March 21. 2025
Start of the Indigo sowing in seedling pots at the Elisabeet. This seedling tray has 7×11 on one tray, and I made 4 trays in total. In theory 308 plants. Half of it is from professional seed seller, and it is Persicaria Tinctoria Kojouko kind. The other one is what we harvested last year from the Salzburg batch. Indigo seeds are super small, like sesame seeds. I placed 2-3 seeds (for professional kojoko, it is only 1-2 in pot). I made a small hole with my finger, about 3mm deep, then placed the seeds in the middle and gently covered with sand, then watered with sprayer. (so it is like a mist wetting the soil). Then it is placed inside the Tunnel/green house of the Elisabeet as it is still quite cold. Inside the Tunnel is warmer (maybe around 20 degrees?) even in end March, Berlin.
23. March
Looks good. someone watered them and it is nice and moist.
11. April
2 weeks since it is sown. some small seedlings came out but not all of them unfortunately. Let’s see how it goes.
18. April
Some more seedlings came out and they are slowly growing. The seedling tray is in high demand now and I needed to empty them. From the “Salzburg” batch, it looks like a lot of them did not germinate. I took out the ones that germinated and placed 2 of them in a bigger pot. now I have 30 pots which had 2 plants each. The Kojoko kind try is still there as they seemed to be germinating better and I rather wanted to wait for 1 more week before I transfer them to bigger pot.
25.April
In the mean time, the seedlings I started in March at Eli is growing. More seeds are germinating from the seedling tray and the one I moved to bigger pots are growing bigger. Maybe it is a good thing that they are moved to bigger tray. I plan to transfer them to the field in 2 weeks. I wonder if they will be big enough till then?!
2. May
Finally more seeds has germinated. I would say 80%. The seedling tray in the photo is the one I sow Kojoko seeds I bought from a professional seed seller. I transplanted 2 seedlings in one pot. The transferred seedlings from 2 weeks ago (bottom right picture) have grown even bigger. The transplant date is now set to 23rd. They have 3 more weeks to grow.
BTW, the decision to transplant on the 23rd of May is a practical reason. We work on every Friday. The next Friday, May 9th will be a little too early as I want robust seedlings when we transplant. Then I am away for a week for a job… so the next possibility is on the 23rd. It feels a little too late to transplant… but this is the only day that works. We will start with an online workshop with Melanie on the 23rd.
May 8.
The seedlings are getting bigger and taller. I am a bit unhappy that it is very thin. I hope this is no a problem. When I saw the seedlings of Melanie, it has much thicker stem and is not so tall. Maybe we have too less light here?!
On May 9, I was at the garden for the Pflanzenmarkt, and Rene mentioned that seedlings in the Tunnel/greenhouse gets no wind and tend to get weak stem. It is like a child who grow up always in air conditioned room and never went out to play. So, I decided to put one of the seedling tray out to see if they make difference. They need to go to wild field in 2 weeks anyway.
May 21
The Persicaria seedlings are growing good at the Elisabeet. They have been staying outside for more than 1 week and looks happy. I have also placed the other half of the seedlings that was in the tunnel out too so they get a bit acclimatized with the outside world.