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Seed Starting - Basic Information

Prepared by Bill McKay, Seeds From Italy, PO Box 149 Winchester, MA  01890

What are the benefits of starting your own seeds?

1.    You are not restricted to the limited varieties found in the Garden Centers in the spring.  Also, it is the only way to have a continuous harvest of certain items throughout the year.

2.    You will be able to harvest your crops sooner             

3.        You will be able to manage your limited garden space much more efficiently.  Whenever you have a little bit of space, just put in a few transplants that you have around.  No need to waste space waiting for seeds to germinate.  Also, your plants will grow quickly and shade out weeds reducing time spent on that laborious task.

Setting Up a Seed Starting Area-What do you need

1.        Location.  Make it out of the way.  It should have some air movement (prevents damping off).  Should be a place where it is ok to get some water on the floor.  Should be acceptable to the Non Gardening Partner if you are married.  Basements work very well

2.        Seed Starting media.  You can start seeds in a sterile soil less mixture you buy in the garden center or you can make your own mix.  A good general formula for home made mixture is ½ well aged and well sifted compost(you can make your own sifter with some 1/8 inch wire 'hardware cloth' available at hardware stores), ½ well sifted peat, a handful of lime per wheelbarrow load, some perlite or sharp sand. 

3.        Pots.  Anything will work.  Just make sure they (1) are large enough for the rootball of the plant and (2) have some  drainage

a.        Plastic.  Six packs, cell trays, single pots, etc.  Their advantage is they are cheap, light, reusable, and they make the most efficient use of limited growing space

b.       Peat.  Are ok.  They tend to dry out and sometimes the roots have a hard time getting through when they are transplanted.

c.        Homemade.  Plastic cups, milk cartons, egg containers.  These work.  The disadvantage is their size and shape tend to make inefficient use of space.

4.        Supplemental light.  You need to have it for healthy plants.  A sunny window sill is normally not sufficient.  The easiest way to provide light is with an inexpensive fluorescent fixture.  Use either two regular bulbs or one regular, one ‘warm’ bulb.  You do not need the fancy grow lights.  Plants need 14-16 hours of light a day.  (get an inexpensive timer).  Seedlings should be 3-4 inches below the lights.  Since it is easier to regulate the height of the plants than move the lights, put the plants on something to raise them close to the lights.  Use something like blocks of wood, pieces of rigid Styrofoam, etc and as the plants grow, lower them by removing pieces of the blocks you used to raise them.

5.        Heat.  Temperature for optimum germination varies.  Some like lettuce, chard, beets, chicory, etc do ok if the temperature is cook (55-60).  Tomatoes, peppers & eggplant need heat (75 or so).  Start these in a warm area (on top the refrigerator, furnace, etc)

General Seed Starting Procedure

1.        What should or can be started in advance. 

a.        Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and onions & leeks pretty much have to be started in advance otherwise you will almost never harvest a crop.  All but onions and leeks  need to be started, then potted up into a larger container.

b.       Beets, chard, cabbage, broccoli, fennel, kale, lettuce, chicory, endive, cauliflower, parsley, coriander, cardoon, artichoke, zucchini, cucumbers all can be started in advance.  Leave these in the container you started them in (just thin out extra plants).  While you can pot up some of these up to a larger container, it is usually not worth it.  Never repot  cardoon, artichoke, fennel, zucchini or cucumbers as they really resent it and will usually not recover from the move.

c.        Don’t waste your time starting these:  beans, peas, corn, arugula, cima di rape.

2.        Wet your growing media before you start.  Put it in the container you are going to use.  Place seeds on top.  Cover with a small amount of growing media or vermiculite.  For big seeds like beets, chard, zucchini, etc, cover with @ ¼ inch of material.  For small seeds like tomatoes, pepper, eggplant, chicory, endive, etc, cover with about 1/8^th inch of material.  Give a final watering (lightly).  Put in a warm place and wait for them to germinate.  Lettuce might be up as quick as 3 days;  tomatoes 7-14 days;  parsley may take 3 weeks.  Be patient.  Keep everything moist, but not soaking.  Try not to let the soil dry out.  Some people cover with plastic or a dome;  I think that encourages damping off and never do it.  If you do use a cover, remove it as soon as the first seed pokes through.

3.        As soon as the plants come up, put them under the lights.  Keep them 2-4 inches from the lights.   Don't let tomatoes get too close to the grow lights.  The heat the lights generate promote overly rapid growth which you do not want.

4.        Potting up.  For those plants you are going to pot up, wait until the first true leaves form (usually 2-3 weeks).  Use some sort of sharp instrument (old screwdriver, stick, etc) to remove them from the container you started them in and move them to the larger pot.  Handle them by the leaf, not the stem.  Get as much of the root as possible.  It is usually easier if the soil is a bit dry.  You may have to take out a clump of seedlings and break up the soil ball;  no problem, they will do fine.    For most plants, set them slightly deeper than they had been, but just a little bit.  Tomatoes are the exception.  You can bury them almost to the top of their leaves (and you should do this as the stems will grow roots.)

5.        Watering.  You can bottom water (set your containers in something filled with water and the moisture will wick up), but you can also top water. 

6.        Fertilizer.  It is not necessary until you get the first true leaves, then go easy.  Fertilize with diluted fish emulsion or a soluble fertilizer mixed at about half the the manufacturers recommendation. 

7.        Marking seedlings.  Do it.  You can either buy markers or make your own by cutting up an old Venetian blind.  Mark with an indelible laundry marker;  put on the name, date started. 

8.        Possible problems:

a.        Damping off.  You see a little fuzz down near the soil line, then the plant falls over and dies.  This is caused by a fungus.  It is easy to prevent.  Make sure you have plenty of air movement and enough heat and you will never have this occur.  Do not cover your seeds with a piece of plastic or a plastic dome.  This restricts air movement and encourages damping off.

b.       Leggy (too tall) plants.  Cause is either (1) not enough light (2) too much heat and fertilizer (3) a combination of both of the above. 

Setting out in the Garden

1.        Tomatoes are ready to set out in 6-7 weeks if you have them in standard six packs or a container two inches or so in diameter or smaller.  If you want larger plants for an earlier harvest, you will have to repot them again.  Figure about one inch increase in pot size for every week you hold them after 7 weeks.  For example, I have some 10 week inch tomatoes which are starting to set flowers;  they are in six inch pots and are very happy.   Peppers and eggplants are ready in about eight weeks.   Most others are ready in 5-6 weeks.

2.        About a week before setting out time, begin to harden them off.  With hold water.  Put them outside in a sheltered location for a few hours.  Every day, increase the amount of time they are outside and the amount of direct sun they get.  They will be hardened off in five or six days.  

3.        Transplanting.  Set them out in the garden at more or less the depth they were in the pots.  Tomatoes are the exception.  You can remove some leaves and set them very deep.  Put a little collar around the plants to prevent the cut worms from getting to them (make it out of newspaper, old cut up file folders, whatever and set it about an inch deep in the soil.  Water in your plants well and keep them well watered until they get over the transplanting. 

4.        Don’t push the season.       You can put out lettuce, chicory & endive five or six weeks before the last frost date;  brassicas can go out a week or two before the last frost date;  For  tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, melons, cucumbers & zucchini, wait two or three weeks after the last frost date when the night time temperatures are consistently above 50 degrees..  If you can give them some protection like a cover of remay cloth or ventilated plastic row covers, you can take a week or two off these dates.