Seed starting ***Update on Page 2***

[hangin'witthepeeps]

I was a technical new gardener this year. I had my first garden that I didn't share with my family. I usually did the helping plant, gathering, and canning/freezing of produce. I bought a lot of started plants to put in my SFG. There will be several changes for next year as I learned a lot of what not to do this year.

I have decided on the tomatoes for next year and ordered the seed. I will be setting up my arrangement for next pre-spring in a spare bathroom. I have a grow light and several seed starting trays and such. I just need to know, what kind of planting medium do you use?

I get great germination in my trial runs, but I have never got anything to last past 3 weeks. They seem to die off when I'm hardening them off or when I transplant to a bigger pot. I need some good suggestions, if you all have any. Is there any other stuff I need to be gathering in preparation for next year. I love the end of season sales I'm finding. TIA, Melissa

 

[journey11]

I think tomatoes are one of the easier seeds to start. They just have a strong will to live! I start mine in sterile seed starter mix. I've done them in peat pellets too, but those annoy me because they tend to dry out too fast. I've been using black cell packs, but to tell you the truth, I think next winter/spring I'm going to do it "by the book". I've read that you should start them in a large wooden tray, placing seeds 2" apart from each other in rows, then carefully transplant them to large cell packs when they get their first set of true leaves. I think this way I will be less tempted to let weak seedlings live and will pick the better ones to fill the cell packs. IME, the gimpy seedlings never really thrive and you ought to thin them out/reject them. Or often not all of them germinate anyway and you'll have empties in your cell packs. THEN, very important, you should upgrade them to a larger container a time or two if they are getting much over 6" tall then they are getting too big for the cell packs. Sometimes your timing will work out so you can just go ahead and set them out--that's always best. But I start my tomatoes in Feb. and they always outgrow their cell packs. When I upgrade them to a cottage cheese/sour cream sized container, then I give them Miracle grow potting soil and boy do they really take off growing.

 

[dickiebird]

I start some of my plants in Jiffy peat pellets. When they have a couple of true leaves I fill 32 oz. styrofoam cups, half full, with Miracle Grow potting soil and place the started plant, still in the pellet, into the cup.

I have a setup with grow lights that I place the plants into. When the plant gets a bit taller I add more soil until the cup is full.

When the cup is full of soil and plant I transfer it to my greenhouse until outside air and soil temps are right for planting.

This past spring I started a few hundred plants in this manner.

And before the masses start bashing me for using the styrofoam cups I reuse them for the next years seedlings.

I also start a bunch in used cells with Miracle Grow potting soil.

THANX RICH

 

[hangin'witthepeeps]

So Miracle Grow Potting mix in a larger container after 6" of growth. When it fills that container then move to larger one with Miracle Grow until time to plant. When hardening off, I put my on my shaded porch during the day and bring it in at night. Sometime they get too much sun, I believe and dry out (wilt). Any answers to this? Shade cloth or something?

 

[journey11]

Yep, moving them up helps keep them from getting root bound. If they get root bound, they'll try to start blooming too early when they need to be putting their energy into growth, not fruit. Soon as you're past the danger of frost, it is always best to just set them out.

When I'm hardening mine off, I pick a shady location, normally on the north or east side of my house. You could give them a little windbreak if you think that is contributing to them quickly drying out (just boxes or whatever junk you have lying around.. ). I also like to water from the bottom, so if you can sit your containers into a plastic tray, you can add water from the bottom daily or as needed. This is another reason I like the plastic containers (aside from the fact that they're free!)

I've accidentally let mine dry out completely and wilt on a hot, windy day and I'm always surpised how quickly they bounce back with some water. Like I said, they just have a will to live! Check on them daily, I'd add that too. Forgetting to is how I let mine wither...

 

[flgardengirl]

I start tomatoes and peppers under grow lights with peat pellets in the little greenhouse thingys and then move them up to clear plastic cups with holes poked in the bottoms for drainage. You use sharpie to mark the names on the cups. You can wash and reuse the cups later and just wipe the sharpie off with alcohol. I like to use bottom heat on mine. They come up super fast that way. You could also set the pots on a water heater or on top of the fridge or some other warm place. We used to have a baseboard type of heater that circulated hot water through it, so I would set the little greenhouse thingy with the peat pellets in the bathroom next to the baseboard heater and they would pop up in a few days.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'd think in your area, late January/early February is a good time to start the seeds. At least, that would be my suggestion for you to try the first year. You can adjust that to find what works for you, but that should give you time to replant if you have problems with germination and still get some plants. That won't be too early since you can keep moving the plants up to bigger pots.

I made a heating box to warm the soil for germination. It's a fairly shallow plywood box with the bottom and sides lined with aluminum foil with Christmas tree lights inside. I put nails in the sides and bent the nails so I could run the light string in rows back and forth across the box so they were not crossed to try to reduce the chance of shorts. The box is just deep enough to keep the lights off the foil on the bottom of the box when they are strung across. The top piece of plywood was oversized to create an overhang so any spilled water would run off and not get down with that electrical current. It will vary with how big the box is, but I only need about 1/3 of the lights to keep the soil in the 70's.

Too late to help me last year, I was chatting with the people at the gardening center who grow their own plants in a greenhouse. They said they use a weak fertilizer in the water whenever they water them. I don't know exactly what they use but this year I'll dissolve a bit of Miracle Grow in the water and see how that goes. Tomato plants can be burned by too much fertilizer so I would be careful to not overfertilize. If they start turning yellow, I'd flush them out with pure water and then cut way back on the strength of the fertilizer solution.

I harden off by setting them on the north side of a workshop where they are out of the sun and wind. I think sun and wind are both a danger to young seedlings. That time of year the wind coming up this valley is almost always out of the south. If I get a rare north wind, I might not set them out at all that day. After a week or so of hardening them off, if the weather is nice I may leave them out all night or I might bring them in.

 

[hangin'witthepeeps]

Here are my starts so far.

Some tomatoes, Egg Plants, Peppers, Cayenne, Jalapenos, Zucchini and more. They are sitting in front of my window in the kitchen. It was dark last night when I took the pictures, but so ya'll can see how they are doing. I need a shelf to put another set of watering trays for more plants.

I had to re-pot the tomatoes. They were growing tall, FAST.......

 

[hangin'witthepeeps]

I just wanted to show ya'll I did listen to the advice you gave and appreciate it. It's been sunny enough this year to use the window instead of the grow light in the bathroom idea. I need more space now. :/

 

[chris09]

Just a little tip when transplanting tomatoes.
When transplanting young tomatoes into 4 inch pots they can be planted up to the cotyledon leaves (1st leaves) . When planting young tomatoes that deep you get more roots to form on the "barred" stem.

Chris