How to Plant The Food Forest Starter Bundle

 

In this outline and video series we cover:

• Our recommended methods for planting the bundle
• How to plant cuttings into pots
• How to plant seeds into pots
• How to care for the plants in pots
• When and how to transplant plants from seeds and cuttings into ground
• How to direct seed
• What pots to use and quantity
• What soil to use and how much you need

We have designed this guide and video (video coming late May/early June) specifically to accompany The Food Forest Starter Bundle, however this information is applicable whether you are a recipient of this bundle or not. 

CLAIMER:

This is our recommended method for planting the Food Forest Starter Bundle. There are other methods that others would recommend in the Florida region. None are necessarily right or wrong, just different preferences and strategies. We have laid out this simple method to be of service in helping you to establish your food forest garden. We have tried to keep our recommendations to the basics, so as to not overwhelm you with too much information, yet enough information to ensure the highest likelihood of success.

We also want to say that we will make mistakes in our teaching. We are not experts. This guide was written by me, Robin Greenfield. My team and I have grown a lot of food and have had a lot of success. I did grow and forage 100% of my food for a whole year after all! But, I have made plenty of mistakes and am sure that I have shared some information imperfectly. However I am confident that if you follow this guide exactly, you are setting yourself up for a high level of success. If some things fail because we steer you slightly wrong, that’s ok. We’re working with the abundance mindset and that includes some plants that don’t make it!

Our Recommended Method for Planting the Bundle:

We recommend planting everything into pots first and then transplanting them into the ground. That is the method that we are teaching here. The reason why is that with this limited bundle you are best able to nurture and care for the plants to have the highest rate of success of the cuttings taking and the seeds growing. Many of these can be planted directly into the ground. For example elderberries can be livestaked to make fences. Yuca can be stuck right into the ground with a near 100% success rate. When working with larger quantities of cuttings and in established garden settings we recommend a lot more direct planting. However to start, we recommend following this method of planting all cuttings and seeds into pots. 

We recommend starting with just these plants. 30 different plants is much more than we generally recommend for new gardeners. 30 is a lot! If you are overwhelmed with the number of plants you have here, you can start by planting just the cuttings and save the seeds for later. 

Upon receiving Your Package

• Upon receiving the package, we recommend opening the package within the same day and removing the cuttings. If you are not able to plant the cuttings right away, place the cuttings in a cool place in your house or outside, out of direct sunlight or strong heat.
• Upon receiving the cuttings, plant them into pots within a few days. We recommend planting them as soon as you can. In the meantime before planting, keep them in a cool place in your home or outside in the shade. Not in a hot car, shed, garage, etc. Wrap them in a moist cloth until you plant them. A few notes:
  • The cuttings can sit in their package for a couple days if you are not home to receive them and open them, but not in strong heat ideally.
  • The cuttings removed from the package can sit in a cool, dark place for a couple days.
  • Many of these cuttings are very hardy and can often sit for over a week or even two before planting, but to ensure highest success, ideally plant within a couple days. The woody cuttings are able to sit out for longer and the fleshy cuttings need to be planted sooner.

 

How to Plant Cuttings into Pots

• Top and bottom: There is a top and bottom of some of the cuttings. We generally have cut the bottom of the cutting at a diagonal and the top flat. Plant the diagonal end in the soil. It’s ok if you plant them upside down. They will still grow. It is just less ideal.
• Nodes: Most of the cuttings we provide will have 4 nodes. Ideally, put the cuttings into soil so that 2 nodes are below the soil and 2 nodes above. If there are only 3 nodes, then 2 nodes below the soil and 1 node above. If there are only 2 nodes, then  1 node below the soil and 1 node above. If you can’t figure out what a node is then just plant the cuttings half in the soil and half out.
  • What is a node? 
    • A “knob-like, slight fattening of the wood.”
    • The base of a bud, leaf, twig, or branch is always attached to a node. (A scar in the wood where leaves have fallen away, 
    • “Nodes are the points on a stem where the buds, leaves, and branching twigs originate. They are crucial spots on the plant where important healing, structural support, and biological processes take place.”
• How to Plant: We have grouped the cuttings into two groups with one additional note.
  • 1. Plant directly into a pot of soil. 
    • 1. You can plant all of them directly into pots, and this is the ideal method for most of the cuttings. 
  • 2. Put cuttings into a jar of water to establish roots first. 
    • There are four plants in the bundle that generally perform by this method: rosemary, sweet potato, basil and lemongrass. Rosemary is the most important of all to use this method with.
    • Instructions: place the cuttings into a jar. Keep the jar out of direct sunlight (roots don’t want to be exposed to sun). Place the cuttings into the jar. Fill the jar so that about half of the cuttings are covered with water. We recommend unchlorinated water, especially rainwater or unprocessed water.
    • Change the water every other day.
    • Wait a couple weeks until there’s roots. Then plant these into pots using the same method as other cuttings to establish more before planting or, or plant them into the ground (we recommend pots for all, but sweet potatoes can now be planted directly into the ground). 

