Seed Germinating Tip for Beets, Chard, and Spinach

I read this about this seed germinating tip in "From Seed to Skillet".

I know that stratification is needed by some seeds, but never thought to apply this particular technique to this group of plants. Last summer, I direct seeded some beets and had particularly poor germination. Spring has been particularly cold here and any jump I can get on germination so my seeds are not rotting in the dirt seems like a good thing to me. What Williams does with these lumpy, bumpy seeds is roll them with a rolling pin to crush the outer seed coat. I felt I would surely damage the gymnosperm within, but no.

Upon seeing them crack, I dusted them into a cup of warm water for an hour. Then I strained them through paper towel, folded up the seeds in the paper toweling, and placed them in a Ziploc bag.

Two days later, I could easily see the root panicle emerge and quickly sowed them in the ground in my potager. I also did spinach and placed them in individual cells for planting in the family garden. The spinach on my light rack have emerged from the soil in one day.

With the difficult spring we have had here in central Wisconsin anything a gardener can do to save growing time will be rewarded in your harvest.

What to do in the garden, today, March 28?

Nothing.

Still over a foot of snow covers anything that remotely looks like a garden here in the Central Sands region of Wisconsin, zone 4. My Dad says we are 20 degrees below average temperature. He's a farmer. He should know; he's been growing things a tad longer than I have.

So today, my garden activities center around my seedlings in my growing racks in my extra space in my loft. I thought I would include some pictures of this growing rack, dimensions, and building tips.








Although I do quite a bit of hammering, sawing, nailing, etc.; I am far from a pro. I have built a deck ("cobble"might be a good word there), built a couple fences, and remodeled more than one or two bathrooms, and have developed some skills. I am far from a finish/trim carpenter, but this light rack was easy to build.

It measures about 20" deep, about 5 feet high, and 44" wide. I built it using (4) 2" x 2 x 8' pieces. I cut 36" off each of the 8' pieces and then cut the 36" pieces in half again. Having those (8) 18" piece is key to getting the right dimensions as I use 4 standard 10" by 20" flats without drain holes to keep everything nice and dry.

As this light rack holds four trays across (the width part), I purchased (4) 1" by 4" board and cut each in half. If I was doing it over I would go with 6 though. With six, each shelf would have three of these as tray supports.

I assembled this rack with screws, pre-drilling my holes and "L-brackets". These L-brackets on the corners with the 18" pieces top and bottom and two equi-distant spaces between form the sides of my rack. The brackets are key. Pre-drilling is important. Don't skip that step, and it helps to have a helper to hold things together during assembly.

I had the screws in my cast-offs bucket. I purchased the wood and brackets (8 in all, one at each corner.) I think the rack itself cost me just about $20.

I had a couple shop lights to start. I hang these with chain. I prefer to use 2 per shelf. If you use one only put 2 trays on the shelf and put them parallel with the width. The chains are important to keep the lights within 4" of the growing seedlings. I use regular florescent light bulbs with about 3,500 lumens. I don't use special light bulbs. The lumen thing is important, though. The higher the lumen the better. I think the minimum you should attempt to grow with is 3,200. A couple years back I bought a light meter and it really helped me nail down the issues I had with whether there was enough light or not.



I plug all my lights into a circuit panel things with a switch so I can flip one switch to turn a whole rack on or off. That plugs into a GFI-wired outlet. This space is planned to eventually be a bathroom, so the GFI-circuit makes sense for now, watering plants and using lights are not a good combo; and in the future for the bathroom. I have tripped the circuit more than once with dripping water.

The second plug in the outlet is where I plug in my one heat mat. This allows me to use the heat mat even at night to encourage those seed to sprout, rather than plug it into the light panel and turn it off. I also use two screws to attach/stabilize it to the wall.

My son, who was then probably 14 and had never built anything before, helped hold pieces of this together when I built it a couple years back. Yesterday, he and I were out shopping for a couple of new bulbs for the rack. We walked by a really fancy, metal, pre-made rack priced at a couple hundred dollars, and he commented, "Wow, Mom! Ours is really nice, and it holds twice as many trays as this one and only cost us a few bucks!"

Yes. I thought. Yes, it did.

Starting Seed

These irresistible seedlings would actually make a good microgreens mix.

They are the Jung's seed Triplet Hybrid Blend Cabbages.

There was very good germination. I used a seed starting tray with dome and heat mat. The soil is a blend of sandy loam, peat, and spaghum moss. The spaghum moss improves the aeration. The peat has natural anti-fungal properties, so I don't need to worry about any fungicidal drenches or damping off. Sandy loam is my native soil, so it gets tossed into my mix. I know where my soils have been versus buying something prepackaged. Even the peat is a local native soil, that I have sometimes seen packaged as Waupaca brand "topsoil" at Wal-Mart and sometimes Sears.

I fill my tray with my mixed soil. I plant my seed as per the directions. I go cell by cell and press the seed into the soil. It is important each seed make good contact with its germinating medium. I cover the seed as directed, and then carefully water. If the seed has something to it I use the sink sprayer. If not, I use a bottle mister.

I put the dome on and place it on the heat mat. If I am planting more than one seed in the tray, I pick plants that germinate in approximately the same length of time. When about 90% of the seeds are germinated, I remove from the mat, but leave the dome in place for a couple more days. Generally, I find seeds germinate more quickly and evenly on the mat than without.

After about 3 to 5 days I remove the dome lid. At that point, I need to keep a closer eye on watering.

When the cabbage have their first true leaves-- these are leaves 3 and 4, as you count, I prick them out and plant into their individual container. When pricking out, plant to the base of the true leaves.

I would recommend in zone 4, to start this cabbage variety between March 1 and March 15. Cabbage, because they are a member of the cole family, can be transplanted before the last frost date, provided they have been hardened off.