Posted by Lieutenant Luke Wyatt (Chief of Security) in Deck 4 Garden- Sowing Seeds

Posted by Lieutenant Faye Calloway (Mission Specialist) in Deck 4 Garden- Sowing Seeds

Posted by Lieutenant Luke Wyatt (Chief of Security) in Deck 4 Garden- Sowing Seeds
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

Luke popped the watering appliance on the side and scooped up some dirt in his hands, her could feel the moisture and he squeezed the dirt . No water ran down his palm but when he opened his hand the dirt didn’t quiet hold its shape. He placed the dirt back Into the tub and added a little more water repeating the scooping and squeezing action until finally it was how she’d describe, no water dropping and the dirt holding its shape. He showed her the ball of dirt with a smile. “Whats next?” He asked eagerly.

• Luke Wyatt

Faye gave him a smile and nod of approval. “Okay, so-” she dragged over the planting trays-“now we are going to fill these with soil. These trays fit 12 plants and you won’t need all of them, so I’m going to let you include some of the chillies I need for my bed in your and we’ll separate them out later.” She gazed at him reassuringly. “So there’s are ways this can go wrong, but at the end of the day, they’re just seeds. If they don’t make it, we start again and we’ve lost time, yes, but learned a lot in the process, okay?”

It made him chuckle that she was entrusting him with planting some of her plants as well, with his heavy hands he’d sooner drive them to the bottom of the tray than where they needed to be it did however feel him with the confidence that she was willing to give him the benefit for the doubt. He listened intently to her instruction and explanation of how things might go wrong, she’d need ALOT of seeds and time he thought.

She set a ray in front of each of them and took the tub of soil, dumping it across the whole thing. “Don’t be afraid to push the soil firmly into the cells. We want to eliminate air pockets as much as possible.” When she was done filling it, she levelled off the top, sweeping the excess soil back into the tub.

He nodded and mimicked the motion, pushing the soil firmly and imagining the air pockets popping like bubble wrap after he was done he brushed the soil on his hands back into the tub keeping them away from his not so clean clothes.

“Now, let’s rinse off and dry our hands and I’ll show you some thing special,” Faye said, heading for the sink. There were paper towels beside it plus a bucket below for the used ones that would go into the compost as brown matter.

“Something special?” he asked a little curious, she’d shown him a lot most of which he considered to be fascinating but special caught his attention as he followed her to the sink. Sharing it he washed the soil of his hands watching it fall into the hole at the bottom before reaching into the bucket filled with paper towels, there was an adjacent one which is where he put it once he was done drying.

Back at the bench, Faye reached into her cargo pocket and pulled out the seeds. “Okay, hold out your hand, cupping it slightly.”

Luke looked at her sceptical at first but slowly brought his hands level and cupped them. When he realised she meant just one he put his left hand down and continued to hold out his right and with a slight cup as she asked. He wondered what exactly she was going to do.

Carefully opening the top of one of the seed packets, Faye carefully poured some of the seeds into her hand. She plucked one single seed and set it in Luke’s hand, smiling deeply. The seed was slightly oval in shape and flat around the edges with a bulge in the centre and was only a couple millimetres wide. “That there is a miracle of nature, Luke. Inside that seed contains all the information the plant needs to replicate its cells. From that tiny seed we’re going to grow a chilli plant that will have upwards of fifty chillies on it. Think about that for a moment. And all it requires from us is the basics of life- light and water- and a little care. Yes, we’re going to fertilize these for best production, but even if we didn’t, it would still do alright.”

~Faye Calloway

The seed was so small in his hand, and normal it wouldn’t have inspired such interest but her own clear excitement in the topic of what this little seed held rubbed of on him and he found himself grinning. “All from this tiny little thing?” He asked pointing at it and look to Faye, he face radiant as she smiled deeply at the tiny oval seed. “If only everything was a simple and as productive as this little thing. So we pop these in the trays?” he asked, “How many?” he wondered if they put loads and let the strongest seed lived or if it was not many at all and provided them the TLC they needed to thrive.

• Luke Wyatt

“So, it depends on a number of factors, including what the seeds are for, and beyond that personal preference really. Now I’m walking to talk you through all this but you’ll have all this in your plot files, so don’t worry about the details too much and just focus on the why of it all.”

