17. April 2025
In the mean time, I start the 2nd batch of seedlings at home. Here I am using the compostable seedlings pot I buy in garden stores. I made 7 x 28 pot tray. Each pot has 3-5 seeds in it. After sowing and giving enough moisture, I place the whole tray in a plastic bag and keep it by the window, the sunnyest sot in the house. I also started few beans seedlings with the idea that they can be a complementary plants to Persicaria Tinctoria in the field.
24. April
Beans/ Stangenbohnen are already sprouting! It was even pushing up the plastic bag that is covering the tray. I also see some indigo seedlings on the back. It looks like this plastic bag in the sun method works well.
26. April
The second batch is also germinating now. I made a mistake and planted beans on the pot that I already had persicaria seeds in it. now they are growing together. It is surprising how big the beans babies are! Maybe it is a coincidence, but it looks like the indigo in the bean pot is growing faster than the other one. Perhaps it likes to be with the beans?! that will be the proof of concept for complementary plants… let”s see.
The plastic bag method seems to work well. When I open the bag, I feel the warm air inside, and it is always moist (I never watered them since the beginning). I plan to keep the bag until they all germinate, then I will take it out so the plants can grow taller.
May 3.
The seedlings at home are not doing well. The germination rate is very low. I now added another seeds to the pots that did not germinate. Some of the seedlings that sprouted already have been placed outside in the balcony with a white non-woven fabric sheet cover. This cover is to protect birds from digging into the pots.
May 11.
The seedlings on outside is getting red stems. and it looks slightly healthier to me. It has been not very warm in Berlin (~15 degrees during the day 2-3 degrees at night) and very windy. Maybe cold wind makes them red?! Some of the new seeds are sprouting now.
By the way, the beans (stangebohnen) are doing very well in the balcony. Although Rene told me that Stangebohnen does not really work as nitrogen fixing plant (Erbsen/pea will work better for this purpose). And even with Erbsen, you need to plant on the soil before you plant the main plant, and you need to cut the Erbsen and do not let it grow/give fruit. So they do not grow together as companion plant, but it is more like greenmenur. This was my big misunderstanding. Now I have a lot of beans seedlings and I am not sure what to do with them. I accidentally had indigo seeds in the same pot and it seems like they like growing together though?!
May 13.
Finally more indigo babies are coming out. These are the seeds I sow on the May 3rd. Earlier, the germination rate felt like 20%, not almost all the pots has sprouts. I must admit I gave more than 5 seeds in one pot this time though. Some of them really has 3 babies coming out at the same time. It is true that they like to grew up together.
May 20.
Finally the persicaria seeds from last year is germinating. I sow quite a lot in the pot which did not germinate from the first sowing. After 2 almost 2 weeks, I see almost all of the pots having at least one seedlings sprouting. It is probably true that Persicaria Tinctoria likes to be sown in groups. I placed the first batch seedlings in outside in the balcony under the frost protection fabric. They did not get much bigger but it got red on the stem. It was quite cold in Berlin for the last weeks. Maybe it gets red when it is cold?! I guess they have to wait for a little more while before getting transferred to the field.