By Gisele Uzzell
Starting plants from seeds is pretty simple as long as you can give them enough light, heat and moisture.
A heated greenhouse is ideal but not too many of us have those. Heating a greenhouse in February can be quite expensive.
A sunny windowsill can work, although I find that plants can get leggy reaching for the light.
I have found that using some sort of grow light can help to get them off to a healthy start.
Some plants like peppers and basil also benefit from bottom heat which can be as simple as a heating pad on low under the plant tray. Having said that I’ve started peppers and basil without bottom heat and they do fine, they just take a little longer to germinate. Make sure you protect the heating pad from moisture which can damage it.
Once the seedlings have grown the first true leaves you can grow them at regular room temp (21C/70F) and eventually they can be put into a greenhouse or cold frame until it’s time to plant them into the garden.
I save trays and pots to reuse every year but I always use new sterilized potting medium such as Promix. Using regular garden soil is not recommended for starting seeds. Garden soil is full of living organisms and can cause tiny seedings to damp off which is when the stem turns brown and collapses.
I water with room temperature water and keep them moist but not soggy. When the first set of true leaves appear I start with a weak mixture of organic seaweed fertilizer.
I pre-sprout some seeds in paper towel and then carefully, with tweezers, pick out the sprouted seeds and place on top of the starting mix, pressing down gently into the soil. I started pre-sprouting when I found myself with lots of older seed packets and germination varied widely. Something about those empty pots in a tray of growing plants bothered me. A touch of OCD perhaps? Also, if you have limited space you don’t want to waste it.
By the way, seed packets give you lots of information such as when to plant, germination rate, and shelf life of seeds. I have found that you can grow plants successfully from seeds that are older than their shelf life. Those packets of seeds are expensive!
Once your seedlings are big enough you want to put them in a cold frame or greenhouse. Start hardening them off by putting them outside a few hours a day.
If you don’t have a cold frame or greenhouse you can make a simple row cover with hoops and plastic. Don’t forget to open the row cover or cold frame on a warm day or they can cook very quickly. Just as important as keeping them cool enough is not letting them freeze. If there is an unexpected late frost in the forecast you may have to cover with remay (white gauzy row cover) or bring them indoors for the night.
By the time my peppers and tomatoes are ready for their permanent spot in the garden I have transplanted them into larger pots once or even twice.
I have just touched on a few of the basics for starting seeds indoors. There is a lot of detailed information online for starting and growing certain plants but be aware of our particular growing region.
Growing plants from seeds is very satisfying and can be very cost-effective, unless you are only wanting one or two tomato plants, for instance, in which case you may be better off starting with a potted plant at the nursery.
Here is a picture of my shelf with grow lights. The two on the bottom are the fluorescent tube lights with one warm white and one cool white tube. The top row are LED grow lights I ordered online. They look like red and blue dots in a grid pattern. I’m not sure yet which I prefer: the fluorescent tubes are proven, not sure about the LED lights yet.
Good luck and happy growing!
Gisele Uzzell is a long time resident of Quadra Island and veggie gardener extraordinaire. At one time she ran a market garden from her home garden and a few years ago you may have purchased yummy veggies and plant starts from her stand on Topcliffe Road. Although she has recently downsized her gardening, her passion for gardening has not diminished.
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