Naked Seed Starting

My seed starting method has evolved over the years. You can see the change in my previous articles:

Starting Onion Seeds
Brownie pan soil blocks for seed starting
Plant seeds while making soil block

If you want to get into my reasons for starting down this road check out the brownie pan article. The basic reason is efficiency. The seed blocks are quicker to make and quicker to plant. The roots stop when they hit the air. When planted they are in soil again and keep growing.

Here’s my basic method:

Wet the potting mix so that water comes out when squeezed tightly.

Put a thin layer in the bottom of a muffin tin.

Sprinkle the seeds in.

Add some loose soil and gently tamp down.

Add some more and pack tightly to the top of the muffin tin. I find if its packed enough that it springs back and I see a bit of water come out.

Flip the muffin tin over to drop the pucks out.

Gently lift off and put on the seed tray
(usually a cookie sheet, or anything else that fits well on my shelf).

Until the seeds come up, I try to keep moist with a spray bottle. After sitting for a few days and going through a few wetting and drying cycles, they seem to firm up and hold together well.

For most seeds, I’ve found a standard muffin tin does the trick. For larger ones, I found a plastic container that does a good job. For the tiny ones, I find a mini-muffin tin works well.

The advantage to the mini-muffin sized is that I can fit a lot more on a sheet, but the disadvantage is more frequent watering as they don’t hold that much water. The big ones work well if the plant is going to be very big. I find they don’t require as frequent of watering, but it’s tougher to get the entire block full of water due to their size.