Indoor seed germination

 

Indoor seed germination

germinated seeds being planted out

germinated seeds being planted out

 

I started to germinate seeds indoor on transparent plastic boxes with lid on moist toilet paper, being at a constant warm temperature the condition is perfect for seed germination, especially demanding small seeds. Using only water and no soil is cleaner to manage inside the house, and toilet paper is fragile and hence easy to pull seedlings out.

This round I tried to germinate 2 types of lettuce, coriander, parsley, Tong Ho and wild strawberry.

It is interesting to note that lettuce seeds germinated in 3 days, and near 100% success rate. Coriander, parsley and Tong Ho took 1 week to show sign of life, and only half germinated. While tiny wild strawberry seeds took 2 weeks to start opening and another week to have 2 tiny leaves, but germination rate is good.

When the seedlings with 2 leaves are around 1 cm tall with root 2 cm long, they are transplanted into soil to grow on in the green house. They are surprisingly not fragile and very easy to be pushed into soil.

It is the germination that is temperature dependent, once out, they can withstand fluctuating temperature, as long as night temperature does not drop below zero.