Over complicating things

Surly lists like this must put people off from ever attempting to grow their own anything! Why make the simplest things so complicated. Maybe it’s just me it would put off if I was just starting out. Do any of you do all the things on this list? I do the watering and the removal of the dead. But all the other faffing about. No not at all.

   


Just looked at this again and it was written by the Canadian version of our uk company. But our company shared it. With the phrase “wise words”

I do the last one - sometimes.

Sometimes it makes you wonder how on earth we managed before the internet.  When I first started gardening I think I had 1 or 2 gardening books that I'd bought from a charity shop, one of them was a Percy Thrower book    

How on earth do you sterilise tools! Perhaps we ought to install an autoclave along with the oscillating fan. Not such a good idea if you've no leccy

The tools I use for sowing and pricking out seeds/seedlings are my fingers - I'm not sticking them in boiling water for anyone!

Since I started using vermiculite several years ago to cover seeds, instead of compost, I've not had any damping off of seedlings. I also mix a handful into the compost. I think it's partly because vermiculite is sterile anyway, but also it absorbs excess moisture around the little stems and prevents the fungus getting a hold. That's my theory anyway

The tools I use for sowing and pricking out seeds/seedlings are my fingers - I'm not sticking them in boiling water for anyone!

I use a very nice stirrer that comes in a Long Island Iced Tea cocktail. somehow it regularly gets lost or breaks - so I have the excuse to go back for another!

Sterile seed mix, containers, tools...nope, nope, nope. I think one of the reasons damping off is so common is because of 'sterile' seed mix, because you need beneficial microbes to outcompete the pathogenic ones. I always use worm castings in my seed mix and very rarely get damping off. 

Air movement is good for plants, yes. I have a small computer fan in my grow tent for my chilli seedlings, it helps prevent botrytis in what can be a very humid environment. Outside of an enclosed space like a grow tent, a fan is likely unnecessary. 

I only bottom water if the compost has gone very dry and needs a good re-soaking. I don't have enough no-hole trays to bottom water everything.

When I first sow seeds, I water from the top, to get it soaked through, but from then on, I water the tray. I pick off dead plants if needed, but none of the others.

Water from the bottom and remove the dead or dying. I clean pots and my little old pricking out paring knife occasionally but that's about it