Growing Geranium from seeds in pots

A Geranium seedling is a perfect option for a gardener looking for hope in the winter. Their leaves are round with a maroon band.

 They are beautiful to look and smell. Many gardeners know about starting geraniums from cuttings. It's a great way to share these beautiful plants. 

But if you start plants from seed, you get to choose from a range of colours bright red, scarlet, bicolour, orange salmon, coral, pink, white and lavender. Let’s get started!

Youll need to find good quality seeds. There is a great selection of seeds online or your nearest local nursery. The key is to start early. Some varieties need 12-16 weeks to get to flowering plants, while others flower early. 

Now for the pots, you can start seeds in any container with good drainage. If you start the seeds in a smaller container, the healthy ones will need to be transplanted later on. You can also get one of those multi-cell trays which are designed for seed starting.

For soil, you can use a sterile potting soil. You can use a good soil mixture of Garden soil, compost and cocopeat!

Another very important ingredient is LIGHT! Your seedlings need light, a lot of it. Remember to give them enough sunlight to grow and to burn it. Seedlings are fragile like a baby.

Its time to get planting!

Get a pot which is 2 or 3 inches in size and start by filling it up with moistened potting soil.

Eventually, you will have to "pot up" your seedlings.

In other words, you will have to transplant them into a larger pot once they have three sets of leaves and the roots have filled the starter pot.

Put one seed in each pot and cover with a thin layer of moistened soil, enough to cover the seed. Cover the pots with a piece of plastic wrap.

Place the whole setup in a place that's warm, with bright, indirect light. Geranium seeds germinate best at 24°C. If the soil surface gets dry, use a mister to moisten it with water.

Germination can take around 3-5 days or 4 weeks. Once you see a green shoot, moisten the soil if it gets dry.

Move the tiny plants to a place that gets bright light, with temperatures not above 21°C during the day and not lower than 16°C at night.

When the plants have three sets of leaves, transplant them to a 3-4inches pot. This gives extra space for the roots to spread and for the air and oxygen to circulate.

Use fresh, sterile, potting soil which drains freely. Fertilize these babies using Greenstix and Bloomstix!

When they are around 6 inches or so it's time to harden off the seedlings. Hardening off is planting the seedling from the pot indoors to the soil out in your garden. Seedlings grown indoors are pampered. 

You've been giving them the right amount of light, moisture and food. Outdoor conditions are more challenging, with fluctuating temperatures and light levels, more variable soil moisture and wind.

About a week before you plan to set the seedlings into the garden, start hardening them off. Place them in a protected spot outdoors which is partly shaded, for a few hours, bringing them in at night.

Gradually after a week or 10 days, expose them to more and more sunshine and wind.

Now we just wait till our geraniums reach bloom! 

The whole process is going to be extremely satisfying to observe and the blooms are just going to be the cherry on top!

Until next time,

Have a lovely day and Happy Planting!!

Gayatri Vaidya©