Episode-233- Get Started With Indoor Seed Starts – Parsley

      

Today’s video depicts the start of the growing season for 2014. Although it is still icy and cold outside and spring seems like a long forgotten friend warm weather is coming. Thus it is time to start with the first plant to sow indoors and that is Parsley. I love this plant for reasons beyond its taste and health benefits such as vitamins A, K and C, folate and iron. It keeps asparagus beetles at bay and attracts many beneficial insects such as ladybugs which eat aphids. Parsley is an awesome herb to have handy for a large variety of dishes and I dehydrate lots of it each summer for use throughout the year.

I am trying something new this year by using apple containers from Costco and vermiculite. I take one half of a container and fill it with water. The other half has hole cut in to let the water in and I place that on top of the first. I then fill it with vermiculite which wicks up the water. The parsley seeds are soaked in a cup of water for 24 hours and then sprinkled on top of the moist vermiculite. All of this rests on top of a single seed heat mat which increases the ambient temperature of the set by 7-10 degrees Fahrenheit. For the last step I cover the vermiculite with a third apple container to keep moisture in until the seeds sprout. It will take about three weeks for the seeds to sprout and once they do I will move them to the green room where grow lights are waiting for them. The parsley will then go outside in the gardens about 4 weeks prior to the last spring frost date which this year I have pushed back to May 2.

I got my parsley seeds and just about all of my annual seeds from SouthernExposure.com locate in Mineral, Virginia and I suggest you do the same if live in the mid Atlantic region. Wherever you get your seeds from start today because although old man Winter seems to never want to leave he will soon enough and you don’t want to be caught unprepared for the wonderful weather ahead. I have include the 2014 planting schedule in today’s resources to give you an idea of all the work ahead and the plans for accomplishing. Let me know if you have any questions. Now go and do something useful. 

Resources

 Song of the Day – Green Day – Redundant Video 

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