Growing your own seeds is fun, easy, and satisfying. It’s a great, inexpensive way to grow an array of interesting and unusual vegetable and flower seeds—a much bigger and more exciting variety than you’ll ever find in starter plants. You can get an earlier start—and therefore, an earlier harvest of vegetables or earlier color in your garden—when you start seeds indoors. And what better way to beat the “Winter Blues” than by having pots of veggies, herbs, or flowers growing on your windowsills.
Materials You Need
To start seeds, there is a vast array of seed-starting supplies from which to choose. Peat pellets, compressed peat that expands when soaked in water, make excellent little ‘pots’ just right for planting two or three seeds. The mesh covering on the outside of the pellet allows new roots to show, alerting you when it’s time to move the seedling to a larger container. There are also plastic trays that come with removable cells in which to start seeds. Some even come with greenhouse lids available. If you use trays, be sure to use a sterile seed starting soil to start. Seed starting soil mixes are finely textured and moisture retentive, ideal for tiny fragile seed roots.
Peat pots, made of pressed peat fibers, are great to have on hand when it’s time to transplant seedlings. Most pots range in size from two and a half inches to around four, allowing you the flexibility to move seedlings up as needed. And because the pressed peat in bio-degradable, you don’t have to remove the seedlings from the pot when it’s time to move outside. Just plant pot and all.
Seed Starting Process: Step-by-Step
This section outlines the basics of seed starting and may not include all necessary information needed for specific seeds. We recommend that you check your seed packets for more information.
- Wet your soil and spoon it into your seed-starting containers.
- Read the seed pack instructions and determine the plant depth.
- Insert seeds gently into the soil. Add a layer of potting soil to cover the seeds.
- Use a mister to water in the new seeds. Be sure the soil always stays moist.
- Place the container on a layer of newspaper in a very sunny window.*
- Cover the pot with a clear plastic top or plastic wrap until the seeds sprout.
- Check the seedlings daily and mist as needed.
- After about eight weeks, harden them off by putting them outside for a few hours each day on a sunny porch and increasing their exposure time a bit every day.
- After about two weeks of hardening, transplant your “babies” outside.
*Please note that some plants germinate in the dark. Check your seed packet for detailed instructions.
Light Levels
In most cases, young seedlings need a good amount of sunlight to perform well. Your seed packet will have detailed information about light levels. If your seeds need a lot of light and you lack a bright south-facing window, you’ll want to invest in indoor grow lights. Actual lighting units have adjustable lights enabling you to raise or lower them as necessary. They use fluorescent tubes that will need to be about four inches above your seed trays. You’ll need to leave them on 16 to 18 hours a day, however they can be plugged into a timer for convenience. You can also use grow light fixtures that come with clamps that you can clamp onto windowsills or whenever you need them. Be sure to use light bulbs suitable for growing plants. These lights should be no further way from your seedlings than 18 inches and, again, need to be on 16 to 18 hours a day.
Some seeds do not need to be started indoors. Beans, peas, cucumbers, squash, and melons sprout quickly and grow fast so can be direct-sowed in your garden. Root vegetables such as carrots, beets, turnips, and radishes, do not transplant well so should also be direct sowed. Some flowers, like marigolds, also grow quickly, so are best planted directly outside after danger of frost. When in doubt, the back of the seed package will tell you the best time to start that variety.