The inveterate seed-sower, to whom the planting of seed is a year muml job rather than a Springtime operation, is sometimes hard put to find enough containers of the right size and substance for a variety of seeds, especially the rather small quantities generally put up in packets of the rarer perennials. The requirements are few but important. The container must have proper drainage, it must not he so large that the soil will become waterlogged, nor yet so small that the seedlings are crowded and have to be thinned out.
Weird and varied are receptacles I press into service, going all the way from an eggshell holding one precious seed to a well worn flat of a hundred or more. Never, if I can help it, do I use flowerpots, for this means pricking out the seedlings. To avoid this I hunt for containers which can be left outside all Winter if necessary, and buried in the earth in Spring, the container disintegrating in time. Of course these containers would not work for a
peace lilly This saves the seedlings the shock of transplanting. Seedlings grown on without interruption require less attention as to shade and water during the hot weather, and if transplanting is necessary it can be delayed until a more convenient time.
Another advantage to burying the container for an indefinite period is that laggard seeds of primulas and anemones and other perennials that germinate unevenly are not disturbed or lost as they might be when half-grown seedlings are removed from the seedbox or pan.
But first find your container.
Quart berry boxes are a convenient size for a small quantity of seeds, but unless lined with spagnum moss or stout paper the open corners will spill out the earth. The eight inch plant boxes with rounded corners which nurserymen use for displaying annual bedding plants are much better. When the seedlings are sufficiently far advanced to put outside, the corners of the box should be cut down to give the roots more freedom. The bottom of the box will soon rot away.
Best of all containers are the leaky, partly-rusted, granite saucepans which can be picked up in assorted sizes at any roadside dump. They are particularly useful for slow germinating seeds, especially those that are benefited by exposure to cold. Such seeds can be planted as soon as they arrive, generally in midwinter. (The sower of seeds is never without an available supply of earth.) The pan of seeds can be dropped in a snowbank and forgotten until the snow melts, then brought indoors until growth is well advanced, then taken outside and buried. This method can be recommended when raising bulbs or tubers which resent disturbance when in active growth, Ere:auras for instance. When the plants are dormant and the foliage has disappeared, a buried dish is easily located and the roots found without difficulty.
And for that tiny packet of extra special seed, half an empty grapefruit makes a container deluxe.
