6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed

I am starting Petunias for the first time too!
I bought the Tidal Wave kind that gets tall and wide. I hope we all have luck in starting them for our gardens. My seeds are the pelleted kind, I sown them on the 8th of march and the soil temp is usually right at 75-78 degree's. Let us know of your progress as far as them germinating if you'd like! I would love to learn myself as well on how to get really healthy stocky plants!
Good luck !

I got germination!!! I am growing a Double Flowering Mix(sowed on March 6th) and one called Prism Sunshine (sowed on March 4th. This morning I took the plastic cover off and a bunch of them have sprouted!!! I also have Tidal Wave Silver which i planted on March 6th, but clumsy me picked up the container and dropped it, spilling the dirt and seed all over the floor:( We will see how many of these germinate...there was only 12 seeds to begin with!!!

Good Luck Everyone!!!
Sarah

Thanks again generator 00 for your help. If you come across anymore info I would be greatful!! Same here, I will send anything your way.

I started some under grow lights and they are doing well. I use 1 teaspoon of miracle grow to 1 gallon of water. I set them in a pan and let them soak up the water. I am in texas so I will set them out in the next couple of weeks. I did transplant them into bigger pots when they had 4 leaves. Hope this helps.
Happy growing.

Not sure how well this works on such a large seed... but you may want to try tossing the seeds in a glass of water to see if they are viable.

I believe the rule of thumb is if a seed floats it is non-viable as the hollow chamber causes it to float. Seeds that sink are still dense and (supposedly) viable.

I bought Yellow Crookneck squash last year (from Totally Tomatoes) and I tried to start them both in pots and in my heated germinator. They never sprouted. Not in the paper towel, either. I finally contacted the seed company and they sent me another pack which, surprisingly, sprouted just fine. I have no clue what happened to the first pack.
Kris

Thank you for your responses! I appreciate it :) Yes, digdirt, I'm as "bad" as my daughter for not putting in drainage holes - guess I've done it for so long that I figured it was the best way (although, if they had had holes, the particle board shelf they were on would probably have been ruined!).

Here's what I did, I gently and grabbed the serranos first turned them so the water could drain out of the corner. That was working wonderfully, then "plop" - out came all the soil and seedlings - argh! So I quickly repotted them in some fresh soil. They aren't dead yet! We'll see how hardy they are.

Then, having learned from the serranos, I gently placed my hand over the beardstongue and drained them out the side corner. So far so good, I put them on a heat pad to expedite evaporation (I had it out for the petunias). We'll see what happens. If I had another plug in, I'd put the fan on them too but right now my strip is full.

I'd love to put them outside but we haven't seen the sun in 4 days. Tomorrow's high is supposed to be 25! Spring is just so unpredictable :)

I would replace the heating pad with the fan. You don't want to steam em.

Sorry but I have to disagree. While it is true that "Tomato's are a warm/hot weather plant. they suffer in any temperature below 70F day & night.." is somewhat true for full grown plants in the garden, it is not true for seedlings. Most tomato seedlings are grown in greenhouses where the air temp is maintained between 55 and 65 to avoid leggy growth and associated problems.

Your garage will work and is used by many for starting seeds. I have linked a recent post on this question here below. It also links to a long discussion on the same issue over on the growing tomatoes forum here with even more details.

You only need to make a couple of modifications to be successful.

1 - place some sort of insulation on the shelf above. Anything to keep the warmth from escaping through the self above - a folded blanket, piece of foam, old newspapers, etc. and a another "chill block" on the shelf you will be using to keep the cold air from the floor from getting to the plants. You will just set the trays of plants on top of it.

2 - buy some cheap clear plastic to create a tent around the set of shelves. It needs to be cut at the corners or down the center to allow you access and so you can open it for air when the temp inside gets above 70-75 for the heat the lights put out.

3 - include inside the tent a small thermometer to monitor temps and a small fan to help circulate the air around the plants.

4 - if the temps in the garage drop toward freezing you may need a space heater for those really really cold nights.

Good luck with your plants. Be sure to harden them off well before putting them in the garden. ;)

Dave

PS: plants in the garden will easily tolerate temps down into the upper 40's if there is no wind. They won't set fruit at those temps but the plants will survive. It is the soil temps in the garden that control plant safety in the spring, not the air temps. ;)

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Seeds in an Unheated garage?

would it be easier to just grow them indoors with the setup I have or would I still need to create a greenhouse out of plastic with a fan and all?? wonder if I can talk my wife into that......:/

list of tomato seeds I have started already.

1. Cherokee Purple
2. Cherokee Green
3. Speckled Roman
4. Delicious tomato
5. Brandy Boy
6. Beefsteak
7. Roller Coaster Cherry
8. Riesenstraube

These are two different types of peas. The Green Arrow are shelling peas, meaning that you only eat the actual round peas inside the pod. The Sugar Snaps, you eat the pod also. I grow both for two different purposes.
Martha

I like sugar snap because they are edible pod. Just pick and eat! The vines get really big though so make sure you have enough support for them.

