Growing tomatoes and strawberries from seed - Gardening with Brendan - video Dailymotion

Derry Journal

It's February 2025 and there is no better month for starting tomatoes from seed in Ireland. Now is also a good time to cold stratify strawberry seeds in the fridge too to mimic winter and get them sprouting in spring.  #gardening  #gardeningwithbrendan  #tomato  #strawberry  #sowing  #spring2025

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00:00Hello, welcome back. It's now 2025. It's been about 3 months since we last did a video diary.

00:21So I've already started and I've planted loads of things over the last 8 weeks or so. A lot

00:27of seedlings running about the houses. Turned into a little shop of horrors here at the

00:31moment but I'll show you all that when I get a bit more organised next week. This week,

00:37for today's video, I'm just going to be sowing some tomato seeds and some strawberry seeds

00:43as well. I'm going to cold stratify them so I'll show you how I do that. So types of tomatoes,

00:49I have 2 packets here of the Money Maker from 2 different suppliers. I'm going to test which

00:58works best. We have a Dairy. These were 99p I think from the shop. And these are Organic

01:08Centre ones from Coyote Cabin. I was down there over the summer. So I'm going to put

01:16these in here and check out which germinates best and hopefully we'll get some germination

01:24on both. I also have some other ones, some yellow cherry tomatoes and some red cherry

01:30tomatoes. So we'll be planting them today as well. Some other things I want to get sorted

01:36over the next week or so are lettuce, brussel sprouts, spring onions, swiss chard and these

01:46are the strawberries that we're going to be cold stratifying today as well. They're in a

01:50seeded bag here and these are fresca strawberries. So we might as well get on with sowing the

02:00tomatoes. What I've done here, this is a big tray that I've filled with water. I got this

02:05tray off Amazon. It's 100% recycled plastic which is good but it just holds a lot of trays at the

02:11one time and when you have a lot of seedlings it's very handy and it's good and deep. Even

02:16for carrying small plants if you have them in individual pots this would be very handy. So

02:21we'll just get on. We'll open up some of these now and see what they're like inside. Last year

02:28I just dumped whole packets of seeds in. This year I'm not going to do that. I'm going to save some.

02:39This will be the Mirabella Blanche. This is a small yellow tomato.

03:01The seeds are quite unusual looking. They're very pale. There's not many seeds in this packet.

03:23We're heading towards the end of February actually. I had hoped to get these planted in

03:35mid-February but just one thing or another I didn't and the weather was that cold as well.

03:40I didn't want to give them too bad a start but you can see the days are starting to lengthen now

03:47and February is ideal for planting tomatoes in Ireland because they need a long growing season.

03:55There's been a lot of people I've been chatting to who, or I've seen online as well,

04:01like some people chatting about how they started tomatoes and they never ripened by the time the

04:07winter came this year and that's because they plant them too late. All the packets say March,

04:16April but you really need to get them started in February up on our climate.

04:21So all I'm doing is I've pre-soaked this compost in this small 2 to 3 inch trays

04:29and then I'm just putting one seed in each of these and I'm putting it at about maybe a quarter

04:43of an inch down from the top. What I should do is just belay them out first so I can see them.

04:48There's not very many seeds in this packet.

05:00That's grand, we've just about enough. So there, 12. So that's good. I'll just push them down

05:19now into the soil and cover them. Tomatoes don't need like to germinate, a lot of seeds do but

05:25they don't and I'm going to be putting these in the iron cupboard, the hot press, because they

05:35do need a good bit of heat to germinate. I have heat mats there but I don't think they're going

05:39to be warm enough for them to germinate but as soon as they germinate then I'll take them out

05:44and put them on a windowsill so it gets a bit of surface and sun. And that's it all done. Very

05:56simple process, just good quality compost and I'm using McCann's compost. I had great success with

06:06it last year. The best advice I could give you for getting good compost is go to your local

06:11garden centre. They are the experts in gardening and they always have the best compost. There's

06:17near where I am, there's some in Derry, there's some in the Strabane area and it's always superior,

06:26it's always the best because it's usually what they use themselves. So just firm them down,

06:37make sure there's good contact with the soil and then we'll move on to the next couple of varieties.

06:43So on the one side I'm just writing the name or the type of tomato and on the other I'm just

07:03writing tomato and the date it was sown which is the 19th or 20th of the 2nd, 25th, I can't

07:16believe it's 2025. Time just flies the older you get so already I've forgotten which is which.

