Comments on: Starting Seeds Indoors

By: admin

admin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:00:08 +0000

LeAnn – a greenhouse would be dreamy!
Auburn, that is interesting your tomatoes did so well. I had some volunteers come up and left a few to see how they fared compared to what I had started indoors and they were leggy, puny plants. I think you might get way more sunlight there then we do here in Seattle. We have cloud cover a LOT.

One thing about starting seedlings indoors is that you can put, say, 5 or 10 per cell in case they don’t germinate so I never throw out old seeds. You will still have some germinate but the % germinating will go down over time.

Good luck! I just placed a massive seed order last night for an urban farming group (about $650) which was fun. This means we can all trade and try different varieties of tomatoes, etc.

By: Auburn

Auburn — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:48:34 +0000

Annette, have you ever tried “winter sowing”?

I had great success with it a few years back (when the woodchucks had not yet discovered our property…) – I winter sowed perennials, some of which (the ones that survived the chubby beasties) are still growing nicely; the foxgloves have been particularly successful. But I also winter sowed annuals with great results. All 15 tomato plants made it and I was able to harvest 175 tomatoes which is a lot, considering the poor plants were getting only six hours of direct sun per day. No disease either. No luck with peppers, though, most likely because of the lack of light.

I should have started winter sowing a month ago but I still have time for in our area plants can’t go in the ground until Labor Day and, by then, my winter sowed seedlings will be ready. What I really like about this system is that you don’t need to babysit the sprouts/seedlings and that it produces very hardy, disease resistant plants.

Gotta read your post on seeds. I don’t know if the seeds I have from the trading I did when I was participating in the winter sowing forum (five years ago, I think) are still viable. I think I’ll start some of them anyway but now I only want to grow veggies so I’ll have to buy/order some.

By: LeAnn

LeAnn — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:43:00 +0000

I just stumbled upon your blog today, but I’ll definately be back. You are dooing so make interesting things. I’m fortunate to have a nice little green house to start seeds in, which works well for me.

By: admin

admin — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 05:41:27 +0000

Good luck with your seeds everyone! I think I might have even sang to mine last year, I so had all my hopes and dreams wrapped up in them. And then I panicked when I lost 7 tomatoes and all my celery. I either overwatered or left them out in what was part sun to harden off and then the sun moved around and they burned so fast.

KFG – you deserve it! I’m so tempted to buy another set of fluorescent lights since I have 4 shelves now but I’m trying not to spend any extra money given the lack of paycheck in the house. Plus I couldn’t stand it and bought my dh the new juicer. The old one is on it’s last legs. Time to rob Peter!

By: kitsapFG

kitsapFG — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 04:29:19 +0000

It looks like you have a great plan and are making good use of your available supplies to make a really functional seed starting set up. I really have to expand my light system one of these days as I am constantly juggling plants around to make room for the next big group of starts!

Thanks for the nice comments and link to my site. The Modern Victory Garden is a labor of love – as is my garden itself!

P.S. We have a bookshelf in the garage that has not beeen used since we moved here and is unlikely to be used again… and yet we keep it around. Go figure.

By: Myrnie

Myrnie — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:19:22 +0000

Thanks for the post! I have leeks in a sunny windowsill right now, and I supplement a few hours at night with a spectrum (Ott) light. I tried starting seeds 2 years ago and EVERYTHING died. I’ll have some chamomile tea on hand this time.

By: The Mom

The Mom — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 12:44:05 +0000

Thanks for the link. Your setup looks great! My new shelves are to expand from 2 jumpstarts I had in my very cold basement. Those will now be overflow and I have all these wonderful lights right at my fingertips. I love it! Here in New England, we don’t have a very long growing season either, so much of what we plant has to be started and babied for months. It’s worth it in the end.

By: Mangochild

Mangochild — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 11:55:04 +0000

I’m always looking for more info on seed starting, so I’m particularly happy you posted this! Especially the note about dampening off – that happened to me last year with several plants, and now I have a better sense of what to do (or not do) this year.