Seed Starting – How To Start Seeds Without Using Soil

I had originally planned to focus on my perennials this season, and help the larger perennials produce larger harvests and help the propogated plants grow large. However, when I went through my seeds I became aware that many of them were supposed to be used before summer 2024. Of course they could very well be viable even after that time, but I have now decided to use them up. My current plan for the year is now more focused on getting as much food as possible from the seeds I need to plant, as well as from the perennials in my garden. The goal is still 75 kg, but I want to be as efficient as possible both in terms of time spent gardening and the space I will use.

I did begin to feel a bit overwhelmed when it became clear that I would have to raise many more plants and varieties than I had planned to. While I do feel excited that the gardening season is beginning, I am still quite drained by everything else going on. It’s like I haven’t completely left my winter hibernation mode.

Since a few years back, I have been actively simplifying all areas of my life by reducing and removing both mental and physical clutter.

Thus, I knew I wanted to figure out a way to approach this year’s gardening season in the simplest manner possible. The idea of going out to fetch dozens of pots from storage, gathering soil or purchasing soil, and having to keep all the seedlings indoors for weeks was beginning to stress me out, and that made me dread getting started. I don’t have a lot of space to utilise indoor, so I must be mindful and make sure I don’t clutter up the space I do have. I knew I had to go about things differently this year, and after some consideration, I found a way that worked for me.

Here’s what I did to simplify things this year:

I divided the seed packages into three bags. One bag for the seeds that I will plant directly into the soil this week. Another bag for the four sisters – sunflowers, pumpkin/squash, corn and beans – that will need to be started indoor. And a final bag for other miscellaneous seeds I needed to start indoor.

I took all beet seeds and placed them in one seed package. I did the same with the cucumber seeds and the black kale seeds. That made it feel much more doable since I ended up with a handful of packages in total rather than a handful of packages of each variety.

After that, it was time to actually start the seeds. In a small rum glass, I placed all the chili and bell pepper seeds and poured some filtered water on top. They will soak for three days. Any seeds that float to the top will be removed, since they likely aren’t viable. The rest will be separated and planted.

I grabbed my fibre mats that I use to raise microgreens. On one mat, I spread out the onion seeds. On another, the pumpkin and squash seeds. And so I continued until I had a mat for all of the varieties I was starting. I ended up with one mat for onion seeds, one for pumpkin and squash, one for corn, one for sunflowers, one for beans, one for brassica and one for cucumber.

I decided that the tomatillo seeds will be soaked and planted into small pots later this week. But the rest of the seeds will be raised on these mats until they’re large enough to be planted. By doing it this way, the seeds take up far less space and containers, I won’t need soil until they’re well established, and it’ll require far less effort on my part. And the best thing is that this way I get to observe the seeds as they grow, and I get to choose which ones to grow in soil, which ones I want to grow hydroponically indoors, and which ones I want to eat as microgreens.

Left to do:

Tonight and tomorrow I need to go out and plant beets, black radish, New Zealand spinach and black kale outside directly into the soil in my containers. They need the cooler temperatures to germinate and grow well, so early spring weather like this is ideal.

I need to soak and plant the tomatillo seeds later this week. And I need to start the chili and pepper seeds once they’ve finished soaking. This week or next week I will also need to prepare my potato bags and plant my seed potatoes from last year. I need to check them and see if I want to chit them or not first. Though even if I do decide to chit them, that process won’t take long and I should have a good amount of potatoes to harvest by Midsummer.

When the soil is at least 15 degrees outside and the weather is consistently spring-like, then I will begin to harden off the seedlings for a few hours each a day. Once they’re okay with both environments and temperatures, I will plant them outside and there they will stay until the season is through.

I will also grow a few seedlings hydroponically, but I haven’t decided which ones yet. There’s no rush.

As far as maintenance goes, most of these plants will do their own thing all season long. I’ll need to water them, check the leaves for pests and fertilise them weekly, but other than that, they’ll manage on their own. My involvement is mostly when I start the seeds and raise them into seedlings, and when it is time to harvest. Because I grow the four sisters together, they provide each other with everything that they need. The corn stalks and sunflower plants form a trellis for the beans, squash and pumpkin to grow on, the beans make the soil rich in nitrogen and they all protect each other from pests. To be more precise, the beans convert atmospheric nitrogen into ammonium nitrogen which is then released into the soil. And this soil improvement aids the other sisters.

I always companion plant my seedlings, so the rest of the seedling varieties will also be planted with other varieties and perennials to create a similar relationship to that of the four sisters.

Do you companion plant?

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