seed germination indoors

I spent the morning going through my seed catalogs looking for the best combination of self-watering trays, transparent canopies, lighting stands, heating mats, thermostats, and, of course, PRICE. I thought I was making progress when I called one company to ask about their remarks on the subject. I was told told that you can't have heat mats AND self-watering trays together. Basically, or so I was told, you can have self-watering trays with canopies AND NO HEATING MATS, or you can have heating mats that directly contact the soil BUT YOU CAN"T HAVE BOTH TOGETHER. If true, this spoils my plans. I guess I'm greedy, because I want it all: self-watering trays, canopies, heating, and lighting. Isn't this possible?

To be truthful, you can have it all if you really want it, BUT, the difficulty arises when you cook your seeds or cuttings in hot / warm water, also the condensation the heat / canopy / and watering would generate would kill off the seeds, I don't really know why you want this but in my gardening experience, the fun and knowledge comes from going out and checking your seedlings to make sure they are healthy, do they require water at the roots or just a little mist over the top, do they need the cover opened / removed from the heated propagator, IF you think it will save you time and money by starting the way you inquired about, believe me it wont, growing and gardening is all about your input, not just the help of a bit of heat, a clear plastic cover and self watering, self watering is best reserves for plants ready to support themselves, seedlings are like babies, they need T.L.C. at every stage till ready to go out doors. good luck. WeeNel.

I don't know if this helps you at all, but the heating mat is only needed up until the seedlings sprout, after that it won't do any good and will contribute to making your seedlings leggy. If you use the canopy, that should do a good enough job keeping moisture in that you can probably do fine without the self-watering tray until after the seeds have sprouted and you can then remove the heating mat and stick the self-watering tray in place. I never run into problems with seeds/seedlings getting too dry until they're bigger and I've removed the heating mat & the plastic dome and they're open to the air. Before that, the biggest challenge is making sure things aren't too wet.

On the other hand though, many seeds will sprout just fine without heating mats, so unless you're starting things that require heat you could probably get by fine without them.

WeeNel: Thanks for your comments, WeeNel, but I'm not and will never be that kind of gardener. I like the the results, not the process. I can well remember one of those gardening addicts when I lived in Seattle. I'd see him in his garden on my way to work, and he'd still be there when I returned home. Not me! Never me! As to expense, well, if that was important to me, I'd buy all my vegetables at the store. That saves money and time. Gardening is not cheap, not cheaper than the supermarket, anyway.

Ecrane3: I appreciate your practical advice. Everyone has different ideas on the subject. I'm just trying to get some facts and opinions together to help me with the project. I think I'm going to go ahead with my original plans. I've been warned about melting trays, and you have pointed-out some things to beware of, but I think that a thermostat immersed in the water of the self-watering tray should help me keep things on track. I might add that many other sources I've reviewed were very strong on the merits of heating for germination. After the sprouting, though, I guess you're right about heating not being so important.

Snorkelpop - We use the self watering trays with the heating pads in the basement and have not had any problems with melting the trays. Maybe you need to use a different brand. We bought ours trays from gardener's supply. The self watering trays have round, brown, removable pots.

As far as the heating pads, we leave them on certain items until we put the plants out to harden off. Certain things like Vinca, impatients, and some of the tomatoes (brandwine) seem to sulk about the lower temps in the basement.

Another thing we've done is seed some items (tomatoes and peppers) in the larger pots so that we don;t have to transplant them later. We like to garden but our schedule gets periodically too busy to be inspecting and repotting everything. We do check the water levels in the trays to make sure they are adequate.

This is my first year at attempting starting seedlings indoors. I had an extra metal shelving unit and bought lights for $13 each and bulbs 2/$7 (daylight). I took the regular trays and lined them with foil to retain water. Not sure it will work but it's a start.

Like your style Sheila, start off small with little expense and hey presto, you will achieve the same, probable better outcome than new gardeners with lots of expensive equipment that takes you a good while to work out how best to use/control it, I still have the old Cold frame I had 40 odd years ago that I still use, it had new glass several times as my kids liked football and cricket when small, so I wish you best of luck, I know better than most that growing your own veg is not always cheaper than store bought but, you know what goes into the food at growing time, and they taste far better, in my opinion. good luck and a great harvest for you too. WeeNel.

So far I have dill and a unknown yellow flower that did very well in a hanging basket I had two years ago. The dill is for the black swallowtail caterpillars that I raise. The yellow flower here with the released butterfly is the one I planted. Anyone regonize it?

I have used a 8 in, deep metal bottomed box turned upside down with a 60 watt light bulb mounted in it to start seeds. The temp varied so I put heat loving seed in the warmest spots and seed that did not need as much heat in the cooler areas.
Worked just fine. Cost maybe $5 light bulb, light fixture, piece of tin I had lying around, and some 1x8 lumber,

Sheila_FW. . .I would suggest lowering your lights so that they are very, very close to your growing medium and after the seeds germinate, raise them just a bit but still keep them very close to the little plants to prevent them from getting leggy trying to stretch up to the light.

I thought I might have them too low! LOL! Thanks.

Sorry to hijack this forum but I'm not sure how else to direct a question at a specific person -

WeeNel - I grew up near Hamilton, have been in the USA for a few years and am heading back to Edinburgh this summer. Last year I discovered I love gardening and grew veggies for the first time. Funny though, I don't know anything about growing them in Scotland. What do you grow? When do you plant etc.? Can you share some info with me please? I'm going to be living in a flat though, looking at windowboxes I think and there is a shared garden but not sure if I can do anything with that. I grew my vegetables in containers here though. Thanks!

On topic:
I used a muscle heat pad under my seeds last year just until they sprouted. One of those ones that you click the disc inside and then it heats up and then you boil it in water to "reset" it. It seemed to work, either that or the seeds were going to sprout anyway.

Here are the results.
You'll notice that some of the plants are a little stringy. Well, I'll do better next time, so I'm not kicking myself. If I'm right, the mistake I made was in not giving them light soon enough. With my next batch--now on the way--I'll give them all the light they need as soon as they sprout. Oh, from left to right, I have planted pole beans, beets, beets, beets, beets (four kinds), kohlrabi, turnips, and radishes.

This year, I tried something different when starting my seedlings indoors....cheap and with GREAT results! I took a paper towel, folded it over a couple times, laid the seeds on one half, folded it over. I poured a bit of warm water on the towel making certain not to soak it. I place the towel with the seeds in a ziplock baggie, blew air into it, and zipped it up! (I labeled the baggies as to what seeds were in which bags) I placed the baggies on a table near a window, and within 3 days, I had sprouts! I did find out, however, some seeds take much longer to sprout, but this worked out great! (ps...I like results fast, too!) I now have bell peppers, banana peppers and coneflowers galore!