07:26This happens all the time. I'm not really sure. This was the Maribel and I'll have to watch the

07:40video back actually and make sure. That's one good thing about doing this. So tomato and this

07:54was the Cherry Cerise and the other one was Sweet Million. I think I'm cursed with tomatoes because

08:13every year I mess up which is which and end up potting them all in the same pot. So I think I

08:21may have just done it again but at least we'll know what this one is. Now this isn't seed starting

08:33compost. You can buy that but it has no nutrients so once the seeds germinate it's kind of useless

08:37so I just I don't use it. I just use normal compost for everything and then just get these

08:47ones open now. I should have brought a towel over for my dirty hands. I just shred the seeds up because

09:10I knew these things just we dried tomato seeds that you would see in a fruit. So what I have

09:27here is using a spray bottle again and what we're going to do with these is cold stratify them. I

09:35just need to get scissors. These are from Nicky's Nursery in England. Out of them looks like an

09:50independent grower and it's strawberry fresca which are partly perennial. It says to show them

10:01at 15 to 20 degrees and just cover with a thin layer of vermiculite which I don't have. But

10:12before that process what's really handy for a lot of perennials is cold stratification. It just

10:20means that the seeds think they've gone through winter and the best place to do it is in the

10:25fridge but the seeds have to be moist for it to work. So the only other thing you need for it

10:32apart from the spray bottle is some kind of reusable bag or tub with a seal on it. So it

10:40could be a plastic tupperware tub like you would put sandwiches on or something and a bit of kitchen

10:46roll. A sturdy kitchen roll works best because sometimes what you find is and I found it there

10:52I was trying to find some flower seeds is that with the thinner stuff the seeds get trapped in

10:58between them and then they sometimes kind of sprout and it's very difficult to get them out

11:07from between the two thin layers and so this is good thick sturdy stuff. I'm just going to get

11:17the seeds open first and again it's really interesting seeing how many independent suppliers

11:36there are for seeds out there. It's worth trying them all anyway. These are absolutely tiny. I'm

11:45just going to put the seeds to one side there. I don't think there's many of them either and then

11:52the next step is basically just soaking this. You don't want it dripping wet but you want it to be

12:01good and damp. So just do it on both sides because you want the seeds to make contact with the

12:14moisture like they would if they were lying on the ground outside over winter and then the

12:23temperature of the fridge which is around five degrees or less is ideal because it just mimics

12:30winter. It's the best thing you can do. If I threw them out in the ground maybe one of them might

12:37come up or none of them because the chance you take but by doing this you have the best chance

12:43of success for germination. I will leave them in the fridge inside this bag for about two weeks.

12:54Some take longer than others. I've got some Delphiniums in there at the moment. They're the

12:58same. Plants will come back year on year like this process. Most annuals will not need this at all.

13:05You just plant them and away you go. Perennial plants come back every year like this year. I

13:14have some strawberries that I bought in a garden centre a few years back that have been putting

13:22out shoots and I've been just putting pots onto them and they overwinter fine in the garden.

13:29You don't need deep pots for strawberries either. These seeds are so small I don't know if you can

13:34see them with my hand there. They will probably be difficult to see when I'm

13:49going to find them. I'm just putting whatever is on here on there.

13:57I can't remember how many seeds was on that. Maybe 30 or something like that.

14:00But if I get one or two the maturity I'll be happy with that.

14:11Last year I grew Alpine strawberries outdoors just from around this time actually. I just

14:17plopped the seeds in and quite a few of them came up and they actually started fruiting there

14:25in early winter. So that's basically that done now.

14:32All you need to do with that is just put it inside the bag, seal it.

14:38What I'm going to do is just give it one last spray on either side.

14:47Just seal it and then leave it in there for a couple of weeks, pick it out

14:51and then check. You might see some of the seeds have germinated in the fridge. If not,

15:03you just plop them on the compost as we did here.

15:10With seeds that small I probably wouldn't even bother covering them with compost. I

15:14would just leave them on the surface and press them down and then

15:21just keep them, it says 15 degrees which is room temperature, so 15 to 20. So just keep them

15:27anywhere in your house like near a window and they should come along fine. Then because they're

15:34hardy as well you can grow them on outside so they'll not be taking up any room once they have

15:40actually germinated. So that's all that done and that's how you cold stratify. It's the same

15:47process for everything that needs cold stratification. It's mostly flowers and some

15:55fruits and a few vegetables but mostly perennial flowers.

Growing tomatoes and strawberries from seed - Gardening with Brendan

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