Starting From Seed
It’s that time of year again. If you garden or hope to this year, you might want to consider starting from seed. Aside from the numerous benefits listed below; seed starting is easy, gratifying, and economical. This article is meant to be a basic primer on starting seeds in the home.
Benefits
There are seeds for any type of gardener. You can purchase flower, herb, vegetable, and others. You get more plants for your dollar. (Join a seed swap or save seed from the prior year for even more savings. We’ll talk about seed saving and swaps in another article.) You get to try out plants you might not find at your local garden center. If you plant vegetables trust us when we say-you’ll find there is nothing like the taste of your own home grown food picked fresh from your garden, especially when it’s organic.
What you need
Seeds need soil, water, and light to grow. Many seeds also need warmth to germinate.
Seeds: Can be bought at garden centers, grocery stores, your local hardware or big chain store, and online. We prefer to order online through Fedco Seeds. We like that they offer non GMO seeds, have reasonable prices, and have a huge selection.
Soil: Use a seed starting mix and not a potting mix. Seed starting soils are made with the appropriate mix of ingredients and nutrients for the sole purpose of starting seeds.
Light: You need good light to get good seedlings. If you have a sunny south facing window that may work. Many gardeners need additional light. Fluorescent tubes and fixtures work well. You can purchase grow lights/bulbs or use one warm and one cool bulb in each fixture.
Warmth: Depending on the seed, you may need additional bottom warmth to get the seeds to germinate. Most seeds do not need the extra warmth so long as they are in a heated room.
Pots: You can start seeds in any container you have. You can purchase seed starting pots/trays, use recycled containers such as yogurt cups, plastic salad containers, etc., and if you are really adventurous you can plant in soil blocks*. We’ll talk about these in another article.
What to Do
Some seeds can be planted directly in the ground (direct sown) after the last frost date for your area. Some will need to be started indoors in advance. Each seed packet will tell you how far in advance.
Make sure there are drainage holes in your pot or container. Fill your container with soil, place a few seeds in it, mist or lightly water, and then cover with a clear top or plastic wrap to create a humid environment.
Place containers under light for 12-16 hours a day. If using artificial light, you want to place the bulbs 1-2 inches over the plants or you risk them becoming tall and leggy rather than short and bushy.
After the seedlings emerge you can remove the top. If more than one seed has emerged from a single pot, choose the strongest and healthiest looking seedling and clip the rest at the soil line with a pair of scissors.
You’ll want to check your seedlings daily to see if they need water. If the seedlings get too large for their pots, you can re-pot them into larger ones. At this point you can use a potting soil.
One to two weeks before you plan to place the plants in the garden you’ll need to harden them off, or get them used to outdoor conditions. Each day you’ll want to put the seedlings outdoors in a sheltered area starting for an hour a day and increasing the time slowly until you reach several hours.
Once your seedlings have been hardened off and you’ve passed your last frost day, you can safely plant them in the garden or an outdoor pot. Be sure to check daily to see if your plants need watering. It’s best to water longer and not as often, rather than quickly every day. Watering longer gives the deeper roots a drink as well. It’s also best to water first thing in the morning of early in the evening. Watering mid-day can burn your plants.
If you have any seed starting questions or problems, feel free to ask them in the comments section below. We’ll try to answer as many as we can. Happy Seed Starting!
*Click on Using a Soil Blocker to Start Your Seeds to learn more about soil blocking.
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Adam Pieniazek said on March 10, 2009
Whoa, was just thinking that I needed to start planning this year’s garden. We didn’t plant one last year to give the soil a break from the many, many years of growing only tomatoes there but this year I’m hoping to grow all sorts of yummy vegetables. Do you have any recommendations for what might grow well in our soil, meaning what could help complement all the years of tomatoes we grew there.
Or should we bring in new soil or directly rejuvenate it somehow?
MS said on March 10, 2009
Use plenty of lime to rejuvenate soil that’s grown lots of tomatoes.
