Welcome to the WCS fundraising site. If you are NOT looking to purchase as part of a fundraiser, please click here to visit westcoastseeds.com
Welcome to the WCS fundraising site. If you are NOT looking to purchase as part of a fundraiser, please click here to visit westcoastseeds.com
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Garden Wisdom Blog — category: Seed Talk

Waiting to Transplant

category: Articles and Instructions category: Garden Resources category: Seed Talk garden-wisdom hardening-off how-to potting-on timing transplant

Waiting to Transplant

Many plants benefit from a head start by sowing indoors during late winter and early spring. For a few crops, notably peppers and tomatoes, this indoor start is an absolute requirement if growing from seed. These tender, tropical plants will be killed outright by frost, and will show immediate signs of distress if exposed to cold spring weather. So the gardener’s strategy is to make an educated guess about when it will be warm enough to transplant them outdoors, and work backwards from that date according to which crop is involved. Tomatoes, peppers, and many perennial flowers require a good...

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Mark's Ten Seedling Tips

category: Articles and Instructions category: Garden Resources category: Seed Talk

Mark's Ten Seedling Tips

You’ve selected your seeds, you’ve invested in unfamiliar seed starting equipment, you’ve planted the seeds — and now the damn things are coming up! What to do?!

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Seedling Heat Mats Really Work

category: Organic Growing category: Seed Talk garden-wisdom seed-starting

Seedling Heat Mats Really Work

The Heat Mats are fairly thick, with several layers of plastic heat bonded (not glued) over a strong heating wire. Water can't get into the mat so there are no worries when irrigating plant trays. At the end of the seed starting season we just roll them up and store them for next year — and we've been using the same ones for more than five years.

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Seeds for a Really Early Start

category: Articles and Instructions category: Garden Resources category: Seed Talk

Seeds for a Really Early Start

The weather outdoors is cold and gloomy. Here on the coast it is altogether wet — the ground is sodden and squishy. Elsewhere, the first blankets of snow are falling, and the ground is freezing hard. Only the most spirited of winter gardeners are still making trips to the greenhouse, low tunnels, or raised beds at this time of year. Winter doesn't officially even start until the third week in December, and then it goes on for three solid months. It's not very intuitive to think about starting seeds this early for the coming spring and summer. Yet some plants...

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How to Store Seeds

category: Articles and Instructions category: Garden Resources category: Seed Talk

How to Store Seeds

One of the factors that most influences the germination rate of seeds is how they are stored. Like the plants that produce them, seeds come in all sorts of forms and sizes. They are also variable in their longevity. Since seed packets often contain more seeds than might be needed in one season, it’s important for gardeners to learn how to store seeds. Vegetable seeds that are considered “long-lived” include the Brassicas (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, collards, kohlrabi…) the chicory group (endive, escarole, radicchio), cucumber, kale, lettuce, melons, mustards, peppers, radish, rutabaga, sunflower, tomato and turnips. Stored correctly, these...

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