Hey everyone,

I had tremendous good luck last year with starting everything from seed; I give most of the credit to all the posts I read on this forum as I was learning how to start seeds.

This year I wanted to improve on everything & I may have messed up. Tell me what you think please...

I germinate my seeds in an unused bedroom at my folks' house. I'm able to close off this room & have a space heater in there to get the temps up where needed.

My lights setup is in an unheated utility house outside. I have put a space heater in there; temps get to around 60 or so on the very cold days. Not sure about the nights, I will be checking that (since I just got a thermometer in there.)

What I've been doing: as the seeds come up of course they stretch out immediately. I've been picking out the ones that have come up & repotting, then moving them out to the lights while those in the same flat not yet germinated go back to the bedroom.

(Last year I was able to have my lights setup on an enclosed back porch at our house; this worked very well BUT we are in the process of renovation & now that enclosed porch is part of the kitchen, so that no longer works!)

The mistakes I might be making & would love your input:

1) These are being transplanted, of course, before they get their first true set of leaves. Is this bad? Should I be waiting a while longer? Most of the xplants have been out in the utility house for about a week; I've lost 5 out of about 200. So I thought I was doing great, but today some of them seem to look a bit puny. (They are not overwatered.) I may be just overreacting about my "babies" but again, would appreciate opinions!

2) I do not have enough lights (yet) to completely cover all the flats I have out in the utility house. This morning I got the idea to cover the lights setup with sheets of tinfoil, so as to get reflection (and also serve as a little more cold protection till the weather breaks.) Is this a good or bad idea?

Thanks so much for any opinions, and good luck, everyone with your seeds!