6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed

I think my first couple years, in order to maximize heat and light, I secured cardboard to the wire-mesh shelves I was using. I covered the pre-cut cardboard on one side with aluminum foil, made holes at the top, and twist tied them onto the shelves. When I needed to get to the flats I lifted up the cardboard like a flap. This also effectively served to keep the cats out. In fact, spare lengths of cardboard seem to have been used on many occasions to keep cats out of whatever it is they would have made a mess of. :)

I have found that my cats made the connection between the spray bottle and the plants. A few squirts at the cats have been helpful. I also leave the spray bottle "guarding" the plants, and the cats dont' go near. :-) I still keep the door closed most of the time anyway, just to be safe.

So glad you enjoyed my picture! I too get inspired when I see other people's seedling pics.
I read that impatiens like it cool at night. It was most likely the heat from the lamps and not the light that's been helping with the germination. Gotta keep them just moist! I went away and my husband almost killed them as he was just watering them every 2 days! BTW, it took a while to get buds though, but the plants really took off once I put them into window boxes.

started with bean,
I am so happy they germinated, I bet your right about the heat from the lights!
The seed coating is still on the tops of the leaves. So how often do you water?
I also am curious now that I got them growing, what now? I am clueless! ha ha! Well I still am trying to decide if it is to early to take off the dome? Do you fertilize yours and if so with what? And when? Questions, questions!
Again thanks so much for sharing your picture! It is worth a thousand words!
Do you keep yours pretty cool?

I started some a few weeks ago, no plastic, no heat mats...nothing. I did cover them with soil because I wasn't aware until after the fact, that they say aren't supposed to. They did fine.

I have also used gallon bags as a dome...this may sound crazy but this year I started about 16 different kinds of seeds and couldn't afford the seed trays with Domes at $7 a piece. I went to the dollar tree, got the little 8x8 alluminum baking trays that were 4 for a Dollar. they are very thin but I'm not cooking with them so it didn't matter.

I filled them with soil, watered, sowed my seeds and slid the hole thing into a gallon bag, filled with air....and ta-dah....had a small greenhouse. It worked GREAT for ALL of my seedlings.

Thank you all for taking time to respond and provide me with this information. I sowed them about 5 days ago - so I guess I have a long while to wait.
I also just put them out in trays ( recycled from plants purchased last year) in front of the patio door. No heating mat and no lights. Usually my plants do quite well with that.
Happy Gardening - summer is coming close!!

I have them fairly close under artifical lighting. The color is virbrant and the leaves seem healthy, so you'd think that both of those would suffer if light wasn't sufficient right?
So should I just stake them with a toothpick like you did and hope they toughen up? I think I'll do that anyways just in case.
Thanks!

With low light seedlings grow larger leaves to get more photosynthesis and also elongate the stems. There is NO substitute for adequate light. Al

You are keeping your plants too wet and the resulting moss will kill the seedlings if not remedied. Your seedlings have roots and the soil surface does not need to be kept WET. Al

The "moss" is actually mold and is a common thing when the potting mix is kept too wet and it often comes up for discussion here. It can kill the seedling so yes, it needs to be stopped. It leads to the disease called "damp-off" (lots of info here on it) and rots the stem at the soil line. Gently scrape off the surface what you can.

Most new to seed starting overwater and young seedlings need air in the soil as much as they need water. Water drives that air out of the soil mix. So, as already mentioned, you need to cut back on the watering so that the surface soil dries a bit and improve the sir circulation and then the mold will die. Part of the problem is using the egg cartons.

Very young seedlings can easily be transplanted to larger containers and root damage is actually much less at this stage than it will be later. It is called "pricking" seedlings. It takes a light hand but it is best to get them out of the egg carton ASAP and transplanted.

Dave

Kiddo:As Dave said-some seed have a short life-Onions,parsnips etc.Fresh seed each year is best but i would not throw year old seed out unless your long on money & short on time.Sometimes a little extra bottom heat helps.This year i had luck starting 4 varieties onions[old seed].I did seed heavier-25-50%.I got 50-88% germination.So during this cool[damn cold]winter it's fun to seed/grow under lights.Just my opinion--fez920 Wi Z5

I have had onion seeds up to 2 years old germinate at about 50%, but I know onion seed is notoriously short-lived. The seed companies do nothing to prevent germination.
JMO,
Tom

My experience is to thin them sooner rather than later, I've had good luck for a few years doing it. All my Kale that has been transplanted and survived but lost a few due to overseeding, it happens. I use a spoon and slide it an inch away parallel to the tap root and dig 2" past the length of the plant itself, it should lift out with a little help of your finger, have the hole in the new pot ready thats deeper than the lenght of the root. Then just place the seedling in its hole and slide the spoon out. Trial and error will teach a lot but a hint cant hurt. I would do this when the plant is like 3-4" tall, or when it has set its true leaves. The roots will bind quickly so its better sooner than later, I separated mine when they were just sprouting, about 2"-3" tall, I'd say its safe then for the broccoli.

Thanks for the advice greenthumb..I think I will try a couple tomorrow and see how it goes..

Petzold6596 & Dave-

Thank you very much. I don't have a particular seed in mind.

I started to catalog my seeds this year and just wanted to be sure. As to not save seed of an undesirable offspring.....:)

Also, Thanks for the info on the corn Dave. I did not know that all corn are hybrid.

Have a great night all and thanks again for the help.

Yea, corn cross pollinates easily due to large fields.