About Alternative Options For Sowing Seeds For Seedlings

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Read the first part of the article: How to sow seeds for seedlings correctly

Seeds are sown directly on the gel substrate

or a layer of soil covering it

Sowing seeds in a mixture of hydrogel with agrovermiculite, perlite and sawdust

Theoretically, at one time, various researchers proposed various versions of synthetic materials as substrates for the root system of plants - mineral wool, polyacrylamide gels, special ion-exchange resins and some other materials. Now the majority of specialists in our country and abroad prefer a special soil hydrogel.

Hydrogels are polymers that can absorb large amounts of water and minerals. They are non-toxic and decompose in the soil in about five years. In dry form, aqueous polymers are whitish or yellowish crystals (depending on the manufacturer).

When soaked in water (or in a fertilizer solution), these polymers are saturated with water and turn into beautiful translucent soft crystals that resemble jelly in appearance. The amount of water and nutrients they absorb (water-soluble fertilizers) is large - 1 g of dry preparation absorbs about 180-200 ml of water. According to the assurances of some manufacturers, dry gel can absorb more water, but I have not encountered such a hydrogel in my practice, unfortunately, the volume of water absorbed by the gel may turn out to be even less (which means that the finished gel will be less).

Why it happens? Manufacturers indicate the amount of distilled water to be absorbed, but in practice it is usually necessary to be content with the water that is at hand, as a rule, not distilled at all. It takes about 45-60 minutes for the dry preparation to saturate with water.

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Thus, after soaking dry hydrogel granules in water, in an hour you will get a very beautiful gel-like structure, but the point here, of course, is not beauty. The hydrogel is just ideal for growing seedlings (and not only seedlings, but for a large garden, purchasing a hydrogel is quite an expensive pleasure).

What are its advantages? As noted above, one of the significant problems in the initial stage of plant development (sowing and seedling stage) is the rapid drying out of the substrate due to the excessively dry air in the apartment, which is further aggravated by the too small volume of soil. Therefore, you have to water often (often daily) and quite a lot. This automatically leads to rapid compaction of the soil, and is also fraught with the danger of rotting of the root system in case of excessive watering.

In other words, during the entire period of growing seedlings, one has to fear both drying out and excessive watering, because it is very easy to overlook the substrate. And the introduction of a hydrogel into the soil removes the problem of strict control of soil moisture, since the gel granules are saturated with moisture and retain excess water, while the plants are always provided with moisture in the right amount. However, do not think that you will not have to water the plants at all - you will have to, but much less often.

This means that the most important advantage of using a hydrogel is the elimination of the problem of drying out or excessive waterlogging of the substrate in combination with a certain saving of time, since you have to water less often. There are other pluses as well. Granules retain up to 40% of fertilizers, preventing them from being washed out into areas inaccessible to plant roots. Of course, at the stage of seedlings, there is no need to be afraid of washing out fertilizers, but after planting it in the ground, the hydrogel will have a positive effect in this sense, however, provided it is additionally introduced into the holes when planting plants. In addition, the ability of the granules to swell and compress improves the structure of the soil and helps to improve its air and moisture permeability.

It is worth noting the fact that the process of transplanting and planting seedlings grown on soil with hydrogel tolerates much better than plants grown on a traditional substrate, since most of the absorbing roots are located in gel granules. Moreover, several times I saw how extra seedlings extracted from the substrate with gel (I always sow with a reserve and therefore I just throw out some of the less attractive plants when transplanted into separate containers) and left in the air, even the next day, still look quite alive. And this is in the dry air of an apartment with the heating on, when everything dries up, almost instantly!

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As for the disadvantages of sowing seeds on a substrate with a hydrogel, in my opinion, those are not observed. There are a couple of things to keep in mind, though.

Firstly, when growing plants in a limited volume (in particular, seedlings), only a hydrogel saturated with water should be used, since the introduction of a dry gel into a container of small volume after it is saturated with water will cause the plants to bulge. The situation will be even worse when sowing seeds on soil with dry hydrogel - it is not so much the bulging of the soil itself that is dangerous here, but the uncontrolled movement of the seeds in the soil during the swelling of the granules, which can easily lead to pulling them into the lower layers of the mixture (as a result, the seeds are simply will not ascend).

