Seed starting indoors

[Gardening with Rabbits]

The pictures here are from 2009. I made a lot of mistakes when starting my own plants. I used to buy every plant or start seeds in the ground for cucumbers and things, so starting inside and hardening off, I made lots of mistakes. I looked for my picture of beautiful tomatoes that got burned totally white from the sun, but can't find it. These pictures are the first year at this house. I put those plants out and they were not hardened off and most died. That is DH putting plastic up. I should have had these plants hardened off before taking out to the garden. I just found this picture of him by accident, so kind of neat to see a picture of him.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

A lot of mistakes at first and I still kill plant, but a lot of work got done with him. He had to build the whole ground from nothing, pulling out those tree stumps with a tractor, hauling out of the yard. We bought topsoil, manure and spread and he built the boxes. I think there were 4 and then we moved them the next year to expand and the ground before we starting planting in the ground. We were expanding more and more until he got sick. Now DS and I will be doing the work, cleaning up leaves, tree branches, planting grass, fixing things and really just seeing things that need to be fixed before a problem.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

Boy I am NOT a fan anymore of Jiffy Pellets!!! They swell up cockeyed, and my seedlings are either doing great or Dying great in them. Only the sweet peppers in their 72 cell greenhouse (on a heat mat and under a grow light on a 16 hr timer) have done pretty well, as a group. I Think I will go back to a soiless mix, OR, start inside with well composted stall leavings. I have a pile outside from 2017, and I "harvested" a big pot a few weeks ago and have it available. I restarted my tomato seeds in it and They are doing great.
It is important to me that I do this well bc I am determined to have a good Fall crop of Brussels Sprouts. I have bought and put away about 10 packages of Brussels Sprouts to save until July.
Any thoughts?

I posted what I do to answer your question. I tried the Jilly Pellets and did not like them. I have tried all kinds of different potting soils and would have good luck one year and bad the next. I even tried making my own and using my compost. Right now I am using ProMix. My plastic greenhouse inside does not need a grow mat. The lights put off heat, so I put the flat of seeds on a shelve and a light is on under them and with the plastic closed and I also put and old plastic tablecloth over that to keep the heat in especially at night and open when warmer during the day.

 

[flowerbug]

i've found out over the years that raised beds and more pathways are just more work in the end. it would have saved so much more time had they just brought in fill to begin with and then the whole area would have been high enough. but as they say that is all now water under the bridge.

any of the larger garden spaces are so much more easy to deal with than the many many smaller gardens with all those edges. i have so many daydreams of eventually removing most of the pathways out front and making it all gardens and mulched spaces that don't need to be kept after each year. so i can rotate through the space like the rest of the gardens for upkeep. once every few years either top off or replace wood chips and that's it other than getting rid of the weeds that happen from the blown in seeds...

we either direct sow or use starts from the greenhouse so i'm way out of practice on sprouting and hardening off seedlings. i enjoy all aspects of growing plants but there's just not enough room here.

 

[digitS']

Today: all seedlings will be out of the South Window, all containers with seeds and potting soil will be outta the kitchen.

The center bench in the greenhouse will be loaded up.

The furnace has been doing its job. Yay! So as to avoid carrying flats inside the house every night, the furnace will be left to run. (Both of the "better" thermometers are in the greenhouse, sending their info to the base units beside the kitchen table. So far, at least they are in agreement.)

Steve

 

[Beekissed]

All maters and jalapenos are up in my trays, as well as broccoli, some marigolds and nasturtiums. The hot wax, poblano and green peppers are germinating slowly, as per usual.

Won't sow the rest of what goes out there until much closer to setting out time.

My trays consist of one 72 cell flat and two kitty litter pans. I'm hoping to have enough depth in the litter pans that I won't have to transplant into larger containers, like I did last year.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

I had two of those small plastic greenhouses. One got ripped up by the wind and the other is in the box. I'm taking it with me when I move to use at the new place. There is fortunately an outlet on the East side of the house, so I'll be plugging into that for lights.

 

[SprigOfTheLivingDead]

This is some good inspiration. I need to figure out what to do with this extra room I have
View attachment 30331



We use a similar one for prairie grass seedlings. They are fantastic!
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Closet is coming along nicely. I'll hopefully have my starts going in the next week

 

[catjac1975]

I have a few larger tomato plants started. I am planning successive planting of tomatoes for the first time. I visited a farm in S. Carolina let fall. They do 4 planting of tomatoes. My climate is much colder but I am thinking I might try 3 planting to try to extend my tomatoes. We have been having late frosts for years now so I am particularly curious whether I can get some late tomatoes. My plants seemed to be done before frost for the most part. I will keep the big ones in the tunnel greenhouse and then plant out my big crop. Time will tell the tale.

 

[catjac1975]

My artichoke seedlings are outside for their vernalization. Had great success the last few years.