How to promote seed germination for fall gardens
Now
you know what
you're going to plant and when
to plant it, but there are
still a few tricks to having a successful fall garden. The
biggest problem with planting fall vegetables is that you're putting
seeds of cool-weather crops in the ground during the heat of
summer. In many cases, the soil may be too dry for the seeds to
germinate.
Here are my top tips for
good summer germination:
- If your soil is really
dry, water the area a day or two before planting. Better yet,
plan your planting for the day before a forecast storm.
- Plant your seeds deeper than you would have in the spring --- often, there's moisture about half an inch below the surface.
- Plant three to five
seeds in each location rather than just one. I did this with the
broccoli seeds I planted a couple of weeks ago and only had one seed
germinate in each spot. If too many seeds come up, you can always
weed down to one plant per location, or transplant to fill in gaps.
- Keep an eye on your tender seedlings for the first month or so, making sure they get an inch of water per week.
| This post is part of our Planning Your Fall Garden lunchtime series.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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