Sowing Seeds using a Speedy Seeder - Part 1

SOWING SEEDS USING A SPEEDY SEEDER - Part 1

We had a snowy morning here in Upstate NY yesterday.  It wasn't too much snow that I would have to plow but just enough to make the roads slick and give the ground a covering of snow.

So what to do on a snowy day like this?  Well I have a greenhouse and a heat table at my disposal, plus I just received some new perennial seeds!  Let's take a look.

These are the 3 new seed packets that came in from +Harris Seeds.  I ordered these seeds after I placed my original order.  I just felt like I had cut back too much on perennials and wanted to sow more.  Plus I already had plant tags for these varieties from a previous season when I attempted to overwinter them (and failed due to mice making a home in one of the other greenhouses).

So what do we have here?  I took the photo above last spring.  It is from Aquilegia Origami Mix seeds and one of the few that survived my overwintering experiment.  Next is Aquilegia Winky Mix.  Aquilegia is the scientific name for Columbine.  They are perennials in Zones 3 thru 9 and will grow 1 to 4 feet tall.  They have beautiful, delicate looking flowers that come in almost every color.  I ordered 100 seeds of each variety and at this point I'm planning on retailing them in our small 3.5" perennial pot.   I also ordered 100 seeds of Primula Danova Growers Select Mix.  A Primula is basically a primrose.  Once these seeds germinate they require specific growing conditions depending on when I want to retail them.  More on that later.

So now it's time to dust off my vacuum seeder machine.  This was a hand-me-down from my father.  I'm pretty sure it's called a Speedy Seeder and it helps me to quickly and fairly easily sow up to 406 seeds at a time which is great.  Let's take a closer look.

 

The blue tray above is where I will pour my seeds.  The photo does no justice but there are actually 406 tiny pinholes in the tray.  There are 14 holes length wise by 29 holes wide.  When I turn the Speedy Seeder on, the fan inside will suck air through each hole, creating a vacuum that will hold the seeds in place (and other debris that can be annoying).

There are 3 different blue seed trays that you have the option of using.  Each one has different size pinholes, depending on the size of the seeds you want to sow.  I almost always use the one with the smallest pinholes but occasionally I'll switch to the next size up.  This is what it looks like when you remove the seeding tray.

 

This is a closeup of the fan that is under the seed tray.  I'm thinking that in the near future I might want to take this apart and clean it out.  The Speedy Seeder has been noisier than usual so far this winter.  But let's sow some seeds first.

This is getting a little long so I think I should divide this post in 2 parts.  To be continued...