Superb Seedling Soak Recipe
, by Ellen Rignell, 5 min reading time
I’m a low input (/effort) gardener. If I don’t absolutely have to add something to my beds, I won’t. I’ve never used chemical fertilisers, I rarely make herbal feeds and it’s a push to get me to water my plants regularly. I want to grow plants from seeds that are so full of vitality, they spring forth and rely on their own ingenuity to get everything they need (within reason).
It takes a lot to convince me to pull my finger out, particularly when it comes to homemade plant feeds. They always seem like a lot of faff. But my fellow grower at the farm, Lucy, has shown me just how amazing feeds can be. Here, I’m going to share my favourite seedling soak recipe. If you want to skip straight to the recipe - scroll to the bottom - or stay here to read why I think it’s so great.
There are few crops that I find it difficult to get off to a good start - french beans, squashes and sweetcorn. I do everything I should, harden them off, plant them once the soil has warmed up but invariably, once they’re planted, they just sit there and do nothing for a couple of weeks. Or worse they get a bit battered by the wind and rain.
Using the seedling soak has really changed this. I haven’t done any yield comparisons as yet, but the plants themselves look so much more robust & established themselves in the soil much quicker. I’ll be doing more trials this year but I wanted to share the recipe so you can try and let me know how you get on!
The recipe I’m going to share with you is based on Korean Natural Farming (KNF). It’s been tweaked to use ingredients which are widely available to UK gardeners but at its heart, it's based on science and wisdom developed in East Asia. KNF is getting more and more popular here, particularly because of its focus on local soil microbiomes - it’s a big subject which I won’t go into here!
Back to the seedling soak. It contains 3 active ingredients and a lot of water.
Key Ingredients:
Molasses: Strictly speaking this ingredient isn’t for your plants per se, it coats the plant roots in sugars which attract soil microorganisms to the root surface. This gives the plant a head start in forming healthy relationships with the plethora of beneficial microorganisms living in your soil.
Seaweed Extract: This is a really common plant feed. It’s brimming with nutrients and naturally contains growth hormones (auxins and cytokinins). These hormones give the plant a great big kick up the bum, triggering it to grow more quickly.
Calcium Extract: One of the most important ingredients in the list, calcium extract makes plants tough from the inside out - it strengthens the cell walls. Here, I use an extract made from egg shells which is easy to make - instructions below. This homemade extract is water soluble, so it is easy for plants to absorb.
Water: The solution is strongly diluted with water. The ingredients above are powerful so they need to be diluted to give the seedlings enough of a kick start without over-feeding them.
The way I use this soak:
It’s common to use this as a seed soak - a solution to soak seeds in a few hours before sowing. This is a fabulous way to use it but I find I use it more regularly as a seedling soak. I start quite a few of my crops early, growing them in module trays in my greenhouse. I soak the whole tray in this solution before I plant them out into the field or polytunnel.
The Recipe for the seedling soak:
To make up this soak, you can mix the ingredients in a bottle, watering can or bucket of water. Mix thoroughly.
This recipe needs to be made fresh each time (although the calcium extract does keep for the season).
I use large quantities of - hence the 10L dilution! But home gardeners will get on better with making up 1L at a time. Read how to make the calcium extract below.
How to make the calcium extract
Collect lots of egg shells and toast them in the oven on the lowest temperature until they are lightly browned. This breaks down the membrane on the shells. Crush the shells and place in a glass jar. Pour cider vinegar over the eggs shells using 1:10 ratio (1 part shells to 10 parts cider vinegar). Be warned, it will fizz! Cover with a cloth and leave to bubble away in a cool dark place. It usually takes about a week, after which the solution stops bubbling and it’s ready to use. This extract will keep for the whole season so you can make it once and reuse it.
I'd love to hear how you get on with this recipe! I'll be sharing a similar foliar feed recipe later this year. Sign up to the newsletter to be the first to know!
