Plant flowers and vegetables in containers or pots can make you easy to manage and save space. Pre-planting treatment is very important if you want to grow seedlings in pots or containers. Many germination failures and seedling corruption come from the use of wrong seedling soil and treatments.
First, you need to choose the size of the pot depending on the type and amount of seeds used. Then you should use a soil that contains humus, loose, fertile, well-drained, and blended with sandy soil. The proportion of the compound is 50% of the humus soil, 25% of the fine river sand, and 25% of the ash.
Soil Disinfection
You have to disinfect the soil before the seeding. This will kill the bacteria, eggs and weeds that remain in the soil. You can choose to use high temperature disinfection, if you are planting vegetables at home with less soil. The method is to put the soil for sowing into a sealed container, and then steam for 40 to 60 minutes by steaming at 100 to 120 degrees. You can also put the soil in a wok and stir fry for 30 minutes. Another method is to spray the soil with a 0.5% potassium permanganate solution or a dilution of the bactericidal pesticide.
1. Seedling Heat: To heat the soil, place it in an oven or microwave for several minutes at a high temperature of about 120-150 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Bleach: To disinfect the soil with bleach, mix two teaspoons of bleach into each gallon of water and soak the pot or container with this solution for 10 minutes to kill any pathogens in the soil. Then rinse off any excess solution and allow to dry before planting your seeds.
3. Hydrogen Peroxide: To disinfect the soil with hydrogen peroxide, mix one tablespoon hydrogen peroxide into each gallon of water and soak your pot or container with the solution for 10 minutes. Then rinse off any excess solution and allow to dry before planting your seeds.
4. Baking Soda: To disinfect the soil with baking soda, mix one tablespoon of baking soda into each gallon of water and soak your pot or container with this solution for 10 minutes, then rinse off any excess solution and allow to dry before planting your seeds.
Disinfection of Flower Pots and Containers
You should clean the flower pots that used for sowing. You can sterilize it with 1% formalin solution or boil it with quicklime. Then you can cover the bottom of the basin with shredded tiles after disinfection. You can put coarse sand, coarse earth or charcoal into the bottom of the basin as a drainage layer. In the middle layer, you can add a little thicker soil. Finally, you can put a fine layer of soil on the top layer. You can gently shake the pot to sink the soil, and then flatten the surface and squeeze it.
Seed Sowing
You can start planting after disinfecting the pots and soil. Generally, you need to cover the soil after seed sowing. Its cover thickness is about 2 to 3 times the seed size. The thickness of the cover soil is thinner for small seeds and make sure the seeds is covered. You need to spray water in a fine watering can after sowing. Alternatively, you can slowly immerse the pots in a larger basin so that the water slowly penetrates from the holes in the bottom of the basin. Remove the flower pot after the surface of the pot is wetted.
You can cover the surface of the basin with newspapers or glass to reduce the evaporation of water and the knot of the soil. You can remove the cover from the pot if you find that the seed has sprouted. Then you have to start to let the seedlings gradually touch and shine into the sun. Otherwise, the seedlings are prone to lengthy, if the cover is too long.