If you're a beginner
grower and you want to grow a lot of seeds,
but you don't have the budget to purchase a lot of seed trays,
the way that I've been doing it is by just saving all of my containers.
So this is, I think, from ground turkey, ground beef.
This is a takeout container.
I just save all of these rectangular plastic containers
and I can sew all of my seeds in something like this.
Really economically,
So today
I just wanted to show you how I grow my Dalia's seeds.
I got these takeout containers and
I just put a seed mix with vermiculite into it and wet it
so that when you grab the soil in your hands,
it has this consistency that you can just mold it in your hand.
And that's how you know that it's a good moisture consistency.
So I didn't puncture holes in the tray.
I just put some soil mixing and a little bit of water,
and then I put my seeds in and I sewed
these flora seeds.
On March 28th
And now they look like this.
So you know that they're ready
to be popped out of the tray when you start seeing the true leaves.
The seed leaves are these rounder ones, and that's
what you're actually going to be using to pop them out.
And I will show you that
So to pick out the best tool
that I can recommend to use is another recyclable thing.
And that is a wooden chopstick.
Don't throw these away.
They are so handy.
So what you would need to do
is you just put the chopstick
underneath the seedling and that loosens the soil around it.
And while you're grabbing onto a leaf, you gently tease it out of the tray.
You hold on to the leaves.
Never the stem, never the roots, because those are very fragile.
So I got my chopstick here,
and you just pulled one of the seed leaves
and you put the chopstick underneath
and you just loosen
the soil all around it.
And that is a good, healthy seedling
that can now be popped into one of the cell trays
and you just make a hole.
And I filled these cell trays with a mixture of compost
a little bit of manure.
You don't want to put too much manure in because that can burn seedlings
and some per light
for drainage
and you just farm around
the roots and you keep going
whoo!
This one is interesting and has dark
bronze leaves already.
And I grew a variety called Sunshine.
Had these beautiful yellow flowers with dark bronze leaves.
And I'm hoping this one is going to be like that.
I can't wait
to show you what these look like when they actually bloom.
And you'll be amazed.
This tiny
seed can produce masses of flowers.
And the more you cut them, the more they just keep coming up.
It's just amazing.
So, again,
chopstick going underneath
holding on to a leaf
And this one has a lot of roots.
I can already tell that
long roots
Look at that.
Oh, that's good.
That's really good.
I've never grown dahlias by seed.
I usually buy the tubers and they're quite expensive.
So if you are looking to grow dahlias
economically on a budget, a packet of seeds will cost
you maybe five bucks
and you get a ton of seeds.
These germinated really quickly just over the radiator.
You don't need a hit mount, just the in these trays in direct light.
And the room stays around 65 to 70 degrees.
And they all popped up for me.
I would say within three or four days.
And in
the fall they actually will form a tuber.
So if you like the dollar that comes up,
you save those tubers, you overwinter them.
And you just plant the tuber again in the spring
and you'll get the same exact dollar from
this little seed
It's great
And we'll get these
all ready to go into the greenhouse.
And once temperatures are warm, at night,
I'm guessing that'll be around mid-May.
I'll go ahead and pop these out of the cell trays
and put them in the ground
All right.
And I'm done.
That was it.
But remember to label, always label.
So you don't forget
And I'm done.
Thanks for watching.
Thank you.