Product Description

For the most complete, up-to-date information on starting plants from seed, turn to The New Seed Starter's Handbook. Written by a gardener with 30 years of experience, this easy-to-use reference explains everything you need to know to start seeds and raise healthy seedlings successfully. You'll find:

* The latest research in seed starting
* The best growing media
* The newest gardening materials
* Solutions to seed-starting problems
* Source lists for seeds and hard-to-find gardening supplies

And! An encyclopedia section lists more than 200 plants--including vegetables and fruits, garden flowers, wildflowers, herbs, trees, and shrubs--with details on how to start each from seed.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #746013 in Books
• Published on: 1988-02-15
• Format: Bargain Price
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 385 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In this revised and expanded version of The Seed-Starter's Handbook, gardening writer Bubel discusses starting seeds indoors, moving plants outdoors and saving seeds, then presents a lengthy "encyclopedia of plants to grow from seed" that describes the characteristics of dozens of flowers, vegetables and herbs. Bubel gives advice on the time-consuming process of growing plants from seeds in a writing style that is chatty and accessible. The reader will enjoy her enthusiasm and benefit from her thoroughness. But Bubel can be overly cute, as when she relates how she once "tried planting melon seeds in cast-off shoes." She also tends to repeat herself, and her presentation of technical information on the germination of seeds is difficult to follow. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"The reader will enjoy [Nancy's] enthusiasm and benefit from her thoroughness."--Publishers Week
-- Review

From the Back Cover
Why start plants from seed?

* Earlier harvests
* Greater variety
* Heathier seedlings
* Lower costs
* Satisfaction

For the most complete, up-to-date information on starting plants from seed, turn to The New Seed Starter's Handbook. Written by a gardener with 30 years of experience, this easy-to-use reference explains everything you need to know to start seeds and raise healthy seedlings successfully. You'll find:

* The latest research in seed starting
* The best growing media
* The newest gardening materials
* Solutions to seed-starting problems
* Source lists for seeds and hard-to-find gardening supplies

And! An encyclopedia section lists more than 200 plants--including vegetables and fruits, garden flowers, wildflowers, herbs, trees, and shrubs--with details on how to start each from seed.

Customer Reviews

The best book on seeds I've seen!
If you want to learn how to start your own plants from seed, this is the book to own! The author covers all the variables of seed culture. I had tried to grow plants from seed before and failed. With this book I have had success after success. There is also a good section on saving your own seeds. If you're a do-it-yourselfer who is less than thrilled with the variety of plant choices available at the local nursery, this is the book for you!

The New Seed-Starter's Handbook
What a wonderful book! A wealth of information covering not only seed-starting, but all you need to know to be successful: some basic botany (how seeds germinate, the parts of a plant, and how they grow)proper seed-starting mediums, lighting, fertilizing,transplanting, moving your seedlings outdoors, pests...you name it! I do a great deal of seed-starting each year and wondered how much new information I could glean from this book..it didn't disappoint one bit. Highly recommended!

Great All-Around Gardening Book
This book is an introduction and reference for people who want to grow plants from seeds. The book is organized into 5 main sections: starting seeds indoors, preparing outdoor beds to receive transplants or seeds, detailed instructions for growing individual vegetables from seed, saving seeds, and record keeping and exchanging seeds. Bubel integrates the results of scientific studies and her own growing experience in her advice to novice gardeners. In striving for completeness, she even includes a chapter with folk wisdom about planting, noting which moon phases are thought to be best for planting and which are not. The book is amply illustrated with black-and-white photographs and drawings. End material includes a glossary, a bibliography, a list of suggested readings, lists of seed and equipment suppliers, and an index.

Although the book is written for people with very limited gardening experience, it is so full of information that even experienced gardeners are bound to learn something through reading it. Bubel's approach to gardening very much follows organic practices. The section on individual vegetables is a very valuable reference, with its details on when to plant, when to fertilize and how much to use of what, and when and where to transplant in the garden. Interspersed with the text are charts summarizing information such as germination rates for different vegetable seeds at different soil temperatures, or viability of vegetable seeds over varying storage times. The sections on preparing the soil for planting or transplanting and on saving seeds at the end of the season round out the book quite well, making this an excellent general gardening book, and not just a book about starting seeds.