Indoor 'gardening' Q: how2spread soil in flats, well, flat? how to spread damp seed well?
 

I hope group doesn't mind a question about indoor gardening in flats
....

I know this might sound silly but in last year I've been growing
sprouts in flats with soil (wheatgrass, pea shoots, sunflower seed
sprouts), I've not found a solution to 2 final things that works
easily:

1. how to reduce "bumpiness" in soil I put in flats. No matter how
level and flat I believe soil to finally be, when I spread the seeds,
I really see the actual hills and valleys I really have.

2. Though I now don't dampen the soil and find everything grows
better, I do have to soak and then sprout the seeds for a couple fo
days. But haven't found easier way to spread the seeds than using a
cylindrical plastic bottle to spread the seed. Was just curious if
there was a more foolproof way.

Anyway, my last 2 lingering problems with growing sprouts in flats.
Hoping someone here knows a tip or trick to help.

Cheers. :)

Indoor 'gardening' Q: how2spread soil in flats, well, flat? how to spread damp seed well?
 

On Wed, 19 Oct 2011 20:24:43 -0400, S.Rodgers
wrote:

I hope group doesn't mind a question about indoor gardening in flats
...

I know this might sound silly but in last year I've been growing
sprouts in flats with soil (wheatgrass, pea shoots, sunflower seed
sprouts), I've not found a solution to 2 final things that works
easily:

1. how to reduce "bumpiness" in soil I put in flats. No matter how
level and flat I believe soil to finally be, when I spread the seeds,
I really see the actual hills and valleys I really have.

2. Though I now don't dampen the soil and find everything grows
better, I do have to soak and then sprout the seeds for a couple fo
days. But haven't found easier way to spread the seeds than using a
cylindrical plastic bottle to spread the seed. Was just curious if
there was a more foolproof way.

Anyway, my last 2 lingering problems with growing sprouts in flats.
Hoping someone here knows a tip or trick to help.

Cheers. :)

Just in case anyone has the same troubles, I wanted to post the
solutions I'd come up with. I stopped wetting the soil in the flats
and now spread dry soil and the wet seeds on top. This got rid of
both problems. And I do the first watering of the flat 24 hours
later. All-in-all, the results are far, far better than trying to
spread wet soil evenly and then spreading wet seed on the wet soil
evenly. Not a problem with damp seed on dry soil. And the plants in
the flats grow as well as they did before, in fact often better as the
thread of mold is reduced.

Cheers.