Starting seeds for transplanting in your desert garden is easy, but you’ll need to do a few things first. Here are some articles which will help guide you to gardening success:
- Choosing and handling seeds.
- Understanding your environment
- Growing media
- Seed planting containers
- When to plant seeds.
If you’ve read these articles, then you’re ready to begin sowing.
The first thing you need to do is to fill whatever containers you’ve chosen with whatever medium you’re going to use. Make sure that the medium is moistened, and that it comes to ¾ of an inch below the top of the container. If the seeds are very small, use vermiculite for the last ¼ inch of fill.
Next, tamp the medium down at the corners, edges and center, creating a flat surface.
If the seeds are medium-size to large, make furrows in your planter one to two inches apart, and between ¼ and 1/8 inch deep. You can use a pencil, a plant card, a folded business card or any other small implement to make the furrow. By sowing in rows, you will be helping to provide the plant with good light, water and air needs.
Sow the seeds evenly along the furrow. If the seeds are rather small, you can use the wetted tip of a pencil to move the seeds one by one from the packet to the growingf medium.
A good guide to planting depth is to plant the seed twice as deep as the diameter of the seed.
If the seeds need darkness to germinate, then cover them with some dry vermiculite or even light sand.
