The Ridiculously Easy Way To Grow Your Veg Seeds

The easiest and most reliable way to grow seedlings for transplanting - veg, herbs, fruit, garden plants. Use anywhere on the planet.

We all need food. To keep us healthy we need some fresh foods every day. OK, you’re thinking, we know that! So what’s the problem?

Well, for many of us, it can be quite difficult to make sure that we have fresh foods to eat each day. There’s the job, the family, the dog, the cat, to look after, so how does one have fresh foods unless one shops every day as well?

You grow your own! In the garden, the allotment, or in containers on a balcony or patio - it’s so yummy, your family and friends will eat all you can grow!

‘Yes, yes, we know all that! — ‘So clever guys, what happens if the seeds don’t germinate?’ —  ‘Perhaps I didn’t sow them properly. Perhaps theywere dead.’  —  ‘So what would you do about it?’ —  ‘Sow some more.’-    ‘And if those don’t germinate?’ —  ‘Don’t know.’  —  ‘How about doing some experiments to try and find out why the seeds didn’t germinate? You might not have any vegetables otherwise.’   —  ‘Yes, can do that. So what experiments shall I do?’

I’m Valerie Muir and I’ve always ‘grown things.’ My Dad showed me how. When I married and we had a small garden of our own, I grew different things each year, but always some veg as well, because the home grown food tasted so much better than any from a shop. Later we moved to a 3 acre smallholding where we now grow veg and plants commercially. For nearly 10 years now, we’ve been certified organic and during this time I’ve had the privilege of teaching many people how to grow food sustainably, without pesticides, and learnt the difficulties many people have in trying to grow food from seed. The very best thing about growing your own foods or plants from seed, is that you can grow exactly what you want. But if you don’t have someone who can show you what to do, it can be very difficult to get going, and frequently people give up trying.

A few years ago in trying to grow larger quantities of vegetables for sale, we had great difficulty in reliably producing adequate quantities of vegetables, from even quite large quantities of seeds. We were using the traditional method of germinating seeds in compost. Many seeds did not germinate; of those that did, many grew poorly, pests such as sciarid flies were damaging them. Eventually I concluded that this was a silly way to germinate seeds, even if it was the ‘traditional way’ and there must be a better way, because many young children are shown in school how seeds grow, by germinating beans on wet paper without any difficulty! This fact also suggested that seeds might not need compost to germinate and grow into healthy seedlings. Many of you will be familiar with the various domestic ‘seed sprouters’ available from Amazon and elsewhere in which the sprouts grow just by washing with water frequently.

I did many experiments comparing germination of seeds in different sorts of compost and they showed quite clearly that some seeds grew better in one sort and other seeds grew better in another. However this was not helpful, because how would you know which compost to use for any particular vegetable seed?

Here you can see the effect of different composts quite dramatically.  I then tried out many of the domestic seed sprouters. With some it was impossible to germinate any seeds, with others it was impossible not to damage the seedlings when I tried to remove them for transplanting. Eventually I decided to design and have manufactured, a germinator that I believed, would allow most vegetable seeds to germinate and grow more reliably.

The first prototype which is the one you see here and used for the video, has been successful well beyond my wildest dreams! What’s more, many seedlings grow faster than in compost!

Any seeds that will fit into the germinator, that is, are are not too large, will germinate. From beans, to the microscopic seeds of some flowering plants, all will germinate.

Native wildflower Lythrum salicaria.

The seeds are microscopic. 

100% of viable seeds germinate and in the germinator, seedlings remain healthy and grow until they are large enough to transplant to modules, pots, wherever. And these seedlings can be used for organic or non-organic growing.

Put 100 viable seeds into a seed tray and you will have 100 healthy seedlings to transplant to your growing area. Sounds too good to be true? No! It’s so easy, it has completely transformed life for me! I want it to do the same for you! Wherever on the planet you live!

THE GERMINATOR has 3 components - the lid, the base, the seed trays.  2 seed trays are shown in the photo, but up to 4 seed trays can be stacked onto 1 base, with a lid on top as shown in the video.

How to use the germinator Half fill the base with (drinking) tap water. Place one seed species in each tray - as many seeds of each as needed. Remember you can have 4 trays on a base, so can germinate 4 seed species at one go. Then wash each tray by holding under the tap and making sure the seeds become thoroughly wet. Let excess water drain off.  Up to 4 trays may be stacked on the base. Place the lid on the top tray. Then place the whole stack on a windowsill or other light, warm place, and the seeds will start to germinate! Wash each tray at least twice, or more, daily, by holding under the running tap, until the seedlings are ready for transplanting.

And that’s all you have to do to have thousands of healthy seedlings of anything! It will be sold with the 2 trays and you will be able to buy extra trays, lid and base, as you wish. A detailed ‘How to use’ booklet will be included and a ‘How to use’ video will be on my website. You can use it wherever you live on the planet, yes, even at the N and S poles if you have growlights!

The £18,000 requested will be used to pay for the tooling of the 3 components. That will enable ‘mass production’ of this germinator. I want to make it available to everyone as it will make it so much easier to grow your own food — the very best way to remain healthy!

It’s a ridiculously easy way to grow your seeds!

About Project Creator:

Valerie Muir

A lifelong grower and retired medical academic. Certified organic smallholding for nearly 10 years. Passionate about all organic growing and food in particular. Love teaching organic growing, and experimenting to find new ways to make healthy food more easily and cheaply accessible to everyone.

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Link to the Project: 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1825916544/the-ridiculously-easy-way-to-grow-your-veg-seeds