Jasmine, I noticed that the lamp reflector in your picture is round. Can you tell us more about the light you are using? In other words, is that an old-style incandescent? A cfl? Something else? One bulb? Many? A saying I've seen many places is that "You are not a gardener until you have killed something." Congratulations, you are now a real gardener. If you want to try something that doesn't require additional light, read up on WinterSowing. There's a forum here, with detailed FAQ's. Wintersown seeds are planted in covered containers outdoors and don't sprout until the weather is consistently warm enough. I start many plants that way, but I grow indoors under lights too. Most wintersown plants in my zone wait until April or even May to sprout. I get desperate to see green well before then. So every year I start seeds for something that needs long months of indoor care, so I have something to nurture / torture through the long winter. ;-) I second the use of mosquito control products for fungus gnats. I keep a metal tea ball in a watering can. The tea ball holds a few of the mosquito "bits" or a quarter of a "dunk" and keeps the crumbs from clogging the spout. I replace the dunk periodically. I keep the watering can filled and use that to water anything that needs a drink, all winter. I ask about the light because I suspect you haven't got enough light on your seedlings. I don't think that western window is going to be enough either. I've killed many seedlings thinking that winter sunlight filtered through window glass would be enough. With what you've invested in seeds, potting mix, trays, and time, it makes sense to get proper lights. You'll also want a timer and a power strip. Look for a timer that accepts a three-prong plug. Plug the timer into the wall, the power strip into the timer and the lights into the power strip. Now you can run up to six lights synchronized on one timer. My preference is for fluorescent tubes. So far the plants are happy as well. Two of the two-bulb shoplights, or a single four-bulb fixture, are necessary to light a standard flat of seedlings. A single shoplight isn't wide enough and the plants at the edges will stretch and lean in. With four of the 4' bulbs side by side you can light two flats. I learned the hard way that if I have room for two flats, to only sow one flat with seeds. Half a flat would be even better. I'm working on my restraint. Once the seedlings in the first flat grow and need to be potted up into larger quarters, that extra space is necessary to keep them all lit. I use the 4' size because they're easy to find (I got a pair of fixtures free through Freecycle) and the 4' bulbs come in at the lowest price, most options, and most readily available. Fluorescent tubes come in different diameters. T stands for Tube. T12 is the fattest, T5s are the skinny sort found in many "grow lights." I use T12s because I already have the fixtures. If you're light-shopping, T8s are highly recommended on the Growing under Lights forum. "Cool White" bulbs work fine. Get them very close to your seedlings as digdirt said. You'll need to be able to adjust the height of either the lights or the trays as seedlings grow. If your household includes anyone with waggy tails, poking paws, or grabby fingers then you will want the lights mounted securely and both lights and seed trays out of reach. If that's not an issue, you can carefully prop them on something, but remember you're dealing with thin glass. Do check the temperature as well, and check it against the preferred ranges for each plant you're growing. Any accurate thermometer with the correct range will do the job. Good luck! Edie

I just hate the look of plastic, no other reason. I did transplant them into gallon plastic (ick! lol) pots yesterday. Does anyone have an opinion on the decorative light weight resin containers? They aren't water permeable. Would they be safe alternative to clay? We have a small wholesale nursery and have thousands of plastic pots. BTW terra cotta is much more expensive than plastic, at least for me. I get boxes of 500-1500 4-16" plastic pots for pennies or less a piece. I wish I could get clay for that price! If I sink the pots with the seedlings in the ground will it damage them when I lift them for the winter? If I sink pots of mature plumies will I need to let them go dormant when I dig them up because so many roots will be cut? I usually put them in a heated greenhouse over the winter and let them continue to grow. I'd love to put some in the garden instead of all on the deck. I realize that different varieties grow at different rates and I have no idea what my seedlings are but on the average about how big do they get during their first growing season? Thanks, Karyn

great stuff, propagation is so rewarding, and theres no way to run out of thing/ways to propagate. I havent heard succulents mentioned here in detail, anyone interested in propagation should invest in some succulents! Ive only been growing plants seriously for a little over 10 years now, theres I dont know, but ive also been selling those plants in one way or another basically the entire time. That make propagation profitable as well as all the great things already mentioned. One of my favorites is good ole jade tree, most any crassula really, many other leafy succulents aswell. When I had all my jades I would defoliate them pretty hard a few times a year, the old leaves would eventually drop any way, it also gave them a nice tree shape. Well id dry em out and lay em on top of the soil, not buried and wait a few weeks. Little pink and white roots would come squirting right out and find their way to the soil. It also providd numerous unique shaped multi stemmed trees that couldnt be made with a typical cutting. Great bonsai material! it would take a few years for em to get up to size, but they did, consistently, and sold, consistently. It was alot of fun to see 100s of tiny plants popin out of severed leaves. it goes on and on with too, the reason they are work so well for it is their ability to retain water, it lets them just sit there until they form new roots. Most plants arent so lucky, neither are most plant owners! A bit off topic but this post has steered a bit towards grafting too, if you havent heard of Axel Erlandson, PLEASE do yourself a favor and check this guys work out! Amazing suff, so long ago.

Just wanted to give an update---- after treating all my plants with bti, my two seedlings are finally seeing growth! Fungus gnats aren't gone by any means but I am just happy the baby plants are growing after weeks and weeks of doing nothing. The two plants that weren't growing so well in the mixture of soils is finally seeming to grow! Yay! I believe the problem was with fertilizer. After adding fish emulsion & a lot of mg tomato fertilizer, they seem to be much happier in just a week. The other two plants in 100% mg moisture control are huge, perhaps 5-6 times larger than the others plants, all of the same age. Unfortunately I planted them too close together and the leaves are touching so I will expect disease later in the season and plant further apart next time. I leave for vacation next week, so I'm excited to see what will happen in the 2 weeks that I'll be gone. Will update. I will def do another fish emulsion treatment before I leave. Weather in SoCal has been amazing. :) Btw I have been pinching off all the flowers and suckers off every plant, big or small. Should I start leaving the flowers on the larger plants? They're about a foot and a half tall now, not exactly huge but I wouldn't mind getting some tomatoes first ;)