Northeast Gardening: Indoor Seed Starts, 1 by kchar60

kchar60 wrote:
Thanks, Bug, for starting this thread. Yup - started my seeds middle of February. Some of the flowers take a bit longer to get going. Johnny Jump ups, lavender, Rudbeckia, impatiens are all underway. last weekend the herbs went in. 3/4 I start the pepper, tomato, marigold, alyssum, celosia, salvia, peetunia and chamomile. 3/18 it will be the zinnia, cosmos and broccoli. The rest are direct plants. I have an industrial strength shelving unit, 4' wide, 4 shelves high that I hang lights from. My company was going to throw out the shelving unit, didn't need it any more and it is good as new. You don't need the fancy grow lights, just use regular lights. All in all, this is a bargain compared to buying the plants, plus you get a much better selection. Keep the lights on for 12-16 hours (auto timer works best). I started out using the peat pots, but find the tender roots like the little grow pellets better. DH and I enjoy seltzer water that comes in 1 ltr plastic bottles. I cut those down to ~5", drill drain holes in the bottom and transplant in those. I ran out of the Jiffy pellets my children gave me for Christmas (typical gardener's wish list - water proof gloves, jiffy pellets, pruning shears!) and couldn't find anything but the Ferry Morse peat pellets at Lowes. They were about 1/3 the cost of the Jiffy pellets. They are half the size (diameter) of the jiffy, but you transplant when second set of leaves appear, so it shouldn't be a problem. I've attached a picture of one shelf that was started earlier - the rudbeckia took off like gangbusters, the lavender is tall and delicate.