Secondly, the hydrogel itself is not a fertilizer and does not contain nutrients that plants need, and its share in the soil is usually quite large. Therefore, when a hydrogel is added to the soil substrate, additional fertilization is required into the resulting soil mixture (based on the volume of the gel) or more frequent fertilizing of plants with complex fertilizers.

Most of the roots of seedlings are in gel granules

The technology of sowing seeds on a substrate with a hydrogel

As a rule, after saturation with water, the hydrogel is carefully thrown into a colander in order to drain excess water. Then it is simply added to the soil mixture (according to the recommendations, about 200 ml of ready-made gel per 1 liter of soil) and the resulting soil is used to grow a wide variety of crops - in an apartment at the seedling stage, indoor and outdoor.

In the case of using soil with a hydrogel for growing seedlings, options are possible.

• The first is to grow directly from scratch (that is, sow the seeds directly into separate pots in the soil with the hydrogel).

• The second is to sow the seeds initially in a common container (on the soil with the hydrogel, in sawdust or in the substrate with the hydrogel), and then plant the grown seedlings in separate pots in the soil with the hydrogel.

Both options produce stronger quality seedlings. However, do not forget that the first option will require from the very beginning of growing seedlings to provide it with the optimal level of illumination and the desired temperature immediately over a large area, which is not within the power of every gardener.

Therefore, in my opinion, the option of sowing seeds on a substrate with a hydrogel looks much more attractive - it can be a mixture of a hydrogel with agrovermiculite or a more complex version of a mixture of hydrogel, agrovermiculite, perlite and sawdust (I have adapted to prepare the substrate in a ratio of 3: 3: 3: 2). I mix the named components with the already swollen hydrogel, mix everything well - and the substrate is ready.

Please note that you need to use medium or large fractions of the hydrogel (that is, fragments from 2 to 10 mm), since the mixture should turn out to be loose (but not falling apart - the gel seems to stick it together), very moisture-absorbing and breathable; the use of smaller fragments will lead to a dense "porridge", which is unacceptable.

Sowing seeds on a prepared substrate with hydrogel itself does not cause any difficulties. I take a sufficiently deep container (the same as when sowing on sawdust), fill it with a damp substrate, and sow the seeds in it at some distance from each other. I simply spread the seeds over the surface of the substrate, but in no case do I sprinkle the substrate on top, since the gel granules themselves do not allow air to pass through, and if the seed is tightly covered, it may die from lack of air.

Seedlings grown on sawdust or gel substrate

have a powerful root system

It is dangerous to sow small and, even more so, dusty seeds directly on the gel substrate (because of its irregularities) - it is better to cover the substrate with a symbolic layer of soil and place the seeds only on top of it. It is better to sprinkle the seeds on top with a thin layer of fertile soil (this does not apply to dusty seeds).

You can do this later (when the seeds are pecked), but there is a danger of drying them out on the surface of the substrate (that is, they have not yet been sprinkled), since the substrate due to the gel granules turns out to be uneven, and the seeds lying on the surface of such a structural soil dry out faster than when they lie on the surface of damp sawdust.

In any case, after sowing, the containers are placed in slightly opened plastic bags in a warm place to maintain a temperature of 24 … 26 ° C. With the emergence of seedlings, the temperature is reduced - during the day to 23 … 24 ° C, and at night to 16 … 18 ° C. The containers are moved under fluorescent lamps, maintaining 12-14 hour daylight hours. When the first true leaf appears (the cotyledons do not count), I plant the seedlings in ordinary soil in separate containers.

The choice is up to gardeners

Most gardeners prefer traditional potting of seeds when growing seedlings. And this is not surprising, because seedlings have been grown in this way from time immemorial, and in every book on gardening, this sowing option is given as the only possible one.

Everything is familiar and understandable here: they prepared a mixture of a suitable composition, or even used purchased soil at all and sowed pre-soaked seeds.

However, there are much more effective options for sowing seeds for seedlings - this is sowing seeds on sawdust or on a substrate with a hydrogel. These options allow you to get stronger and more friendly seedlings (due to the creation of better conditions for seed germination and seedling development), and then grow better and stronger seedlings. Such seedlings will guarantee a higher yield, and at an earlier date.

Svetlana Shlyakhtina, Yekaterinburg

Photo by the author