6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed

I would like to weigh in on this one. I have used peat pellets for several years. I have had great sucess with them, despite many others not having much luck at all. You absolutely must do a few things for them to work. You must keep them moist at all times, and you must remove the netting when potting them up. Other than that, they have worked quite well. I decided, for other reasons, to try a different method this year. I bought some trays/flats & their corresponding 3 inch square plastic pots. I have had even more success with this method than with the peat pellet trays, so I will continue to use it. I think this argument comes down to more of a personal choice, as long as the items I mentioned above are taken care of, if you pick the pellets. I linked my blog below so you can see a comparison of the two methods (in the most recent post, at the top)

- Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: Steve's Garden

Just wanted to throw out that technically, you don't "need" either. I start my seeds in yogurt cups that I save up through the year, and I use plain old SuperSoil Potting Mix. I get 100% germination, no damping off, no problems at all with my plants, and for some plants, they can go straight from the cups to my beds without the need to pot up.

It may not be practical if you're trying to start 100's of plants from seed. I only get 18 cups to a flat, but for my small home garden, a couple flats is all I need for the seeds I'm starting at any one time. And I really like the idea that I'm getting an extra use out of my plastics before sending them to the recycler.

No need to store them in the fridge, however. Marigolds don't need a chilling period. A pantry cupboard would be a good location, for example.

Thanks. I appreciate the helpful information.
Bob

Thanks for the input! Yes, I've got fall-planted broccoli and cabbage still growing, as well as some winter sown. In my foggy spot, I should be able to get an early spring crop in as our temps don't really heat up until June. At least...that's the plan. I'll see what Mother Nature has in store. If it's anything like last year, I could have grown broccoli all the way to September!

These are all cool weather plants. There is no reason why a california grower should even consider growing them indoors. Even the warmth of an unheated greenhouse should not be necessary. You would only want to start these plants indoors where you experience subfreezing temperatures for several months.

can anyone please tell me how to start ,echinacea plants from seed ,,thanks

I have about thirty Ruby Star plants now in four inch pots in my coldframe. They were started in my unheated greenhouse on heat mats maintaining 70 degrees. No pre chilling or stratification was needed for good germination. Al

Thank you for your comment. I appreciate the planty wisdom and you taking the time. The papertowel method does work best. But are you are saying in so many words that there is no benefit at all in propagating seeds in gelatine?
In your opinion, why do some gardeners swear by it?

I've never heard of using gelatin to start seeds before, to be honest, so I can't give you any opinion as to whether or not it works. I can tell you from experience that as long as whatever you use is sterile/clean (this also applies to tradition peat based seed starting mixes), chances are the seeds will grow well. I did a search of google and came across an article that claimed 'gelatin is high in phosphorus and calcium' but have not found any scientific literature to back that up (not saying there isn't, but I just haven't found any). To be honest, I think part of it has to do with luck, and part of it has to do with their technique. I've tried every way to root wild roses and have never succeeded while my neighbour throws his trimmings in the compost and find them rooted a few weeks later. Don't let me discourage you from trying - you'll never know if it works unless you try it!

If you are up for it, I'd suggest you try agar. I remember my parents used to make desserts with agar. Lab use agar is in powder form, and the agar you buy from the supermarket is in sheets or look like bundles of clear noodles. It's relatively common in Asian desserts and most Asian supermarkets carry it. In the lab, the medium I make is 8g of powdered agar in 1 liter of water (I'm not sure of the equivalent imperial units). I would suggest (regardless of agar or gelatin) that you transplant the seeding as soon as you can because there are few to no nutrients in either medium.

Keep an eye out for medium that starts to look cloudy. It is an early sign of contamination. Wiping everything down with 70% rubbing alcohol (including your hands) will help to keep things clean.

I like to use four foot shoplights that hold two tubes per fixture. I use two fixtures per shelf for most house plants, but for vegetable plants, you might want to use three or four. I prefer four foot tubes because the light output falls drastically on the last six inches of the tube. This means that with a twenty four inch tube only a twelve inch space in the center of the tube gives full light. on a four foot tube you have full light for a 36 inch space. Three times the light with only twice the wattage. actually this dropoff of light is quite useful since you can use the end area for plants that need less light, for example, begonias. My shelves are two feet wide by fout feet long. For garden plants, you will want to keep the lights as close to the tops of the plants as possible without actually touching. Be sure that you allow some method of raising the lights as the plants grow. Tomato plants started indoors in early April can easily reach eighteen inches tall by planting out time in mid may in our area. For light,I prefer to use a mixture of day light and soft white tubes. Daylight tubes are very high in blue light but weak in red, while soft white are rich in red, but deficient in blue. Don't waste your money on the pink "plant light" tubes such as are often used in aquariums. They don't give enough of any color light to be useful for bedding plants. If you buy "plant light" tubes use the Wide Spectrum kind. They give off a lot more light and the white color won't distort the colors of your plants. A sickly yellowish plant won't look a healthy dark green.
A reflective background will increase the light intensity in your growing area. The best reflector is flat white paint. Dont be fooled by ads for metallic foil or mylar. Foil reflects 85% of the light that hits it while white paint reflects about 95%. I personally stop by my local discount store and buy snow white (not beige or cream)shower curtain liners and hang them on three sides of my light stands. This increases the ambient light in the growing area by about 50%. I also place a small (5") desk fan on or near each shelf blowing on the ballast and tubes. this keeps the temperature in the growing area more even by distributing the excess heat throughout the room and thus reduces the load on your furnace.
My light stands are made of 1" pvc pipe. Plans are available for free on the internet. I do not glue the pipes together. they have stood up for three years of heavy use so far and can be easily broken down for storage when not needed.

Emmitst if you take a look at that link i posted in the post above yours then you may end up rethinking some of the stuff you've heard about bulbs.

Apparently some are very hit or miss despite what they claim on their labels. There is a fairly easy way to tell what sort of blues/reds/greens/yellows a fluorescent bulb is putting out, take a look at this thread to see how you can do it: http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/19935-want-to-see-the-colors-your-growlights-put-out/

Here is a link that might be useful: Easy spectrascope

This is wonderful! Thanks for posting your experiments! I was just shopping for a new starter soil and was researching the GA mix. Definitely going the GA route. Thanks again for doing the "dirty" work :)

For those of us doing the slower growers how about starting some slow ones like Pentas? Al

Why did you plant all the seeds if you don't want that many plants so have to thin them? You could have saved the extra seeds for next year. I usually get germination rates of 80% to 100%, so would be wasting a lot of seeds if I thinned plants. Plus I can't see killing a perfectly good seedling.

To answer your question about the age to transplant seedlings.... is anytime you can safely handle your seedlings from it's leaves (not stems). I have trasplanted seedlings 24 hours old, very carefully with a lot of other factors to make it successful but it can be done without negative side effects. I am more concerned with how to handle a young seedling than how developed it's root system is when transplanting so young.

I hope that helps!

Keriann~