Starting heirloom Nicotiana tabacum seeds indoors.I,

A simple topic, yet since it's a step on my way to establishing seedlings and a community garden here in South Los Angeles (which, by the way, I was cleared for staying here by the Los Angeles City Housing Authority for another year), where I plan to establish a small community farming initiative at what seems to be an abandoned gardening lot.
The preparation and planting itself takes about half an hour. I started the small pots off with some earthworm castings from Armstrong Gardening Center. It's a high-end potting soil made completely from earthworm castings, kelp, and rock dust. 


In addition, I added some previously-prepared ionic-trace-mineralized peat moss, which had been sitting out for about a week, and had, by now, started to become a much more humus-type rich soil in composition.

Note the comparison between the bottom earthworm casting mixture and the top layer of peat moss that I added to the small pot. I had estimated, since peat moss is reputedly acidic in composition, that the alkaline ionic trace minerals would balance the pH of the soil mixture and start the seedlings off with a most rich growing medium. I started off with 5 pots; that was all I could find in my apartment, for the moment. 


It's been a long time since I'd planted anything, but I've planted Nicotiana seeds many times, long ago, back in my high school days. The seeds themselves are tiny, somewhat like a grain of fine sand. That being said, it's easy to lose the seeds in the soil or by pushing them in to the soil with wet fingers, or damp soil. The best way to get them planted is to simply drop the seeds in to the dirt mixture at the top, whereas the dirt mixture is pre-moistened. The point is to not have the seeds stick on to damp fingertips. 

Here, I put some plastic bags over the tops of the small pots so that the dirt doesn't dry out before the seedlings can sprout. They've just now gone in to the soil; I estimate that it'll take about 1-2 weeks before I see them sprouted. 


It's somewhat an amazing feat to imagine - from these tiny seeds comes the large, leafy Nicotiana tabacum plant, in all it's glory. 

Update: Friday, March 17th, 2023 - a potential develops, for a community garden project to be revived.

Somebody suggested that I could plant a shade tobacco garden at a bus stop, out in Calabasas. That was inspiration enough, hopefully, to get started on it, and see it through; perhaps this season.



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