Seeking advice about current indoor seed starting setup
dotagardener
9 years ago
Hello,
I am new to gardening and would like to start some plants indoor for transplanting outside into my garden. I will provide a link to the light I am using and a picture of my set up. I also have a small fan and a heater I use to but these are nearby just not seen in the picture. I was concerned and could not find any specific information about how high above my plants to put my particular light. My goal is too grow these sprouts 4-5 inches tall before transplanting. My direct sowing got pwned by birds but I now have a net to block them out when i transplant these until they are large enough I wont need it anymore. Any advice or recommendations are appreciated, although the more frugal your advice the more likely I would be able to use it. Thanks and here is a photo and a link to the light.
PS The reason I went for this light is because it was freely given to me by a cousin who is into fish bigtime.
-light appearance 7500k
-brightness 660 lumens
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Comments (10)
Nicholas Tide
9 years agoRelated Discussions
Starting seeds indoors -
Comments (5)This is my 3rd year starting seeds inside and still learning. Last year I used bottom watering,it was a system bought through mail order. It worked really well except for the plants that needs a little warmth to germinate, mainly my peppers which are my favorite I try grow a lot of them. I used a heat blanket but I think the heat had to travel to far to get to the seeds and they did not germinate well. So this year I used a heat mat bought just for that purpose. Instead of bottom watering I did what Steve did, using spray bottle and really soaking them. But the ground still dried out often. and only a few germinated, the ones that germinated some didnt make it, I believe because the top was moist but the roots were not, this was most prevalent in my peppers and onions. Next year I am going back to bottom watering again, but with the heat mat and using one tray water tight, and sit the other trays inside that one. They should stay watered well from the bottom and warm, and well I will keep on trying and learning. Mine are in my basement also with a consitent temp of about 58 degrees. Once the germinate and have first true leaves I move them from the heat and just sit them under the lights. As for the lighting I have two shop lights on a timer for 16 hours and about 3 to 5 inches above. I dont think the floresent give any heat, just light. Any how I answered with a book too. I say just try what you think keep a few notes and keep experimenting and learning. And have fun....See MoreNeed advice, going to try and start seeds indoors again
Comments (24)I have the same shelf as zenman, but I don't use a heat mat. I buy the mylar blankets from the sports dept at Walmart. They are in a small box hanging on a rack and the cost is about $3. I drape this small blanket over the top shelf and attach it with clothes pins to cover down to the next shelf. I don't use any lights on the top shelf, and because heat rises, the heat from the lights on the second shelf heat the area above that shelf. The blanket holds the heat in and the tray with the dome cover holds the moisture in the tray. At the first sign of germination, I remove the dome and move the tray down under the lights and drop the lights down until they almost touch the plants. I grow in a building that is well insulated and will only add heat if the outside temp is below freezing. The lights create some heat, but I intentional grow tomatoes on a cooler shelf. Peppers, on the other hand, need to be on one of the open shelves that has a light under it as they will benefit from the extra heat that rises from that light. I also have my light fixtures plugged into surge protectors so that I can control all of the lights by just flipping a switch rather than plugging and unplugging cords. The sports blankets that I use look a little like aluminum foil, but are soft and almost transparent. When I first start the plants I use another blanket to wrap around the shelves because the silver color tends to reflect more light onto the plants (I think). Sometimes I remove it from the lower shelves and some years I just add a small fan to make sure there is some air movement on the plants. Later in the season, I remove it because I don't want the plants to be too hot, but I leave the top part covered and continue to use it as a germination chamber. I am attaching a picture, but the light wasn't on in the room when I took the picture so you have to look closely to see the top shelf which has no lights. I have watered from the bottom, from the top, and misted and I never have had damping off, so I can't say which is best. I would never mist if I wasn't running a fan though. Here is a link that might be useful: My shelf...See MoreQuestion regarding indoor seed starting set-up?
