Very nice! You have such healthy growing seedlings there-good job. While photo number 3 seedlings look a bit crowded, they are still showstoppers...lol. What lights have you been using? I do see the poultry type light. I use a few of these with spiral flourescent bulbs for my tropical trees indoors over the winter. Whatever you're doing, it's working :)

I'm using Daylight Deluxe bulbs. However, I picked up a 10 pack of higher efficiency bulbs that use 25 watts instead of 32 watts. They have a 4100 temp, but output more lumens. I figure I can maybe split them...1 daylight and 1 HE bulb...n ot sure how the electronic ballasts will like that tho.

The flourescents are 1/2 on during day and then all are on from dusk til around 1AM, then off until 8 or 9 AM.

I transplanted the peppers into individual pots today...some are looking a little...wilty even with thorough bottom watering....is that normal? or is there a problem???

I also transplanted a coule of the stevia seedlings into pots. They haven't grown much at all since germinating a couple weeks ago. I hope that's normal!!! Perhaps I'll put them back on the heat mat a little to warm them up since it's only around 70 degrees.

What are the little pouches the tomato seedlings are in. They look quite handy. When transplanting, can you plant bag and all? Where did you buy them? Your seedlings look great, and thanks for posting.

Being my first year starting from seed, I tried a variety of materials for germination, etc.

The Burpee trays that include the wicking mat, etc seem to be most reliable for germination purposes, as long as you don't need to add bottom heat.

The Burpee coir pellets (the pouches you noticed) seem to be easiest for transplant, but watch that they don't dry out and some dry out faster than others in the same tray. Still, they seem good for bottom heat germination, until the clear dome comes off, at which time you should remove them from the heat as they will dry and shrivel lickety split!

The seed starting mix seems ok...I used Miracle Gro seed starting mix...tho some things aren't germinating. I am not sure whether it is the mix or the seeds, or what.

For transplanting I like the coir pellets better. While the burpee kit is good for even moisture content and thus, even germination, what I found in transplanting my peppers into individual containers yesterday, was no matter how I tried I ended up partly ripping the plants out of the deep narrow tray. Alternatively, it was pretty easy to pll apart the mesh seam on the coir pellets and plunk my Stevia and brassicas into plant pots.

I chose the coir pellets and planting medium as coir is much more renewable and is less likely to contain the various pathogens causing damp off. So far I have had very good luck in this respect....now if I could only find more room for all the trays of seedlings!!!

I think tomorrow or Wdnesday I will turn my front porch into a temporary greenhouse/coldframe by wrapping with 6 mil poly. I think it should be relatively safe to put the cool season plants out, like the various brassicas. Also will put the daylily seedlings out. The night temps starting this week aren't supposed to go below around 30, and I should be able to gain a few degrees at least just from the house wall and the warming soil. Of course, I'll probably bring them in the ffirst few nights or even weeks, until I am comfy leaving them out all night. I'm rapidly running out of natural light to supplement with grolights...

I planted some seeds in starter trays and some have already sprouted! The problem is -- I have two rows that have sprouted, then 4 rows that haven't, then another row that is sprouting. Help! What do I do now? I know if I leave the ones that have sprouted under the dome they will probably rot. Do I have to cut the starter trays apart and put the sprouted ones in something else? Thanks for your help!

remove the dome. Keep the top of the planting medium damp but not soggy on the rows that haven't sprouted yet. I just bottom watered and that worked fine.

The other rows will germinate when ready...I found that once some started most all my seeds in a tray were germinating within a few days to a week.

But you need to get the dome lid off to help air circulation.

Thanks so much zengeos! I will keep my fingers crossed that I have the same kind of luck with the rest of my seeds that you did!

From one newby seed starter to another...don't worry if not everything germinates and is successful. Learn from your mistakes and your success rate will increase. I still only have around 80% success rate, BUT most of the seeds that didn't germinate were those from Artistic Gardens as sample packs. I've had horrible luck with their seeds.

A few poor germinators were seeds from exchanges, but I didn't take steps to prep them properly in a cleansing solution or tea, which I just learned about today and have now done for nearly everything and will useregularly from now on.

Zengeos -- thanks for those words of encouragement. I am so excited that ANY of my seeds germinated, I can't stand it! I won't hope for every seed:^)

I followed directions on the packets re: planting depth, etc. but would you please share the tea trick? I don't know about that.

I just searched on tea in this forum...plenty of results...

:)

your stuff looks amazing!! i LOVE them!! being a newbie at this i did the dumb thing!! LOL while i was filling the tray (72 cell) i put my castor beans in with some low growing stuff and i got to thinking later, geee, how smart am i?? i should have put all tall stuff in together and all short things in together!! i did soak my seeds over night in hot to the touch water and my balsam sprouted the very next day!! but i put him in a baggie with soil and sealed it!! LOL i'm trying all kinds of methods, ws, lights, baggie w soil, and to see what works the best for me. LOL but i LOVE your plants!! :'))

Zengeos your seedlings look great. I'm a first newbie as well. I have 6 72 cell flats and all are doing well. Each cell has 1-4 seedlings in them and it's time to transplant. Does anyone have a recommended media for transplanting other that seed mix. Would potting soil be ok and should I go to a little larger size cell (the current ones are the 1 inch variety). We have a new 10x12 HFGH which is just about ready to go, the cooling fans are here and ready to go in this weekend. What a blast, I just wish I knew a little bit more but this will come in time.

medontdo...I did the tall mixed with short thing too...I planted a climbing vine with tomato seeds just 2 weeks ago! Luckily I tried a different setup where I had empty cell packs and was able to just separate the vine from the tomatoes, etal. The vine is like 5" tall, the tomato seedlings about 1-2".

Thanks for the kind words.

I too am winter sowing. I have 86 different varieties winter sown, with 20-25 sprouting so far,

So, next year I will likely WS even more...

bwright..some people use styrofoam cups, but I got the little plastic cups. Also use used yogurt cups...just make sure you put drainage holes in them. I used white 8 oz cups for the peppers. The brassicas got a mix of 18 oz, yogurt cups and sourcream/cottage cheese containers. The nice thing is I can reuse some next year...and what I can't goes in recycle bin...so doing my part to reduce/reuse/recycle.

Be careful with the potting soil you use. My smaller brassicas had problems and several succumbed to damping off, even though they were developing their 2nd set of true leaves...the chamomile tea spritz/bottom watering seems to have helped stave off that for now.