Asters are neither the easiest garden flower for you to grow, nor the hardest. For best success you should know what you're doing. By following the basic rules of aster culture, gardeners of most regions can certainly produce quality asters to reward their best efforts.

You can start either with seeds or with plants. If you sow your own seeds, be sure the soil, the flat or box, the tools and the germinating location are sterilized. Sterile seeding medium can be purchased, (at the same place you can buy solar garden lights) or you may "cook up" your own mix in the oven, making sure to reach at least 180 degrees for 30 minutes within the soil mass. Use a meat thermometer to follow the temperature.

Be sure your seeding medium is very light and loose, either soil with about 50 percent screened compost, or an inert medium like vermiculite. Have it moist but not muddy before sowing. Then taking a section of yardstick or lath, make trenches across the box by pressing the thin edge down about 1/2 inch. Sow the seeds thinly in the row-a quarter inch between seeds is none too much-and barely cover it.

If asters give you damp-off troubles, better plan on treating the seed box with one of the new Panogcn drenches the clay before sowing. Don't let up on your sterilizing even if you do drench, however; it's not wise to depend too heavily on the drench alone.

After seed is sown, mist it or sub-irrigate to reach maximum moisture levels. Then try this trick for maintaining even moisture: locate a sterile polyethylene bag and slide the box right inside. Fold the end under, place the box where temperatures stay between 60 and 70 degrees, and wait three to five days for the seeds to sprout. When it begins to sprout make sure it receives full light. After seedlings are well up, remove the bag and drop temperatures, if possible, to around 50-55 degrees, maintaining absolutely full sunlight and plenty of fresh air. This is your assurance of short stocky plants resistant to damp-off.