Comments (13)I don't understand the purpose of the drop cloths, and like Larry, I'm concerned about the fire risk. Raising seeds indoors will lose its appeal really fast if your light-shelf set-up burns down the house. Tomato seedlings should be grown on at cool temperatures after the seeds germinate. The ideal temperature for them is 65 degrees. Leaving seedlings on a seed germination mat is risky and can damage them. I have a seed germination mat and rarely use it. If I'd known how easily 95% of the plants I grow from seed would germinate indoors without a germination mat, I never would have bought one. Some years I don't even dig it out of storage and use it at all. When I do use it, I move the entire flat off the mat once 50% of the cells in the 72-cell flat have germinated seeds in them. About the only vegetable seed I'll use the germination heat mat for is pepper seeds, particularly older seeds I've had a few years. I often germinate my tomato, pepper and other seeds in zip-lock bags like George mentioned. As long as I remove them from the zip-lock bag before the plant stems and roots become intertwined with one another, they don't mind being moved from the bags to the flats of soil-less mix. I find it very efficient because I'll have full flats with each cell filled with seedlings, instead of having flats with some empty cells because the seeds in them failed to germinate. I prefer to grow seedlings on for a few weeks in conditions that are fairly cool. Because the guest room where I put my light shelf faces the south and has big windows, I struggle to keep the room from getting too hot for them. To keep it cool, I close off the HVAC vent in that room so that it isn't getting any heat when the heater is on. I let them have a couple of hours of early morning sun and then close the drapes so that the room doesn't heat up too much. I keep a fan running 224/7. When you raise seedlings indoors in a room that is too hot, they quickly grow into monster plants, and that's not good for them. When they grow large quickly, they outgrow the available space under the plant lights. When that happens, what are you going to do with them? I used to move mine to my screened-in back porch, but once we built the greenhouse, that became the place I put them when I kick them out of the nice warm house. They might get warmer in the greenhouse than I'd like during the day, but then they get very close to freezing temperatures in there most nights, so that keeps them from growing rampantly like they would indoors. It is so early to be starting tomato seeds indoors that I get a headache thinking about it. You only need to start them 6 to 8 weeks before your recommended transplanting date. The OSU-recommended planting dates for tomato transplants are April 10-30, with the April 10th date being intended for folks in far SE OK and the April 30th date being intended for folks in far NW OK. The rest of us have to chose an appropriate transplanting date somewhere between April 10 and April 30, based on where we live in the state and on our local soil temperatures and air temperatures. Sometimes, in a really hot winter with an early last freeze, we can put tomato plants in the ground up to a month early and get away with it, but years like that are few and far between---maybe once or twice a decade, and it just happened in 2012, so I don't know if we'll have another year like that any time soon. I usually start my tomato seeds on Super Bowl Sunday, and that can be far too early for me in years when the air and soil temperatures stay cold deep into spring. And, it can be almost too late in a year like 2012 because it means my seedlings will barely be big enough to be transplanted early. So, I feel like it is the exact right time to start them since it isn't precisely right for long, cold springs or short, warm winters. It is right in the middle. If I started tomato seeds as early as you have, my husband would lock me in the cellar until the insane urge to start seeds now had passed. That is because he knows all too well how crazy it makes me to have big, healthy plants indoors that cannot go into the ground for another month or two. Because our weather is so erratic, even when I start them on time, I sometimes cannot put them into the ground for another 2-6 weeks beyond the preferred transplanting date. The last time we had a year like that, it just above drove me crazy, and I just about drove him crazy. So, since you started your seeds so early.....welcome to the insanity! Dawn...See Morepictures of your indoor setup after seeds germinate...
Comments (42)UCVinero, Sorry, I've been a little preoccupied the last two weeks. Haven't had much time to devote to the forums. I agree with Butch T. I bottom heat around 85-90 degrees and have had 90-100% germination everytime with this variety within 10-15 days. I am very surprised by the result. I've had 4-5 others share similar success. Perhaps they require higher temps than other C. Chinese? I can't confirm because I always use this temp range and plant in Pro-Mix Bx. Chris...See More
snapdrag
9 years agodotagardener
9 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
oldbat2be
9 years agodotagardener
9 years agolast modified: 9 years agodotagardener
9 years ago
PROShirley Bovshow
9 years agooldbat2be
9 years ago
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