“Sure, know the why.” He said with a reassuring nod and making a note to check the plot files at a later time, perhaps it would make for some decent presleep reading he thought as he continued to invest his time to Faye.

Faye pointed to the seed in his hand. “Germination is basically the chemical process of the seeds being triggered to send out roots and shoots. To begin the next life cycle. In the state this is currently is in, it is dormant. We awaken that process by giving each type of seed exactly what it needs. And different type of plants may need different things. Some like to be under the soil, and the water present will trigger it, while others need to be on top of the soil. All your are meant to dune in the soil, but we’re going to start some flowers for me that require the seeds to have light as well.”

And some like to be almost killed, consistently pissed off before breaking someone’s glass table he thought not willing to risk saying it out loud, they’d been getting along great, normal even and he didn’t want to ruin the moment. The moment is to people being normal, no fighting or kissing just normal, he liked normal. “So we give them just what they need and a bit of tender loving care and they will germinate.” He said having remained silent and noticed she was waiting for him to reconfirm he understood. “You still haven’t answered how many were planting though?”

She continued with a smile. “How many we plant depends on the seedlings and how much space we are putting them in. In our case, the cells in the tray are a bit bigger so we can plant three or four per cell. The more you put in close together, the more they will compete for resources. Right now they are tiny, so we can do more in one space and then do a process called ‘potting them on’ into their own container to continue rowing when they are bigger. Now, we aren’t going to keep all of them either. Nor are all the seeds necessarily going to germinate. Some may not have developed enough before they were dried and are duds. Others might have issues. But likely we will keep the strongest pair of seedlings to pot on, and get rid of the rest.”

“It’s kind of like a mother bird of prey with her young, there is always that young one who ends up not quit making it but provides what the others need to grow up big and strong.” It helped Luke to think of something he already understood and converted it into this situation, so far he was getting and understanding most of what Faye was telling him, now he couldn’t ensure he’d remember it all but that’s what the plot files were for.

“Now…-“Faye carefully dumped a few more chilli pepper seeds into his hand-“pick up 4 seeds and place then in on cell, giving them their own space. Push them maybe 5 millimetres down gently. It might help to use the tip of your pinky to push them. Then you just lightly use the soil already there to cover them over and press down lightly to make sure the soil isn’t loose. “

~Faye Calloway, Plant Instructor

He looked at the seeds and then began doing as she instructed, he carefully selected his seeds and placed mostly four in each cell though the last two had five because apparently, he’d made the hole a little bigger. “And then just separate and dust,” He said as he used his small finger to separate the seeds so there was a decent enough gap between them all before finally brushing over some of the soil and pushing down softly until the soil didn’t dislodge. “How’s that?” he asked looking to Faye for approval.

• Luke Wyatt, Plant Entrepreneur

As he worked, Faye had prepped her soil and filled her tray as well, patting it in firmly but not too hard. She looked over and smiled. “Looks good. Now go ahead and plant one more cell like that and then we’ll move on to other seeds.”

Now, where did I put that spray bottle?” she murmured. Crouching down at their table, she fiddled about in the lower shelf under she found her quarry. “Aha! Here we go,” she said as she rose up beside him rather closely and wiggled a large spray bottle from its nozzle. “I’ll be right back,” she said as she went to fill the bottle from the sink.

Returning, Faye set the bottle down away from them and reached for her seeds. Brushing off her hands, she opened another packet and grinned. “This is a lovely paste tomato, similar to a roma type but it’s got a richer taste I find and it’s very fleshy, so makes great sauces and cooked condiments. “I’d plant one cell of those, and I’m going to plant one myself,” she said and she poured a few seeds in had hand and handed the packet to Luke. “These are planted the same way we just did the chillies.” her face shifted into realization. “Oh! I forgot the tags too.”

Digging underneath, she pulled out a packet of small tags and a couple waterproof markers. “We’re going to write down what the different sections of cells are so we don’t have to remember what we planted.” She turned her head to gaze at him. “So… bored yet or are you enjoying yourself?”

~Faye Calloway