North 40 Life Magazine | Page 6

1 What’s the best way to transplant more fragile types of seeds from germination to garden? You use your three year-old compost, your soil block germination and an old toilet paper roll or halved paper towel roll—the cardboard will disintegrate while protecting the seedling. Want a bigger option? Check out those pots— they are kiln-fired cattle manure, or “poop pots”: nutritious and strong enough to keep your plants potted and ready for that Northwest growing season. 2 Plants only grow at night. You have to get all your macronutrient materials in the day and build with them at night. This brings up the temperature problem— “You need at LEAST 55 degrees Fahrenheit to maintain the workforce in the plant cells. If it drops below that everyone starts to leave because it is too cold, and when everyone is gone, the plant won’t grow.” 3 When germinating and starting seeds, use a mixture of H20 and hydrogen peroxide (1:4 ratio with an eyedropper) together inside a ketchup cup (the little plastic cups you find at a fast food joint). This mixture will dramatically decrease the germination time and also inoculate the roots as they begin to sprout— faster, stronger growth. Want to make it even Use H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) + H2O (water) to inoculate plants and reduce germination times. “Poop Pots” - kiln-fired cattle manure >> 6 faster? Use a heating pad and a temperature gauge to maintain constant temperature for budding seeds. 4 Oil ruins roots—and I mean oil from your hands. It was explained to me like this: imagine yourself the seed. On the outside casing of your shell there is oil and debris in the shape of a finger print. Maybe this (often invisible) oil has some acid or salt sweat or other chemical compound—imagine trying to get past those lines of oil as you open outwards. You’d grow through the places that had no outside contaminants because that would be the easiest way to get open. This means the seed will sprout in unnatural ways and could