Propagation: Newbie Seed Starter - Last year failed!, 1 by KaylyRed

KaylyRed wrote:
You've already gotten some great answers to your questions, but I thought I'd chime in here. I'm fairly new to starting seeds indoors myself, but I've been very successful the last couple years.

In my experience, those greenhouses (I think I have the kind you're talking about) are great for moving seedlings outside in late winter/early spring but not as handy for starting seeds. I created my own setup, which is similar to many I've seen other avid seed-starters use. I have a wire shelving unit with slatted grates (as opposed to a solid bottom on each shelf) with 4 tiers, which cost me about $40 at Walmart. I added four $20 shop lights, also from Walmart. The top tier light is suspended from my ceiling on a chain that hangs from two toggle hooks. The lights on other tiers hang from the grate on the shelving unit with chains (included with most shop lights) and S-hooks (also included, although I had to buy a few extras.) The unit will hold 8 large flats and cost me about $140 total (as opposed to the ones you see in catalogs, which go for around $600.) The attached picture shows my setup's top two tiers and the seeds I've got growing already. (The larger ones on top are culinary herbs I plan to keep indoors.)

As for seed starting flats, I've discovered that flats with deeper cells give seedlings a great start by allowing their roots to grow long and deep. (We were just discussing this in the Upper Midwest forum here at Dave's.) Although they can be a bit expensive ($15-20), I'm a huge fan of Burpee's Ultimate Growing System. (http://www.burpee.com/seed-starting/burpee-ultimate-growing-...) You'd think that I work for the company or something the way I rave about it. lol

The cells in this system are deep, and there's a unit that sits underneath the flat and holds water and a mat that wicks the water up to the cells and keeps the soil moist but not wet. I've never had a problem with damping off. Despite some reviews that say the seedlings are hard to remove from the cells, I've never had a problem. I use a dinner fork and they pop right out. If I'm transplanting them, the fork makes things handy because I can move the seedlings to their new homes without disturbing their roots, stems or leaves. The system is also easy to reuse. Although it initially comes with soil tablets that you moisten to make them "fluff up," this year I just added pre-moistened sterile seed starting mix (I put it in a container and sprayed it with a mister while stirring to get it evenly moist) to each cell, set up the Growing System as usual, and planted. Worked like a charm, and I didn't have to buy the pellets that Burpee sells with these systems, which are kind of expensive.

Also, I would avoid coir and peat pots and anything of that nature. I used both coir and peat pots last year and found that they kept things either too dry or too wet for my liking. This year, I switched to cheap plastic 4" pots from my local garden center (20 cents each, and cheaper in bulk) and I'm much more satisfied with them. They're easier to keep consistently moist and not overly wet. Plus, they're reusable.

There are many different ways to start seeds, as I've learned while researching. I figured I'd share what works for me. Don't give up, because there's nothing like starting seeds to chase away the winter blahs! I wish you the best of luck this year. :)