I start seeds in those standard seed starting trays (72 cells with a clear lid) over a heat mat. I use a single 6-pack for each variety, with the goal of having all the seeds in a 6-pack germinate within a day or two of each other. As soon as the first seeds germinate in a 6-pack, I take them out of the seed starting tray and put them under lights (no heat). But I found that with some vegetables (mostly spinach and lettuce) the ungerminated seeds in that 6-pack would often take 9 or 10 days more to germinate (for the same vegetable) and often would not germinate at all. I now cut up the 6-packs of spinach and lettuce if some seeds have germinated and some have not. I move the newly germinated seeds under lights in a cool room and leave the rest of the 6-pack, with it's ungerminated seeds in the heated, lidded tray. I use small strips of duct tape to label cells of trays that have been cut up. Sometimes I only have to remove one or two of the cells and the rest germinate together. It's a pain, but I don't want to have a 10-day difference in the germination of seeds for the same type of vegetable. I will continue to use the 72 cell starter cells, it's the best way for me to get a lot of different things started in a small space. I can get them cheap at Agway or online and they cut up easily with regular scissors. The coffee filter thing didn't work for me, I found it too easy to damage the delicate roots and found it more labor intensive to get the seeds planted in a hurry once they sprouted. To each his/her own.

My cactus I start when it starts to warm up here the end of May or in June. Depending on the succulents I start Gasteria and Haworthia, in the Fall about the end of Sept.they are Winter growers, I don't do much seed growing and pass on to a friend to do it for me. Gasteria seed I just them in the pot with the mother plant. What can I do with them when I have thousands of Aloe seed? I just give them to my club memebers. Norma

I just bought a bunch of inexpensive shop lights, and hung them from a wire shelf rack. It works very well, and I grow a lot of seedlings indoors but also overwinter a few small plants. With the actual light tubes, there are some that are better than others, and they'll say 'natural sunshine' or 'full spectrum' or something like that.

I don't grow anywhere near that much, but I do have a 6' x 8' Palram hobby greenhouse here in zone 5b Colorado. Even though the greenhouse is great for extending the season on each end by a few months, it's way too cold here for seed starts in Jan or Feb. And it's too expensive to heat it consistently. It's not a well-insulated greenhouse at all. I have a small space heater I use for the occasional cold night in the Spring or Fall but that just keeps it from getting below 35F or so, but not when every night is below freezing (as they are around here during Winter). That's too cold for seed starts. I do my tomato and pepper seed starts indoors in late Jan, transplant up, and then move them to the greenhouse in early Spring when the temps are not quite as consistently cold and I can keep the greenhouse above 35F. When larger, the plants seem to survive cool nights as long as the days are fairly warm. I recently built a grow rack I'm using for the seed starts that seems to work well so far, and fits in a compact space (the furnace closet). It's a 24" x 18" x 6' baker's rack with LED shop lights, with Reflectix draped down all 4 sides. While I also use it for growing indoor lettuce and spinach, I could fit 8 72-cell seed trays on it if I wanted to plant that much.