Interesting Marg. I started mine in a flat tray with seed starting soil inside my house. They germinated fine, but when I transplanted, the soil crumbles, exposing the roots, and maybe half survived. What are plug trays? Sounds like something that might keep the roots together when transplanted. Also, my beets that survived grew pretty much on top of the soil. (that was my first attempt also) Sounds like I need to dig them in a few inches. Hope we get more posts on what works with beets.

Bottom heat is for germination only. It is NOT for growing on once germinated. It cooks the roots and the seedlings die. The other likely explanation is over-watering. It kills more young seedlings than anything else. Young seedling roots need the air normally found in just barely moist soil more than they need water. Remove the heat and cut way back on your watering and you should see much less loss. Natural light this time of year is never enough for young seedlings. Not nearly enough intensity and not enough hours of light. Check out the FAQ here on the supplemental lighting recommended. As to how long they can stay in plug trays, it all depends on the size of the cells in the plug tray - they come in many different sizes - but for the most part "plug trays" are for germination only too and transplanting into cell packs either at the cotyledon stage or at the longest, once the first true leaves begin to emerge is needed. Hope this helps. Dave

Hi Roberta... Your question is good..however...us "pros" use plug trays in many ways. FIrst, it depends on the size of the plugs...for instance, I use 501's- that means there are 501 tiny cells per tray. Those would be for things with super tiny seed...begonias, petunias ect. It is unlikely you are using those though. There are many, many sizes. My guess is you have 72's or, perhaps 35's. Does not really matter..the answer to your question about soil is what you need. Use the BEST stuff you can find, a soiless mix (all peat based). The best thing you can do is pop into a greenhouse and ask if they will sell you a bag of their mix(it is a commercial blend sold to growers, many different brands). It should cost you about 15-20 dollars. It will be a big bag, not to worry, you will use it all. They may also only have it as a compressed bale...'bout 35 bucks. The soil you use in a plug tray is the most important thing. Yes, plug trays are easier to use and save a lot of space. The top-notch soil mix will pay off in everything you plant. It is very worth your time to find this stuff. BTW..yes, there are specific mixes that can be bought for plug production but you do not need this. You need the all purpose greenhouse mix. Your other question...I used to live in Rockford and was a grower there too. I got smart and moved to the land of sun (TEXAS!) but I remember well the schedual for perennials. I assume you plan to sell them as green plants. If you had a greenhouse it would not be to early to plant but since you are doing this in your house, the light levels will be way to low and your seedlings will probably stretch and be a sickly mess in very short order. If it were me, I would wait until March or so to get started. This way you can at least be moving your trays out into better light on warm days. A better way is to start your seedlings in the mid-summer and winter them over (once dormant, a garage will do pretty well to protect them). As spring comes around, you simply bump them up to a bigger container and you will have blooming plants to sell (at much higer prices). Growing stuff in Illinois is frustrating this time of year- even when you have a greenhouse. The quality of light is just so poor. I hope this helps a little....your questions are actually rather big and I know I only have touched on the answers. Hang in there- Tim

Your display is very important to haw well your produce sells - we had a vendor a few years back that had some of the best specialty potatoes at one of the markets we attend that was a total failure in marketing. He set cardboard boxes on the ground, chainsmoked all morning and dressed like he had just come from digging the spuds. His produce was very nice and reasonably priced but people took one look at his "booth" and shyed away. Was a shame as when you got to know him he was a great guy. Over the years we have tried several different things - some work better than others. We started using small baskets for our display but they were not very efficient on using table space (tall and round meant people were constantly digging through to see the bottom and damaging the produce). We now use wooden crates that I build in the offseason but several vendors use pop flats or plastic trays which also work well. We also try to keep products in a logical order on the tables - new potatoes go next to the green beans, all the summer squashes next to each other, ect. It's on old marketing trick you see in grocery stores and works well. Signage is also important. We tried the old style sandwich board out front with prices but for soome reason people never looked at it. Now we use regular paper and MS Word to make signs on slips about 3" tall with the name of the item and the price. Those get laminated (one of the best investments we made was a simple hand crank laminator from Staples) then taped to the table right in front of the item. The signs are re-usable and as prices change we simply make a new tag filling the old one in the market box for future work. Your still going to get people asking what your prices are but it has helped cut a lot of that problem back. Boulderbelt sugested getting ice chests to use - could not agree more. Try watching garage sales as they are a great place to find decient used coolers at a good price. We like the 48 quart size best. They hold enough to get the job done but are not too heavy to manage. He also sugested an EZ-Up canopy. Again right on the money. We have both 10X10 and 12X12's - the 12's are nice but not as durable as the 10's. We always (ALWAYS) always use tiedowns on the corners no matter how calm the weather is. The tent goes up then the tiedown goes on immediatly (concrete block and bungies) on all the legs. The Richland Market we attend is in a rather open area and has proven to be a canopy killer. I bet there were a dozen canopies blown loose there last year including on of ours when the stall next ot us broke loose and caught the corner of ours. You'll have a blast doing this and all the little things will come to you after a bit. Tom