I would winter sow the zukes and squash. I dont know if you can do the cukes and definately direct sow the beans. Check out the winter sowing forum if you need info.

I wouldn't bother starting cukes and beans inside. I've tried zucchini and summer squash indoors and I think it sped the progress somewhat. I'll be doing it again this spring about 4 weeks before I put them outside.
Rick

IF your soil temps are high enough for germination and growth - you don't want to mulch until it is - you can mulch the whole thing, then pull the mulch 2-3" back from the rows where you will put the seeds, plant the seeds. Once the seedlings are 2-3" tall, slowly replace the mulch up to the sides of the row of plants.

Pine straw is a good mulch - we use it sometimes too - but it is acidic and it does take more time than other mulches to decompose so be sure to keep it away from direct contact with the stems of the plants so it won't bind up any nitrogen that they may need. OR you can layer on the pine straw and then add additional fertilizer by just scattering it over the mulch.

Dave

Thank you :-)

Thank you both for the responses, that seed database will come in very handy. Now I have another question. On the database it says to sow for most of my seeds around 68f, though my temperatures are now above that, here in florida, and I also dont have much room in my fridge to place sowed seeds. Can I start the seeds in the fridge either on a plate, or maybe the paper towel method inside of a bag thats damp, for a week, then sow them in containers? Or does the stratification need to take place in soil?

Thank you again for your help with my questions.

I prefer to put the seeds in something like a tiny zip lock with a tsp or two of moist sterile sand or moist vermiculite and put those in refrigerator. Larger seeds don't need to be completely buried, just in contact with the moist medium. Write the date on the bag, when the appropriate time has passed you can sow the entire contents of the bag, vermiculite and all if you wish without having to extract each seed.

If you are going to chill first, I'd plan for at least 2 weeks, one week isn't much time to be helpful.

The suggestions given for temperatures are approximate and not meant to be precise (with very few exceptions), a few degrees one way or the other will be fine

I have started in both flats and individual cells/containers. I find that I save myself a step if starting in cells/cups because depending on the seed variety I don't need to transplant to larger comtainers until being planted in the garden. When using flats it does seem a bit easier to weed out smaller plants. I think it really comes down to a space issue and how much room you want to dedicate to seed starting. Needless to say flats can be a bit more compact and easier to move depending on your setup.

I think I read somewhere that slightly injuring the tips of a seedling's roots will make them grow faster. Anyone else ever hear of this?

Where can I get No Damp?

I am in Canada, so I am not sure if it is the same in the US, but I can get it just about anywhere, Sprawlmart, Homedepot, Lowes, anywhere that has a small gardening section, usually in the area where you would pick up rooting hormone, or those small bottles of african violet drops... Not that No damp has anything to do with African Violets, they just tend to be in the same area.

And BTW I am the original poster of this thread too.. So I wont miss the responses... :)

Oops! Good. ;)

Dave

Beatrice - it is all explained in detail in the Seed Starting Lighting FAQ here.

Last year I experimented a lot with starting seeds indoors and learned a few things in the process. I thought IÂd share a bit of what I learned through trial and error so that you can skip my mistakes.

LIGHT

The hardest thing to provide seeds started indoors is light. ItÂs almost impossible to use just the light from windows. Most likely youÂll need a grow light. You can use something as simple as an incandescent grow bulb that fits into a regular household lamp. They are available for purchase for between $5-$15. I have one such bulb in an old lamp that has a moveable arm.

YouÂll need to keep the light on for between 12-15 hours each day. The easiest way to do this is to use a timer that you plug the lamp into, which will turn the light on and off automatically. Timers are really cheap and can be picked up at a hardware store. Of course, you could also turn the lights on and off yourself. But seeds need both light and dark, so donÂt think you can get ahead by leaving the light on all the time.

SOIL

IÂve had the best results using peat moss mixed with perlite. IÂve also had success with Jiffy peat pellets. What hasnÂt worked for me is regular potting soil. I donÂt know why, but IÂve had trouble getting good germination results with the potting soil I use outdoors.

You should know that peat may not be the most environmentally friendly seed starting medium. A more eco-sensitive option is coir, which is made from the husks of coconuts. You should be able to get peat or coconut coir where ever you purchase potting soil.

WHEN TO SOW

The first thing you need to know is when your last frost date is. This is the day which is, on average, the last day your area can reasonably expect a frost. If you donÂt know your last frost date, this site will tell you the date for your area.

After you know that date, count backwards 4-6 weeks. That is the date you should sow your seeds indoors. The longer the particular type of seed you are growing takes to germinate, the more time you should allow. But a quick to germinate seed should be fine with 4 weeks. You can find out how long a particular seed takes to germinate by looking at the back of the seedÂs packet.

WATERING

In my experience, itÂs best to water seedlings and yet-to-sprout seeds from the bottom. By this I mean putting the container the seed/ling is growing in into a larger container that has an inch or two of water in the bottom and allow the dirt in the container to draw up the water through the drainage hole.

If you water from the top (i.e. the normal way) you are likely to disrupt the seed or damage a delicate seedling.

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