• 3. For trees with bark, you can lather the bottom of the cutting with tree rooting hormone – such as aloe vera or honey – for promoting root growth. Within our bundle, this would be applicable to mulberry. We have chosen the easiest to propagate cuttings that are most likely to thrive without special care, so this is not necessary to be done.

 

Some Information about the Seeds

As we shared above, we recommend planting into pots in order to get the most out of the limited quantity of seeds that you have. However, we’d like to share some very helpful knowledge on these plants.

Direct seeding: The seeds that are most often planted directly into Earth are pigeon pea, cow pea and daikon radish.

Once you are more abundant, after saving seed from your first round of plants, you can start broadcasting seeds into the garden, which means to simply toss them out into the soil/mulch for them to grow into plants. 

Self seeders that are ideal for broadcasting: These plants are often prolific self seeders, which means they produce seed and spread them on their own in your garden: amaranth, molokhia, Ethiopian kale, Southern pea, pigeon pea and daikon. Seeds from all of these can be saved and broadcasted as you desire.

Volunteers/ self seeders: seminole pumpkin, everglades, papaya, cranberry hibiscus and luffa will often spread seed on their own and grow into productive, abundant plants. Although these plants will often “volunteer” or come up on their own, they are generally not ideal for broadcasting.

How to Plant Seeds into Pots

• • Fill your pots close to the top with soil.
  • For large seeds, plant 1 or 2 seeds into each pot and if more than one pop up, thin to just one plant per pot. 
  • For small seeds, plant 1 to 4 seeds into each pot and if more than one pop up, thin to just one plant per pot. 
  • Note: Only one seed is needed per plant, so if you want to use your seeds the most conservatively, just plant one seed per pot.

• Planting depth: The simple guide to follow is to plant seeds at twice the depth of the seed. So for large seeds like pumpkin you are pushing your finger into the soil to about your first knuckle. For medium seeds like radish you are putting a small divot into the soil with your finger. For tiny seeds like amaranth you are just planting them on the surface and scattering a little soil over the top or just barely putting a divot into the soil and covering them slightly. 

 

Our recommended pot sizes:

• All cuttings can be planted into 1 gallon pots. 
  • There are three plants that you could put all three of the cuttings into a single 1 gallon pot: sweet potato, rosemary, basil 
  • Sweet potato and rosemary can be planted in 4 inch pots
• All seeds can be planted into 4 inch pots. 
  • Papaya and moringa we recommend planting in 1 gallon pots and also ideally pigeon peas
  • Some plants can be up-potted and would benefit from that if you are not ready to put them into the ground.
• Note: although 1 gallon pots require more soil, all of this soil will be added to your garden upon planting, building up the soil foundation of your food forest. Some of the cuttings can be done in 4 inch pots if you are very limited on soil or 1 gallon pots, but our recommended method is to use the 1 gallon pots.

 

Caring for the Plants in Pots

• Water seeds about twice per day.
• Water cuttings about once or twice per day.
• The general guideline is to keep the soil moist, not drenched, similar to the consistency of a wrung out sponge. If you pick up a pinch worth of soil from the pot, and form it together into a ball, it should stay together in a ball. When squeezed hard a drop or two of water should drip out. 
• Dappled shade is ideal lighting to start. Blazing sun is generally too much for the young plants and the potted soil. After the plants have developed more they can benefit from more sun. Placing your nursery in the dappled shade of a tree can be ideal. A simple nursery shade cloth suspended above the plants can help to keep the plants from getting too much sun/heat. 
• If you see that seedlings are “leggy” then they need more sun.
• See this video for more details on seed planting. Note this video was made not specifically for the Food Forest Starter Bundle

 

When to Transplant into the Earth

It’s important to know when the plants are ready to be transplanted.

