Starting seed in basement - questions about best set-up
3 years ago
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Some questions about starting seeds indoors
Comments (15)Hi HS, My guess as to why the plants got leggy in the first place is because they simply were not getting enough light; they had to reach for more light. Most folks leave their fluorescent lights on at least 16 hours a day and probably more often 18 hours a day. The distance of the lights (3 to 4 inches above the seedlings) was probably okay, but a little closer (2 to 3 inches) may have been better. I just don't think 12 hours of light was enough. Regarding your thoughts about trying to "simulate the same daylight they will get when moved outdoors in April", you really can't compare artificial lighting to the amount of sunlight they'll get when you put them outside. When moved outside, it's true the amount of time they will receive light will be reduced (from say 18 hours to 12). However, the amount of light will be increased. The sun will supply more light in 12 hours than your lights can do in 18 hours. Blooming and fruiting, of course, will be influenced by whether the plants are short-day or long-day plants, but I'd leave that to the plants once they're outside. They know exactly what they're doing :-) My suggestion is to increase the length of time you leave your lights on. But whatever you end up doing, I wish you the best of luck with starting your seeds indoors for the first time. Sounds like you're off to a good start! Art...See MoreSeed starting questions about soil mix and other Qs
Comments (12)Jiffy Seed Starting Mix works fine and easy to hydrate if you do two simple things: 1) microwave distilled water to 130-140 degrees fahrenheit or max hand hot temperature. Using a liquid measuring pitcher place 1 quart of Jiffy SSM in a clean container like a one gallon zip lock bag. Then add 1 cup of hot water to the bag or container. Expel any excess air and zip bag up. 2) Using your hands grip and massage the bag. This step takes 2 minutes max. You will now have hydrated Jiffy SSM. Want to do a whole bag? Add 4 cups hand hot water. Wash and dry your hands and one arm up to elbow. Plunge hand and arm into mix and grip and squeeze Jiffy SSM. Be sure to get all of mix fully hydrated. Remove hand and arm and wash. This step takes 5 minutes max. You now have Jiffy SSM fully hydrated at the correct hydration. When you add the water to the mix it will seem like it is not enough but after 2-5 minutes of mixing you can squeeze a handful of the mix and just barely get a little water out. I only use Jiffy SSM. I have had trouble with some of the other seed starting mixes ( Schul.. et al) over the years. I have not tried the other expensive mixes mentioned above. I go cheap. Works great. I grow plants from seeds under lights most years 50+ flower varieties as well as some bushes and trees etc. Rick...See MoreDescribe your seed starting set-up
Comments (14)G'Day! "winter-sowing gives you zillions of itty-bitty seedlings to tend to at the busiest time of the gardening year." - Well, yes, IF you actually use containers tha they need to be transplanted out of! i just "direct-plant" my winer-sown seeds. - Does the container provide shelter? How about, cut the bottom off of yogurt contianers (or similar) and plant the resulting tapered tube in the ground? (Narrow end up, so in the spring, when you remove it, it doesn't disturb the seedling growing up in the center.) For a veggie, you might want to leave the tube as a cutworm barrier. - Just a thought, from one "green with envy" while thinking of others who have seed-starting set up inside! Sure wish i did, but there really isn't room for such, nor proper lighting. (Do we REALLY need a formal dining room? Can't i just line it with waterproof, easy-clean bath tiles, hang industrial grow-lights from ceiling chains, and stuff the room with potting benches and plant racks? You know, just until i can get a real greenhouse?) - Sigh. Happy gardening, -vlad...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 More- 3 years ago
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