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Starting your own plants from seeds indoors.

It is the time of year when our garden plants cannot grow due to lack of sunlight and too low of temperatures. But what do we grow in the long winter wait. Plants for next years garden! Instead of waiting to buy plants in the spring and not getting the varieties we want we should raise our own plants this winter!

How can we do this?
What do we need?
When should we get started?

These are the questions that this blog is about. I know there are gardeners out there that do this to keep feeding their growing addictions in the winter. We need you experience and expertise. I am hoping you will share your ideas here so we can all try and be a bit more successful at raising our own plants for next spring.

What methods are the most successful?
What temperatures are needed for germination?
What kind of light works best?
What is dampening off and how can it be prevented?

It takes a little planning. You need to order some tomato seed, pepper seed, petunias, or what ever you want to set out in the spring after the last frost. Then we need to count back from the time we want to set the plants out and add how long it will take to get them big enough to set out. Please share your ideas here in this blog.

Tags: Starting, indoor, plants

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Comment by Bob (Z9B Florida) on February 26, 2011 at 1:41pm: Howard,

Great posts as always, my friend. Experience for me is that Forsythia will root very well in water. You can add a couple of weeping willow branch pieces for the hormones if you want too.

Comment by Bob (Z9B Florida) on February 26, 2011 at 12:44pm: Good tip on the mix or water and bleach, Howard. I use that spray liberaly on any homegrown compost that I'm using in other than the garden directly but sometimes think I'm knocking off the good stuff I built the compost for! Always a give and take.... Cheers!

Comment by Howard L Roberson on February 20, 2011 at 10:48am: Spray a weak mix of water and bleach before germination or befroe planting. molds are a normal part of organic soils and starting siol if it has not been sterilized. It may not effect your plants but is it does try the bleach spray.

Comment by Lila Sanchez --N.MBeach zn10 FL on May 23, 2010 at 7:57am: Hello Howard: My seedlings are growing rapidly and well, but on the coleus cells amd two others I discovered a bit of greyish mold or fuzz on the surface of the soil. I panicked and removed the top layer, the seeds had not yet sprouted on these, since they're so small I probably removed them. Do you know what this could be? And any natural remedy, since I cannot breathe in any chemicals. Any advice is Much appreciated, thanks!

Comment by Lila Sanchez --N.MBeach zn10 FL on May 12, 2010 at 11:42pm: Please don't forget us here. Happy Gardening!

Comment by Lila Sanchez --N.MBeach zn10 FL on May 12, 2010 at 11:41pm: Thank you Howard. I still need pic of a cotyledon next to a true one. I will take some pics of my seedlings. I think my Nasturtium already has the true ones! Just planted them a couple wks ago LOL!

Comment by Howard L Roberson on May 12, 2010 at 11:01pm: Lila,
The 1st pair of green "leaves are really the seeds cotyledons. (stored food) From these will grow the 1st true pair of leaves. When the 2nd set arrives it is time to transplant to a small pot until time to put the plant into the soil.
The closer you keep the plant to the light if artificial the stronger and sturdier your plants will grow. Leggyness comes from being too far away from the light and too warm. So once the seeds germinate take any heat sorce you may have used away. Always water from below until the plants are hardened off.

Comment by Lila Sanchez --N.MBeach zn10 FL on May 12, 2010 at 10:25pm: The problem I'm having is knowing how to recognize the true set of leaves. They look so similar . And knowing when to snip them so the seedling can grow full and not leggy. I am growing Nasturtium (whirlybird and Jewel Mix)they,re the fastest, and Coleus, Sweet Pepper(Early California Wonder) I will need this soon, any help will be sooo appreciated, w/ pics please. looking forward to learning!

Comment by Lila Sanchez --N.MBeach zn10 FL on May 12, 2010 at 9:51pm: Hello everyone. I just found this group. I am growing a few seedlings w/ a new method I discovered. The wicking selfwatering method. The seedlings practically water themselves saving time and eliminates top watering which very often results in damping off .I have a small apt. and space is a challenge, so I grow them under a regular lamp. But the last seeds I grew where not successfull because the watering was uneven, so I gave up for a while until spring fever hit.
This method utilizes a bottom container where you put the water and then I took a blueberry container that I saved fr the grocery store which fits snugly inside the bottom one without going too deep so the water won't touch it. Then on top of that I put a regular seedling one w/ the divided cells inside that or you can put the soil directly in the bluberry one, (but since it's not divided the roots might grow together)This method can be made w/ larger containers too.Cut some holes into the bluberry container so that they are as directly as possible inderneath the cells ( Not necessary to make a hole for EACH cell just so you can thread the string thru) Anyway, then you cut some string about 12 in long , one for each cell and thread them thru each cell swirling them around a few turns in each cell to make sure of full soil saturation. Carefully thread the rest of each string down into the holes of the blueberry container and leave them dangling. This may be challenging at first ,but once it's done, it's worth it. Put the bluberry container w/ srings dangling, gently inside the bottom one and fill each cell w/ soil, then water the bottom one ( I cut just a bit of a corner to make the watering spout easier to fit). After a few hrs when the soil is moist, plant your seeds! You will be amazed as you regularly check, how long it will be til your next watering. BTW make sure the wicks are not tangled,check regularly,I noticed one of my cells was drying and it was one wick that was tangled, easily fixed. I put mine at my brightest window and they are zooming! That's another advantage this method has, they grow faster. I hope this will be of help to those wishing to grow seedlings indoors. Happy Gardening!