Planting & Greenhouse Seedling Management

Tiny Seeds (Carrot, Lettuce, Petunia): Barely 1 millimeter wide. Press gently onto the surface and dust with a paper-thin veil of vermiculite.

Medium Seeds (Beet, Spinach, Radish): 3–5 millimeters wide. Sow 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep.

Large Seeds (Peas, Beans, Corn): 10–15 millimeters wide. Push 1 full inch deep into warm, moist soil.

Never use dense garden dirt in small seedling pots—it compacts into hard brick and lacks air pores.

High-grade seedling mix contains fluffy sphagnum peat moss or coco coir for moisture, and white volcanic perlite for aeration so delicate root hairs can expand easily.

Step 1: Moisten seedling potting mix in a tub until it feels like a damp, wrung-out sponge.

Step 2: Fill cell packs to the rim and tap gently on the table to eliminate large air pockets.

Step 3: Make indentations using a pencil eraser to the calculated depth.

Step 4: Drop 1–2 seeds per cell, cover with mix, and label with popsicle sticks (crop name & date).

Pouring heavy water from above can dislodge tiny seeds, wash them to the corner, or splash fungal spores onto stems.

Instead, place cell trays into a solid water tray. Capillary action pulls water upward from the bottom, saturating the roots while keeping the top soil surface dry and fungal-free!

Students maintain a weekly growth log: date of first sprout emergence, leaf counts, and transplant readiness.

We celebrate how our hands-on classroom seedling trays will stock the Tyonek Grown community high tunnels, providing fresh food for everyone in the village.