, those are the ones
that used to bother my seedlings when I was seed starting indoors, and ever since I started adding
hot boiling water to my seed starting mix the mix would become sterile and that would get rid
of the eggs. Basically, it would kill the fungus gnat eggs and I didn't have a problem with fungus
gnats ever since. So, I highly recommend that next time you're pre-moistening your seed starting mix
to please use hot boiling water. I think my kettle's almost ready, so shall we get started?
Okay, so here I have my seed starting mix, I have my kettle full of boiling water,
you can see the steam rising. I'm just going to moisten it
so it turns into consistency like a brownie dough should be, almost. So, once I add the hot water,
I'm going to mix it in, and I'm going to wait for this mixture to cool down before I transfer them
into my seed starting containers and add the seeds. So that's a must. When you add this
boiling water make sure that your mix cools down and it might take maybe an hour or more, depending
on where you live and the temperature inside your home. But, you want to basically pre-moisten it,
let it cool down, and then add your seeds. So, while I'm over here waiting for my seed
starting mix to cool down, I'm going to tell you about hack number two, which is to use a heat mat
and a humidity or a moisture dome. Now, heat mats are crucial because they speed up germination and
that alone will transform your seed starting game. So, make sure you invest in one of these. Now,
the plants that love heat mats are the heat loving plants such as your tomatoes, peppers, jalapeños,
eggplants, cucumbers, etc. I don't necessarily suggest or recommend using a heat mat for cool
weather plants such as kale or brassicas. It's not a must, but it does tend to speed up germination
a little bit. Now, one thing I do want to tell you though, and you have to be very careful,
is that once your seeds germinate, the moment they germinate, put them under a grow light,
take them off the heat mats, and take off the humidity or moisture dome. Now,
this is crucial, okay? So, try that and you will be successful. Now, if you don't have one of these
domes like I do, and if you're growing in just these solo cups like I have right here,
then you can just use your regular old cling wrap, which I'm sure you have lying in the kitchen,
and you have your solo cups like I do here with holes already drilled in them, your
seed starting pre-moistened seeds starting mix inside in your seeds and all you would do is just
put the cling wrap right on top of it like this.
And once the seeds germinate, take the cling wrap off. Now, the number three tip that I'm going to
tell you is about watering from the bottom. Many times people, they tend to water their seedlings
from the top and I don't necessarily recommend it. I don't see there's any harm in doing it however,
I do notice that a lot of times the soil, or the growing medium that they have their seeds in,
it tends to splash back and the leaves, you know could get some kind of disease or infection.
So, I would highly recommend you just water from the bottom. Let me show you how.
Now, I have my seedlings right here and they're ready to be watered,
and I know that because when I lift them up they're very light and they don't feel heavy.
And plus, I can see the soil it's drying up on top. You obviously don't want to let them dry out
too much and that's not good for the plants. So, the way I would water it is lift up this seed tray
that I have here, and I always keep an extra tray under it to catch the water or the extra moisture
that leaks out, and I would essentially just fill this up with water. I know I'm using a fancy
watering can and you obviously don't need to do that, you can just put the tray under the faucet
in your sink and fill it up with water like that. So here you can see,
I have water filled up in this little tray.
It's a 10/20 tray ,just perfect for the seedlings right here, and then I would just put this
right on top like that. And, it's going to take a couple of minutes maybe even, you know,
an hour. But, I'm going to leave it like that and these containers have holes at the bottom
as you can see, and it will suck up the moisture and nourish the plants. So, that's how you water
your seedlings, hack number three, from the bottom. The next seed starting hack,
and this is crucial for seed starting success, is to make sure that your seedlings are no more than
two to four inches away from your grow lights. As you can see, I've placed them pretty close
to my grow lights, and this is crucial so your seedlings don't get leggy. Now,
if your grow lights, most of them are adjustable these days, but if they don't come down too far,
then make sure you prop up your trays or your pots on top of books or like I have, on top of some
games, or even a crayon box from my kids. So, have your grow lights very close to your seedlings,
this is crucial to prevent them from being leggy. So, the fifth tip for seed starting, is to either
snip off your extra plants like you can see here, I have three kale plants growing so either the
trick would be to snip off the extra plants, so you just have one growing in the container, so the
one plant can grow strong and healthy, or do what I do which is transplant at a very young stage.
So, my seed starting mix which is pre-moistened has cooled down and I have them in these solo
cups. I'm basically going to use a pencil, you can use a toothpick or chopsticks, make a
little bit of a hole, like this in the middle, and basically squeeze out your container a little bit.
You can see, it's a very shallow root system. And, take one of these plants,
let's try that. Gently spread out like that.
I have it right here. We're basically going to pop it all the way inside and cover it with
soil, and there you have a brand new kale seedling! So here you go, I just transplanted
these three seedlings into their own individual containers, and that's the trick to seed starting.
Either, snipping off your excess seedlings and leaving just one in a container, or transplanting
them at a very young stage. So, I just want to recap the five tips on seed starting success.
Number one, is to use boiling hot water to moisten your seed starting mix. Number two, would be to
invest in some heat mats as well as a humidity dome to ensure speedy germination. The third one,
is to water from the bottom and not from the top. The next seed starting tip, is that the moment
your seedlings germinate you must place them under grow lights, and make sure that the grow lights
are at least two to four inches away from your seedlings. Any more than that and your seedlings
will get super leggy trying to stretch and reach the light. And, the last seed star seed starting
secret is, to snip off the extra seedlings that you have leaving just one in the container,
or do it like I do, which is transplant the additional ones and just leave one in a container.
Hope you found these tips helpful, and if you do give them a try please,
I would love to read your comments down below. Hope to see you next time,
and don't forget to subscribe to the Kellogg Garden Channel. See you soon, bye!