 Hi there and welcome to the channel. So fertilizing your seedlings is crucial to ensure you produce a strong healthy plant that is going to thrive when you put it into your outdoor garden. So in this video we're going to talk about when, how and what to do to fertilize your garden seedlings. So let's dive right into it. You'll notice when your seeds first germinate they produce two tiny leaves and those are called the cotylidean leaves. And those live off the nutrition within that seed and once you start seeing that second set of leaves, those are known as the true leaves. As you can see this tomato plant has got a lot of those true leaves going now. So when you start seeing these true leaves you know that they can no longer live off the nutrition that's provided in that seed and it is time to start fertilizing and feeding them. So whether I'm going to be fertilizing my seedlings at this stage or even once they get out into the garden and also even for my house plants, I like to use a fishy mulsion or a concentrated seaweed blend. This brand here is Rubicon and I picked it up locally at one of my greenhouses. There are a lot of different brands of seaweeding mulsion, I think Alaska or Neptune are good brands. So I'll leave a few links in the description box below that you can check them out. And as you can see I'm getting low but I have been using this. This is probably my fourth season. A little goes a long way so you don't need a whole lot in your watering can and especially when you're doing the seedlings. I like to dilute it even more than what they recommend. So it does say half a teaspoon per liter of water and this can here holds a liter and a half. So we're just going to do the half teaspoon and that way it's going to be a little more diluted. I've never worked with the fishy mulsion before. One word of warning is it is super, super stinky. So it ends up on your fingers and it really stinks but once you're done fertilizing you can easily wash away that smell. So some of the benefits of using the liquid seaweed is it's really great for seedlings obviously to give them a strong start. It'll speed up the root growth of your seedlings. It helps reduce plant shock when you go to transplant them outside. And once I get these outside I continue to use the fishy mulsion fertilizer usually every couple weeks during the growth period. And you know it helps produce a very strong outdoor garden plant and hopefully gives you a good harvest. So I like to do the one cup method here. As you can see these are all my tomatoes. I did a video earlier where I just planted them in soil halfway up the cup. And so once this gets growing above the lip of the cup I am going to pinch off any leaves that are below this line of the cup here and fill it up with more potting soil and that is going to produce a really strong tomato plant. All these little tiny hairs that you can see on the stem of the tomato. Try to get a good picture there for you. We'll turn into roots and then by the time this is ready to go out into my garden this whole cup is going to be a really strong root ball. And I should have a really nice strong tomato plant. You want to make sure you have good drainage so that you don't over water and there is lots of air coming through and these roots can wick up all these nutrients that we're going to feed them today. So it's very easy to water this way with the one cup method. I simply just fill up the tray. Make sure you're sitting on a fairly even surface so that the water distributes through your tray properly. And I keep adding until I've probably got about an inch of water in the bottom. That way each of these cups is going to soak up that nutrient water. So just keep on eye on it and make sure that just in case you've over watered, you know, if there's any excess sitting in the bottom of the tray after, you know, 30 minutes or so, maybe just pour off that excess water. But I've got quite a few tomatoes in here. I think they are pretty thirsty. They were a little dry and I'm pretty sure they are going to soak up all of this water in the next half hour or so. So I'm just using regular tap water. It's treated municipal water that I usually just fill up a large jug of it and let that water just sit for a few days, just so all the treatment that's been added to it kind of dissipates and settles. I find tap water works just fine for this. So this tray is all my peppers. I got some grasses going here as well that are coming along nicely. And as you can see, all these peppers are starting to spit out a second set of leaves. So that is their true leaves. And here I also have some eucalyptus that I'm trying to grow. So as you notice, I don't have any issues with damping off on the surface, which is great. That's one of the reasons that I really try to promote bottom watering your seedlings, instead of watering on the top, because that way it kind of reduces that risk. The soil is going to wick up this water and those roots are going to hit that food and they're really going to take off and thrive. And the last tray that I'm going to be feeding here is my onions that I've started from seed. Some walla wallas and some red and a few more tomatoes. When I was thinning out my other ones, I just for some reason can't seem to kill them all. And I re-pot it up a few more. I have way more tomatoes and peppers than I will plant in my garden, but I probably will share it with family and friends. So again, I got a nice tray here that this one's like a three inch level. So it's quite deep. So I'll put another inch or so in here and just let it soak up and do its magic. So I'm out here now in my garage where I have my flower seedlings going. I've done a few videos on these right from the start when I planted them up. I've got petunias and pansies and a whole bunch of coalesces going here. So I'm going to also feed these out here today. You can see I have a turkey roasting pan here that works good as a tray to keep your plants in. And you can just bottom water right into the roasting tray like this. Make sure that it is kind of spread around. Sometimes you have to adjust the levels. The bottoms of these roasting trays don't stay quite as flat as an actual tray that you can purchase for this purpose. But it does work. So I just make sure there's about an inch or so in the bottom. And all these will start wicking that up. Over here, lots of seedlings that need to be up potted again. So I'm going to give them a good feeding today. So over the next week or so I will start up potting some more of these petunias and coalesces and pansies. Either into bigger three inch pots or I might start setting up my containers that I'm going to be putting them in outside. And I also have a beautiful geranium here that has been living all winter in my garage. I have a heated garage so I've just kept it here. This is actually a geranium that my mother had started several years ago. She actually passed away in 2018. So this plant I rescued from her basement that was wintering and brought it upstairs. Got it sprouted again and I've been bringing it back to life every summer. As you can see, it's blooming and it's April. So it's a happy little plant. It's got some more buds coming here as well. So this has been a very special plant to me and I'm always happy to see that it has made it through another season. So sometimes the surface of these looks a little dry, but that's okay. You can kind of check your moisture level just by sticking your finger in there and if it feels moist, that's good. The more moisture down here for the roots is better if it's a little dry on the top. So here in Saskatchewan, Canada where I live, we are just in mid-April right now and I'm filming this. I still have a good month before I could probably put out these onions. Our last frost date is usually mid-May to third week of May. Stuff like the tomatoes and peppers. I usually wait until the end of May just to make sure we don't get any of those frosts that sometimes hit us without much notice late in the spring. So depending on what growing zone you live in, you may be further along than me and have your plants almost ready to go outdoors. You're starting to harden them off, maybe even have them in the ground if you're in a really warm zone. But the fertilizing process should continue all throughout the summer whether you use the fish fertilizer or have some other remedies. I like to make my homemade comfrey fertilizer during the summer as well. So that's probably how I'll be feeding mine a lot during the summer too. So I will be keeping you posted weekly on my channel on how my seedlings are going, getting ready for the outdoor garden season. I would love it if you hit that like button and leave me a comment. And if you haven't already done so, please subscribe so you don't miss out on future videos coming to the channel.