It’s that time again, the first seeds of the year have been sown and are already sprouting in our basement. I know not everyone is as die hard as I am about gardening so you may have a few months before you start considering seed starting so this blog may come of use to you.
The great debate, nursery bought starters or started from seed at home? There is no wrong answer to this question, either choice is fine. I’m a hybrid, I do both. I start 90% of my starters from seed at home and then usually end up picking up a few from the nursery when I’m out and about in spring. I just can’t help myself. I usually pick up things like lavender that take a long time to start from seed. The reason I grow a lot of my seeds from home includes, partially my passion for the gardening and wanting to do it year round, the customizability and partially for peace of mind. Starting seeds from home allows me to customize my garden to include every possibly variety I can get my hands on. When shopping at most nurseries they will be limited on varieties because they just can’t possibly carry every variety available for purchase via the seed market. For myself, locally there aren't a ton of heirloom varieties to choose from and organically grown has an even lesser selection to choose from, both are important to me. Starting my own plants from seeds gives me the ability to choose from any variety of bean, tomato or melon I like, have the option of open pollinated, hybrid, heirloom or rare not just what the my local nurseries have offer. It also gives me the peace of mind that everything used on my plants will be 100% organic, a priority in my garden.
Provisions Needed
Grow Lights
This is a non-negotiable for me unless you want weak leggy seedlings. Our homes just don’t have enough light even near a window. Make sure your set up allows for your lights to be lowered and risen as needed. You lights should only be roughly 1-2 inches above the top of your plant or soil if just starting. We want our lights close enough to ensure your seedlings aren't reaching for the light and becoming long and stretched out making for a weak plant. If you find your seedlings are too close and possibly getting scorching on the leaves you can lift you lights a little higher. Keeping this in mind when making you seed set up will really benefit you
When I start seeds I have a shelf with lights low for when I'm initially starting my seeds and a shelf with the lights slightly higher for when my seedling outgrow the first shelf, finally a third shelf with even higher lights. This makes it so I'm not adjusting lights constantly and I found worked well. However you may not have the ability to use this idea, due to space, materials or money. so just make sure you can adjust things as needed along the way.
Trays/Seed Cells/Soil Blocker
Use either, I have done both and find pros and cons to each.
Water
Shocker, you need a watering can or jug, you do not need a mister. Don’t waste your money
Fertilizer
I prefer water soluble solutions rather than anything to be sprinkled on the soil when starting seeds. Begin fertilizing once your seedlings have grown their first set of true leaves. Granular or powdered fertilizers are too strong for young plants and should be avoided until your plants have matured.
Humidity Dome
This comes with most cell trays but if not they are pretty cheap and very helpful during the germination time to ensure the soil stays moist.
Heat Mat
Optional but handy for some seeds, some seeds do incredibly well when placed over a heat mat especially those heat loving plants like peppers, tomatoes, eucalyptus etc.
Location
A bright warm location is required. Somewhere with good air flow that doesn’t get too damp. Dampness can contribute to damping off which is a fungal infection young seedling can get that will kill them, from the combination of the fungi & damp cool conditions.
Pencil
The perfect tool for dimpling your soil to the depth needed
Notebook
To document and plan (this seems unnecessary but if you do it you will use this information in the future I promise you)
Labelling system
THIS IS IMPORTANT, you will not remember what each seed is. Label them. A label maker is amazing but tape and some paper work great. Just ensure the label is covered by your tape to add a little water proofing so you writing doesn’t smudge when watering your seedlings.
How to
Us gardeners all have our own specific ways of doing things, usually similar with slight differences. This is a guide to help you get started on your way to developing your own ways that will work for you.
Its important to start with a clean slate so always make sure to wash your pots or trays out before you start, even more so if recycled from the year before to ensure that disease does not transfer to this years crops. Vinegar and hot water work great and will sanitize them of any disease that they may have come in contact with. I like to fill up a big rubber made container and dunk them in letting them soak for a few minutes before scrubbing them down and rinsing.
I always let my soil warm up to room temp before I plant to help with germination, and I don’t know if there is anything worse than putting your hands in cold soil in February. I like to fill my trays or pots with soil before I wet the soil, I know many that like to dampen the soil before putting them on tray but I find it compacts the soil a bit more than I like for seed starting, so I water the soil once in the trays and then top up if I need to once the soil has settled a bit.
Set yourself up for success by setting up your grow station right the first time. Set up your grow location, this could be a shelf or racking ensure that your lights are adjustable and can be raised and lowered as you need. Your lights should be as close to your plants as possible to provide them with the correct amount of light or your seedlings will begin to get leggy as they reach for the light. Your plants should never be reaching for light when starting seeds give them as much as they can handle. If you able to, a timer is really helpful for ensuring your lights turn on and off as required. New Seedling need 12 - 16 hours of light daily and roughly 8 hours of dark. This takes that task off your plate and gives you plants the right amount of light & dark they need. A fan is needed to provide the plants with a natural like environment, exposing them to different degrees of wind to mimic the outside world. this prepares your delicate young seedlings for the harsh world the the outside environment will give them.
Labels, you need them. I don't care how you make them as long as the will last if they get wet. We all think we will remember what we planted and where but here is your PSA, you won't! I create my labels I need before I get my hands dirty so that I have nice clean labels ready to go and dimple the soil in the trays ready for seeds depending on what depth the seeds go.
Read you seed pack follow the instructions provided. Plant the seed at the depth required and because we pre-watered our soil after it was added to our trays we do not need to water after the seed has been placed avoiding displacing the seed.
REMEMBER always follow the instructions on the packet, some seeds require cold stratification, different depths of planting, complete darkness during germination and beyond where others need to be kept on a heat mat for germination to take place some need constant humidity . Don’t skip reading the packet or disappointment will happen sooner or later. I even recommend diviner’s slightly deeper and taking a quick google search to learn a little more than what the packet tells me.
Mark down in your notebook when you started the seeds and the date they should roughly germinate by. If you don’t have seedlings by this date you may look into reseeding, if zero germination has occurred I would completely switch out the soil and start them again. Remember, not all failures are our own, in gardening we can do everything right and can still fail. The soil may have been contaminated and could have been the cause or the seeds could be bad.
Finally I wanted to touch on damping off. Damping off is a soil dwelling fungal disease compiled of a many different types of fungi that flourish in very cool damp environments and can be easily spread airborne. If seedlings are failing rapidly or germination is poor consider purchasing different soil all together as damping off may have occurred. To prevent this sanitation is key, washing pots as mentioned above, warming up soil and making sure your location is warm, dry & has good airflow and why location & your set up is so important.
Keep a close eye for sprouting and watering and maintain your little plants babes until it’s time to pot up or plant out.
If you have any questions or comments, I’d love to hear form you! Send me an email or message me on socials. I hope you enjoyed this post.
Comments