I never used to start seeds indoors. For nearly 20 years of gardening. You need equipment which requires either money or DIY chops (neither of which I have). You need time and a certain degree of obsessive compulsive tendencies to keep the seedlings healthy. I started what I could direct, and bought nursery starts for the ones I couldn’t.
Talk about expensive. Once you’re planting 25 tomato plants you really have to start them yourself from seed.
I first got into seed starting about 6 years ago when I found out about winter sowing. Winter sowing is a great way to get into seed starting. Somehow, you don’t feel bad when they don’t germinate, since winter sowing is really just direct sowing in a container. I started my alpine strawberries (which you supposedly can’t start from seed) this way. Great instructions for this method are here.
Of course, once you’ve seen those seeds growing in a container, you get the bug, and you start to think, hmmm, I could probably try a couple of tomatoes.
Yeah. That’s one slippery slope.
Over the past few years I’ve now acquired 4 heated seed mats and a collection of can lamps and shop lights that service the equivalent of about 10 flats. I grew 80 tomatoes last year, most of which I donated to the Peterson Garden Project plant sale. I’m able to start seeds for my friend Kelly’s seed bank.
I’m not going to tell you how to do it, other than to say make sure you use sterilized containers (I reuse everything, so this is important), use a seed starting medium rather than compost or potting soil (it really makes a difference), and keep a fan blowing in the room, to discourage damping off. Go ahead and start more than you need–you’ll either learn to discard the ones that don’t thrive, or better yet you’ll find a plant sale like I did, or like my friend “creme” on MyFolia, you’ll start your own to help fund the whole enterprise. You don’t need that much space, either. Last year I ended up with more than 200 seedlings in 4″ pots, from flats that fit on a large trestle table.
Once you get past the fear (remind me, what was I afraid of?) it’s the best thing in the world to see those seedlings peeking through when it’s still cold and snowy outside.
Were you afraid to start seeds yourself? What gave you the push down that slippery slope?
I still don’t start seeds indoors. I direct sow in the garden. We have a hillbilly greenhouse that I built myself, and I put those wall of waters inside the greenhouse, and plant the seeds direct. I plant tomatoes, cantaloupe and peppers in there. It works great, my cats don’t trample (or pee in) my seedlings, and there’s no transplant shock. Most everything else I grow doesn’t even need the greenhouse for starts, and we have a bountiful, prolific garden every year.
This is my dream–I want to put a greenhouse on half (a third?) of my porch. I’ve got my seed starting set up in the basement right now, which is a little dreary, although it’s nice that the basement always smells like garden in the late winter!
My folks always sowed tomato seeds indoors. Usually, it was saved seed from the previous year’s crop sown in an enamel dishpan full of garden dirt and set near a sunny window. When the seedlings got big enough they were transplanted to paper cups to get a little bigger or transplanted into the garden.
I figured I would follow in their footsteps. I’ve tried to do it frugally and have ended up shuffling the flat around to follow the sun. I’ve used the top of the refrigerator before in lieu of a heating mat. I sometimes purchase tomato and pepper plants because it saves me a lot of time.
I direct sow squash, melons, cukes, garden peas, and turnips.
Sometimes I take the suckers from tomato plants and root them in water for a late crop.
Growing from seed has always been a thrill to me.
Never fear, just space and timing on my end. Right now I have 39 tomatoes & 32 different peppers going in 4″ pots and others to give away. Before long I will need to move them up into gallon containers and that is where I run into space issues (space w/lights). I am going to try planting the tomatoes outside (with protection) in early March this year to get a head start in case we have another dry dry and hot summer. I am luck to get all the 4″ post and trays from people throwing them out and I reuse them every year. The lights we had from our last house, so for start up on equipment I was pretty much set! I have figured out the timing for the spring garden seedlings, just need to get my act together to get the fall garden seedlings going on time
By the time mine get to the large-container size it’s usually okay to start hardening them off, which I do in make shift “mini-greenhouses” i.e. large plastic storage bins. 🙂
It is a slippery slope. A few years ago I got tired of paying big buck$ for Wave petunias, so now I grow my own from seed. A packet of 10 seeds costs about $4, and if you get 8 plants from that (sometimes I get 10) it brings the costs down to about 50 cents per plant.
I can grow oodles of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants, give away half of them, and still come out way ahead on saving money. Plus I know the plants are well taken care off, something that is not necessarily true when you buy plants. Plus, when I harvest those veggies I can say ” I knew you when you were just a little seedling!”.
I’m intrigued by the winter sowing– I will have to read up on that.
I’ve tried to start seeds indoors without proper equipment (or success… well, actually they did beautifully, until one day they all died). This year I did buy a few things to try starting indoors a bit early (we have a great sunporch that gets a lot of light; I will just have to secure them from the baby), but I know I will get starts at the farmer’s market for at least half of my (small) garden– the tomato half. The things that I want to start indoors, though, are mostly perennial herbs, so I’m wondering if I could try this winter sowing method and start them outdoors now…. hmmm….
I had someone tell me once that it takes about 5 years to get the hang of seed starting and indeed, my fifth year (last year) was my most successful yet.
How far do you have the light away from the containers?
I keep the lights 3 to 6″ above the tops of the seedlings (so I’m constantly moving them upward as the plants grow). I don’t turn on the lights until there’s green showing–even photo sensitive seeds don’t need grow lights until they sprout. Here’s the basic set up (plus this year I have a standard shop light so I can use the top of the boxes too) http://www.flickr.com/photos/8416387@N08/5442750041/
How many hours of light do you provide a day?
14 to 16 hours a day.
[…] Dreaming about my garden I’ve read up some on seed-starting this week, in particular winter sowing. Has anyone ever tried this before? I’m cautiously […]
Great post! I am going to file this page away and keep it for my garden to start going. Thanks ;).
I actually host a weekly gardening link up every Friday on my blog. I’d love for you to drop by and join in