The keys that you’ll look for include:

• Substantial growth of leaves
• A substantial root system in the pot. A few ways to know if there are enough roots: The root system should take up about half the space of the pot or more. If you flip the plant over, cradling it with your hand and gently removing the pot, you will see roots have formed substantially on the outer edges and bottom. The soil will be held together by the roots, with minimal to no crumbling away of soil. Roots will likely be coming out through the bottom of the pot as well.
• How long is too long in the pot: Once the roots have become “root bound” the plant has been in the pot for too long and needs to be planted into Earth or up-potted into a larger pot. “Root bound” means that the rounds have started to circle around in the pot and mat up at the bottom. If the plants are root bound we recommend gently “tickling” out the bottom and sides of the root/soil mass so that the circling roots are facing down and out, instead of circling. 

 

How long to keep in pots:

Cuttings: Our general recommendation is to keep them in the pots for about 2 months during warm summer months and perhaps more like 3 months in cooler, lower light winter conditions. 

Note: Mulberry and elderberry can also be up-poted into 3 gallon pots and planted after a year and can be up-pot to 5-15 gallon pots for up to a couple years if needed. Trees you can develop in pots for a couple years, however with the trees we have provided, it is not necessary and will delay growth. 

Seeds: Our general recommendation is to keep them in the pots for about 3-6 weeks during warm summer months and perhaps more 4-8 weeks in cooler, lower light winter conditions.  We have made two groups

• Annual plants that produce much faster will need less time in pots: Southern pea, Seminole pumpkin, Everglades tomato, Ethiopian kale, Molokhia, amaranth, Bidens alba, luffa, daikon radish.
• Slower to grow perennials or long living annuals that can be in pots longer: moringa, papaya, cranberry hibiscus and sorrel.
• Daikon radish is best transplanted young, when there are two sets of true leaves.
• Daikon radish, Southern peas and pigeon peas need less time in pots and are often directly seeded. 

Note on up-potting: Plants in 4 inch pots can be up-planted into half gallon and one gallon pots. Simply fill the larger pot up to the level in which there will be enough space for the 4 depth of the 4 inch pot. Remove the plant from the 4 inch pot and place it on top of the soil in the larger pot. Fill in with soil to the same level as the top of the plant that was in the 4 inch pot.

 

How to Transplant into the Earth

The method we have shared here is designed with our recommended method of previously having laid down cardboard and mulch. We have shared some notes on other methods below.

Before transplanting, thoroughly water the potted plants, so the soil is completely saturated. Transplant ideally in the evening or on cloudy days to reduce transplant shock.

• Pull back the mulch from the area that you are going to plant
• Cut a hole out of the cardboard the size of the hole you are going to dig in the ground. 
• Dig a hole, removing about the same amount of native soil/sand as the size of your pot (4 inches or one gallon)
• Add in about 1 gallon of soil or well matured compost 
• Mix this in so that the soil/compost is mixed at a 50/50 ratio with the native soil
• Water the hole very thoroughly before planting
• Gently remove the plant from the pot
• Plant the plant so that the soil of the plant is level with the native soil level. Try not to bury it deeper or above. (However, most plants done by cutting are forgiving to being buried some since that’s how they started)
• If your compost is rich and not broken down, add it after the hole is filled in as a top dress. Although these plants are very hardy plants, building up your soil is key to creating abundance. 
• Water the plant again. For one gallon pots we recommend an initial watering of 2 gallons total to really saturate the immediate soil area.
• Keep the mulch back so that the plant is not buried. We recommend having a space of a few inches on either side of the plant.

If you have really deep mulch and are not able to access the native soil, we recommend digging a hole in the mulch, adding one gallon or more of soil and plant into this soil. We recommend digging the mulch all the way down to the native soil and filling all the way to the native soil with soil so that native soil is touching the soil you added. (A personal note from Robin: I am not experienced with this method and don’t have comfort with it, but I know other experienced people who do this.)

If you are planting into raised beds or mounds of soil, then you can simply dig your hole and plant directly into the soil. 