Ruth Smith said on March 10, 2009
Hey Adam, thanks for stopping by with the great question! Not many people realize that they should crop rotate each year. That means if you planted tomatoes (or any night shade plant like peppers, eggplant, etc.) in one area of the garden-you should not plant them in that same area for at least two years, three is better. Certain plants and plant families give and take from the soil and are bothered by certain pests. If you plant the same crop in the same soil year after year, you deplete the soil of certain nutrients and you run the risk of pest buildup in that area. The plants will still grow, but may not be as healthy or yield as much as you would like.
There are a couple of things you can do:
You can bring in compost and manure and build up the soil throughout your garden or just in the area you’d like to plant tomatoes again this year. (Depends on how fertile the soil was to begin with.) Then start crop rotating next year.
You can skip tomatoes (night shades) all together this year or plant them in pots. And again, start crop rotating next year.
You can do nothing and hope for the best (you gave the soil a break last year) and start crop rotating next year.
That being said, all soil needs to be replenished over time. Without knowing what soil you started with, it’s hard to say what you need. You can test the soil to see what it’s lacking. (Given you said you’ve planted tomatoes for years and years I recommend that.) But in soil that’s relatively fertile, a good couple of inches of compost and/or aged manure worked into the soil should be sufficient. Over the season you can water with diluted fish emulsion or seaweed to fertilize plants that need it.
Alternatively, you can also build raised beds and fill with a mix of your current soil and new soil, or you can skip a year of gardening and plant a cover crop to add nutrients back into the soil.
Good luck!
Ruth Smith said on March 10, 2009
Thanks MS for stopping by! Lime can be a great addition to the lawn or garden, but should be used with care.
Lime is added to soil to increase soil pH or make it less acidic/more alkaline.
While the major cause of acidic or low soil pH is the leaching of nutrients such as calcium, magnesium, and potassium; one should always test their soil to be sure they know what they are working with.
Lime also takes some time to work its magic and can burn plants and roots if added to soil with plants already there. For that reason, it’s best to add lime in the fall.
John Pelley said on March 11, 2009
Thanks for the tips. Home grown is always the best.
Ruth Smith said on March 11, 2009
Thanks John for stopping by!
Jennifer B said on March 13, 2009
I have a question more about what sort of wildflower or native plant I can start from seed now for an area that mostly dry sand and has poor drainage during summer rains. You know where I am located, Ruth. What can I plant, from seed, that will fill a good-size sandy area on the side of my street, between my house and the next. They were going to build a road there 50 years ago but it never happened. I want to fill the area in so teenagers will be less inspired to hang out there…
Ruth Smith said on March 15, 2009
Hey Jennifer B. What a question! Without seeing the area it’s hard to tell. First off, you can’t plant anything in your area outside right now. If planting outside, you’ll need to wait until the last frost which is right around Memorial day. If planting inside, you can and should start now for seedlings for spring-unless your seed packet states to direct sow. You are zone 5. Some seeds can be direct sown after the last frost and will come up mid summer.
That being said, there are few plants that will survive areas with poor drainage. It really depends on how poor you are talking. If it gets wet and swampy for days at a time, you might be in trouble. But you said it’s mostly dry sand, and typically sand drains really well. But sand present its own set of problems. It’s not very fertile.
I also need to know if it’s just dirt now or if there is grass. If there is any amount of weed or grass it should be removed before planting or seeding anything. And how large is the area?
See the trickiness of your question?
So here are some things you can do. You should start with bare soil. You can add compost to make the soil more fertile. If drainage really is a problem, that is a bigger issue. You’d want to slope the area, dig ditches, or run drainage pipes under the area.
Minimal effort-buy a large pack of mixed wildflower seed and sprinkle come spring and see what comes up. Wildflowers are pretty tolerant and in a mix-you should get something that will survive.
So you know, this will give you a very field like untidy look. Not sure if that’s what you were going for.
Another plant I like that does well in poor soil is Yarrow or Achillea. It grows 2-3 feet high with fern like foliage and flowers all summer. It also comes back year after year.
Let me know if you have any other questions!