I’m going to start this post with kudos to the amazing team at Lawrence Park Collegiate. As you may recall, last November I met with the eco-club and distributed seedsitting kits. Students and staff took them home and used the winter-sowing method to germinate them and return them to the school after Spring break.
On May 5th I met with Ms. Fedor and two students to show them how to pot up the seedlings. Those two students then taught their fellow students how to pot up the seedlings at the next eco-club meeting and are now planning to plant them in the school’s first native plant garden, Well done!
Seedling update
I wanted to share some pictures that have been sent in from our group members. This first set is from Sanam who was also part of last year’s group. While none of her pots grew last year, she was so delighted to share pictures from 3 out of 4 pots that have already begun to sprout. Excellent work!
Pat also shared an updated picture of her seedlings and they are growing well:
I also got pictures from Mag who’s all the way in Port Perry! She has shared pictures of a variety of ways that she is growing her seedlings and I am hoping that when we all get together, both Mag and our other adventurous member, Nancy, can share some of their findings about the many techniques they tried with the rest of our group.
So what are our next steps?
As your seedlings begin to sprout, you should start thinking about potting them up with good soil. For germination we just used a sphagnum mix with no real nutrition, because it didn’t really matter… but going forward, you want to use a good potting mix, preferably with fertilizer and made for seedlings. When seedlings get nutritious conditions and do not have to compete with other seedlings, they grow much better. I actually have a video from last year that talks about the process/resources from May 2022 so check it out here. But I am also going to post a couple of pictures from this year for you:
1. You can see this swamp milkweed is rather established. I use pieces of horizontal blinds that I’ve cut up as labels and use a soft pencil 6B to write on it. This works far better than any marker.
2. I loosen the soil and pour it out onto a tray gently so none of the seedlings get damaged. This is the most critical phase
3. I fill the pot with soil and make a large indentation with a stick or spoon to place the seedling.
4. Gently put the seedling in the hole.
5. Pinch together the soil around the seedling and place the label to the side.
6. Use a tray to organize and transport the seedlings.
To get a jump on the growing season and since I was going on a trip, I went on a massive potting spree and potted up so many of the seedlings that had sprouted.
Pussytoes seedlings were just adorable.
I hope this post inspires you to start potting up some seedlings as they get ready. If you have questions, feel free to reach out but also, go browse this blog and look at posts from 2022.
