6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed

that was supposed to say "plump" not "olump"

hello all good news , I think they got a little chilled for one thing but I highly believe it was the soiless mix I was growing them in. I didn't transplant until they developed there first set of true leaes and by then they started looking rather badd.

Within a week of transplant to a different mix containing sea based compost and fert. at 1/4 strength with "Neptunes Harvest Seaweed and Fish Emulsion they look great!

Here they are now. ( I should post the before pics! They looked AWFUL!)

When I do grow cucumbers or zuchini's, I never transplant. I always start the seeds in a normal large (and wide) container.

karenrei: Good point. I think I fell into the trap of assuming his climate was like mine, i.e still snow on the ground.

Jon

You should be fine. Peppers should be started 8 weeks before planting out and tomatoes should be started 6 weeks before planting out. Both the peppers and tomatoes will start growing more rapidly over the next few weeks.

Make sure you water only when the soil is almost completely dry, and not just dry on top. If you are using tube floroescents you should have the plants as close as possible, touching is fine with t12 tubes but no more than 2 inches away.

Jon

Thanks so much for all of your help. I guess I just need to be a little more patient.

kawaiineko: I have to admit, your original post confused me as well. I suggest you start answering your question by doing some searching on this forum or the Vegetable forum.

Prof

I never implied in any shape or form that the plants you
get at garden centers or nurseries that are vegetables are full grown plants.

Nor did I. I just commented that it seems weird to me to plan from the outset to grow your garden from store plants; I never claimed full grown. Please don't take everything so personally.

Now that this has been clarified, can I please receive an answer to my original question, which is this; which vegetables are best grown from seed, and which should be started using baby vegetable plants?

This is based on a faulty premise, though -- that there are some sort of common garden plants that are unreasonably hard to grow from seed, that an expert's help is needed. Nothing that you listed is at all hard to grow from seed or has long germination times. Long germination times are things like coffee, some flowers, a number of trees, etc. Mostly exotic things. What you listed are classic garden plants, and the traditional way to grow a garden is from seed. If your garden is any sort of reasonable size, buying large numbers of nursery plants every year will cost you a pretty penny indeed.

You should be happy with this news! You wanted to grow things from seed, and lucky for you, that's very easy for common garden plants like you listed above. Now, if you ever want to grow sequoias, or kauri, or something of that nature...

By starting the ones that take longer to germinate indoors I mean this; you plant them under grow lights, and wait for them to germinate. When they're big enough to be transplanted you transplant them to a bigger container. When the seedlings are big enough you gradually harden them off, and then you finally transplant them to the container you intend to grow them in, or directly into the ground that is your gardening plot.

You're making this needlessly complicated. In general, for plants started indoors, you just plant your seeds in little planter pots, cover them up with a little soil, keep them watered (preferably from the bottom) and in a place where they can get enough light so they won't get leggy, and in general just let them do their thing. You don't typically keep re-transplanting them unless you started way too early for some reason; they'll go straight from your planter pots to where you want them to grow for good (after hardening, of course).

There are lots of variants on this, of course -- peat pots, peat pellets, germinating in plastic bags, and so on down the line, but it all works out to basically the same thing. Starting from seed isn't nearly as hard as you're making it out to be. The only real challenge, in general, is making sure they get enough light. And all seedlings need this, not just a select few (although some are more likely to die with insufficient light than others -- lettuce, brassicas, etc).

The only transplanting I generally do apart from putting them straight into the ground is if I need to thin out some seeds; the ones that get removed get put into pots of their own. Transplanting shocks plants, slowing down their growth. Also, you want your plants to have a nice rootball that roughly fills the pot by the time they get put in the ground. If the plant is in too big of a pot, it'll lose all of the dirt, its roots will hang free, and there'll be more transplant shock.

Not all plants need to be started indoors. In fact, some are best started outdoors because they're more sensitive to being transplanted (melons and squash are the classic examples of this). In general, almost anything *can* be started outdoors, but you'll generally get a later start on the season when you do. And if some plants are marginal where you are (for example, eggplant is for us), if you don't start indoors, it may not make it to harvest before it gets cold again.

Thanks. Do they need to be gently eased into cooler temps or can I move them right now and leave them there?

I think that amount of temperature drop could cause the plants to wilt a little (although it would probably not kill them). Maybe you could move them in during the warmest part of the day, to ease the transition?

Glad to hear that :-)

Some plants tend to "stall" their growth above soil somewhat for varied times after being transplanted. It's the period I hate the most cuz it often makes me think they're gonna die, but I just wait it out & treat them like normal and they start back growing again. After a transplant, the seedling will tend to get it's hold on the soil again & grow some more roots before it takes back off above soil.

Peace - Steve

Depends on how much you disturbed them. Sometimes when seedlings first break through the soil, their first leaves can be damaged quite bad. They almost always survive it though. I'd just keep an extra eye on it & maybe fertilize with a watered down solution.

I had some marigolds I did something similar too and while they were a bit stunted they did survive. Then again marigolds are like weeds and very resilient.

I vote for jiffy pellets, just remember to take the netting off when you plant the pellets.

Pro-mix works great. The Sunshine Mix that wingward recommended is similar to Pro-Mix. I use Neptune Fish fertilizer to feed my seedlings.

Jon

Whatever's cheap :-) they all seem to work about the same.

Meh, I'd focus more on whatever's most efficient and puts out the most blue (highest kelvin temperature), not whatever's cheap ;) Purchase costs are just a small fraction of operating costs.

Hahahaha. My bedroom looks like that. . . and my kitchen. . . . and my bathroom. . . . and my deck. I share your addiction. Seed starters anonymous?

You should see my library. I took out all the "mobile" furniture and hung my two huge homemade LED grow chambers -- one with mostly blue light and the other with mostly red -- each lined with aluminum foil curtains. It looks like the aliens have arrived. ;)