Note for trees: When planting older trees that have been established in pots (1+ year old and 3+ gallons), we recommend planting directly into the native soil and not adding any soil, compost or amendments to the hole. Instead we recommend top dressing the plant with a few inches of compost. 

For planting fruit trees from pots see our fruit tree care guide for Florida In this bundle, our fruit trees are mulberries and elderberries, which are two of the most resilient and durable fruit trees to grow from cuttings  Since, we are working with plants that are only few months old with this method, we recommend following the same method as we recommend for all other plants from cuttings.  

 

How to Direct Seed into the Earth

As we shared, you can plant all seeds into pots to get the most of your limited seed supply. But we’d also like to share a bit on how to direct seed. To direct seeding into soil, follow the same instructions for planting into pots. Keep the soil moist by watering daily or twice daily for the first two weeks. We recommend direct seeding into soil, not into mulch. However as your mulch breaks down over time it will start to become able to support seeds volunteering and being broadcasted directly into it. Within a year (or maybe less) you may be to the point where you can broadcast seeds into the mulch.

 

Propagating Plants

There are a few plants that we recommend to begin propagating from your early growth so that you can more quickly increase the abundance in your garden and establish a larger base garden: sweet potato, cassava/yuca, perennial spinaches

• Sweet potato. Three cuttings isn’t a lot, but you can easily make more! After you have transplanted them into the Earth, as the vines grow, tuck some of the nodes into the soil. These will produce roots. Then you can take cuttings from the new growths to plant more!
• Yuca: Once in the Earth, let the stock grow to 4 feet (this will take a few months) and then prune it down to a foot. The three feet you cut off can now be made into at least three cuttings. The foot portion that is left will be left to grow to maturity. This is how you turn 3 plants into 12 plants in a short period of time. Also for taking propagating materials from a matura plant, a guideline is if there’s five branches on a yuca plant you can take one branch to make cuttings from.
• Perennial spinach: Let the bush get established to about two feet by two feet and then take cuttings. At the same time as getting propagation materials you are pruning the plant to get it bushy and productive.

 

What Pots to use and Quantity

We recommend 1 gallon pots for most of the plants and 4 inch pots for some. No pots larger than 1 gallon are needed for our method.

How many pots you need:

If you want to plant out the entire Food Forest Starter Bundle:

• (200) 4” pots 
  • ~12 for cuttings
  • up to 270 for seeds (15 trays worth)
• (90) 1 gallon pots
  • ~29-43 for cuttings 
  • up to 50 for seeds
• (10-15) Trays (1020 style)

If you want to plant out all of the cuttings and some of each of the seeds:

• (50) 4” pots 
  • ~12 for cuttings
  • up to 270 for seeds (15 trays worth)
• (38-52) 1 gallon pots
  • ~29-43 for cuttings 
  • ~9 for seeds
• (3-5) Trays (1020 style)

 

What Soil and How Much you Need

How much soil you need for potting depends on how much of the bundle you plant out. Here is the range we recommend and three different measurements to help you easily know how much to get depending on how you source it.

Potting soil is ideal. Most of these plants are very hardy plants and need less nutrients, however soil with more nutrition will help them flourish.

• 45 to 115 gallons. (This is 9-23 5-gallon buckets full)
• .2 cubic yard to .6 cubic yard. (A standard pickup truck bed is 1 cubic yard, with the largest beds being 2 cubic yards)
• 3 to 9 of the 50 quart bags of potting soil at a nursery or gardening store

 

So there you have it! That’s how to plant the Food Forest Starter Bundle. 

With these skills you can get your food forest garden established. 

Once your confidence is established you can expand from there. You can use these same methods for dozens, likely even a couple hundred other plants that grow well in Florida. Again we’ve focused on approximately 30 of the easiest to grow, most productive foods in Florida. This grouping of plants is ideal for laying the foundation for a food forest or a survival garden. We’re focused on growing a lot of food, with the least work. We are elated to be helping you to gain food freedom an break free from the global, industrial food system

We recommend as you build your food forest, building your community! 

We share our deep gratitude with The Urban Harvest, Little Tree Nursery, EarthSong Nursery, Moonlanding Nursery, Orlando Permaculture, Southern Heritage Seed Collective, Seed The Stars, Whitwam Organics, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, The Deuces Food Forest and the Sustainable Urban Agriculture Coalition SUAC, for helping us to establish the Food Forest Starter bundle.