The 2011 ASHS Annual Conference

A renewed interest in vegetable gardening, for both health and economic reasons, has created a new audience for Extension Agents.  Many of these people have never grown any plants or only have experience with house plants.  These novice gardeners are not familiar with direct seeding techniques that are second nature to their more seasoned counterparts.  Unfortunately, available information mistakenly assumes a basic familiarity with growing plants from seed.  Even videos about planting a vegetable garden address this issue by showing how to read a seed packet or by very quickly having someone plant a single seed.  The Miami-Dade County Extension’s YouTube Videos on direct seeding focus on very specific topics such as the difference between large and small seeds, determining the correct depth of planting, and making a very inexpensive seed tape for very small seeds.  These videos can be found at http://miami-dade.ifas.ufl.edu.