starting seeds fertilizing seedlings and creating healthy plants is always a
challenge and today's episode we review all these steps for starting seeds and
fertilizing seedlings so the first step in starting seedlings is to choose a
good seed starting mix now I have grown seedlings and straight up vermiculite or
peat moss but the best seed starting mix involves creating a mix of either coco
coir or peat moss perlite or vermiculite and compost mixed in the proportions as
you see here you can add 10% worm castings if you do not have worm
castings you can always add some additional compost this creates a
perfect seed starting mix that will let your seeds emerge into healthy seedlings
now to kill any kind of bacteria or to kill any kind of insects or diseases
that have been developing in the soil but you can do is cover the seedlings
with a thin plastic cover or sheet as you see here make sure that you use
transparent plastic and not opaque and what we're going to do is just seal this
seed starting mix and then leave it out in the Sun for a few days this process
is called solarization or solarizing your soil and what this does is it kills
all the insects and diseases that are there in the soil and when you germinate
seeds it's very important that your seed starting mix is free from any insects or
any diseases now the next step is to fertilize your seedlings seedlings can
be fertilized using organic fertilizer like fish emulsion or you can use a salt
based fertilizer which is specially formulated for seedlings let's look at
the first option which is using something like fish fertilizer which is
an organic fertilizer and is mild enough that it will not burn seedlings and it
has all the nutrients that seedlings need to grow so all you do is just shake
the bottle of the fish fertilizer make sure everything is mixed in and then
what I do is I add one tablespoon per gallon of water
now this watering can is 2 gallons so I'm going to be adding 2 tablespoons of
the fish emulsion into this watering can and once that is done all I'm going to
do is fill it up with water and this creates a really good medium to
fertilize your seedlings now the benefit of using fish fertilizer is that it's
cheap its organic and it won't burn your plants the downside is that it smells a
lot so although this is deodorized fish fertilizer you might not like it smell
now fish fertilizer is perfect for fertilizing seedlings or even small
plants that are growing in the greenhouse all you do is water the
seedlings or the plants inside the greenhouse with this fish emulsion
you can even fertilize seedlings that are growing in containers as you see
here and fish fertilizer also contains a lot of beneficial bacteria so while you
are adding the fish emulsion there are a gazillion beneficial bacteria that are
getting added to your soil which improves the overall health of your
plants you can even use fish fertilizer in raised beds as you see here I use
this heavily on my okra plants when they were not growing in the summer season
and it did really have a big effect on how these plants grew later
now you can also use a salt based fertilizer like this QuickStart salt
based fertilizer which has nitrogen phosphorus and potassium just like the
fish fertilizer and what I usually do is I use this at half-strength
so all I do is shake the bottle very well make sure it's mixed in nicely and
then I take half a capful of this fertilizer and add it to my two gallons
of water so this is also a very cheap solution it's just a salt generally
vegans go with something like a salt based fertilizer whereas most of the
others go with an organic fertilizer and as you can see here we are watering
the base of these seedlings and what this will do is that this will help the
seedlings it'll help them uptake this solution and cause them to grow very
well once they have reached this size as you see here once they have developed
two leaves at least it'll help them uptake this solution now you can do the
same thing with this fertilizer you can use it to fertilize seedlings that are
growing in containers or the raised beds and if you're using these hex seed
starting kits you can always water from the bottom the plants will take up the
water very well and the seedlings will use up the nitrogen phosphorus and
potassium that's needed for healthy plant development and that's how you get
healthy seedlings from your seeds so whether you're using an organic
fertilizer or a salt based fertilizer it's important to remember that
fertilizing your seedlings is very important it's a necessary step for
gardening for developing healthy seedlings and this is sometimes
overlooked by a lot of gardeners although the compost provides a lot of
nutrients that the seedlings need it's important that you fertilize your
seedlings whether you are fertilizing the seedlings in your greenhouse as we
saw or seedlings in the container or the raised bed just make sure that you are
adding some kind fertilizer or some kind of nutrients for
your plants by drenching the plant the foliage the leaves the stems the plants
can uptake the nutrients in a much better way but also make sure that the
nutrients are reaching the roots of the plant so there we have it folks that was
our episode on starting seeds and fertilizing your seedlings if you like
this video do give us a thumbs up and if you have a different method or have any
comments please put them in the comments box below I'll see you again soon happy
gardening