Friday, January 11, 2008

DIY – Sowing Lettuce

What you’ll need:

Potting mix
Seedling tray
Seeds
Sprinkler (lagadera) with water (no chlorine please)
Sprayer (mister) with water or compost tea
Wooden stick or a chopstick
Steady hands
Sharp eyes
Patience

Fill your seedling tray with some potting mix. You can buy ready made potting mix or you can mix it yourself. At Daily DOSE Farm, we mix 30% vermicompost with 30% carbonized rice hull and 40% aged coco coir. Make sure you fill every hole of the seedling tray. We use seedling trays with 128 holes.

Soak the potting mix with water using your sprinkler. Make sure it’s thoroughly wet. At our farm, we use compost tea instead of water.

With your steady hands, pick up your wooden stick and dip the tip in water. You can now easily pickup a single seed with the wet tip of the stick. It would be easier if the seeds are widely spread out in a dish. Place the seed in the seedling tray, one seed per hole. Now is the best time to use your sharp eyes and patience.

After filling all the holes with seeds, water them with your sprayer or mister. You don’t want to use your sprinkler here, trust me.

You can use this method with all leafy vegetables.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I believe its a lot more easier to sow the seeds in the seedbox then prick the seedlings in the seedlings tray 7-10 days after sowing (2 leaves seedlings). By doing this, u can also maximize the use of the seedling trays (no empty holes).

Another, instead of watering the seedling trays using a sprinkler its a lot more easier to just dip the whole seedling tray in a basin (w/water or compost tea). Trust me, it will not sink. Let the water seep through then lift when the water surfaces out of the holes (meaning it reached saturation, it may sink if not lifted). Doing this, u are free from splatters and u save water (much more if u r using compost tea, sayang naman)

TRY IT!

Raymond and Mariel......................................... said...

we believe, also, that it's easier in seedling trays (with individual holes). there's little stress to plants while transplanting, speeding up their growth on their respective plots.

TRY IT!

Anonymous said...

yes, that's correct. What im tryin to suggest is prick or transfer the seedlings to the seedling tray when it is about 7-10 days old after sowing rather than sowing the seeds directly to the seedling tray. gets?
..Walang stress sa 7-10 day old na seedling kasi primary root pa lang ang meron sya..

Raymond and Mariel......................................... said...

got it! thanks sa suggestion. but we'll stick to what we practice - tried and tested in 3 of our farms.