newbie needs equipment advice

Hello, I'm new to gardening and need some advice. I have been searching the web and attending flower shows and learn a little more every day. I'm really looking forward to the upcoming show in Seattle. I have some huge empty flower beds and I enjoy growing flowers from seeds. To date I have been using my dog grooming tables and suspending grow lights from the groomers arms but I would like to go ahead and purchase some equipment for seed propagation. Could anyone comment on lighting/racks, heat mats, plastic pots vs. peat pots. My neighbor also has huge beds to fill and we have a large unheated sunroom to work in.The racks and lighting are pretty pricey so I really don't want to purchase the wrong thing. The lighting seems to be the most confusing. We are not handy at all so a rack with installed lights would be best. We would like to be able to get several flats of seeds germinated sucessfully and eventually try our hand at heirloom seeds etc. Thank you

For lighting and racks, you can use utility shelves and shop lights.

You may also want to run a fan in the room to encourage air circulation. This should reduce the possibility of your seedlings dying from dampening off.

I prefer plastic seed starters (2-3", not cell packs) over peat pots because the peat pots seem to dry out too fast. Plus, I can reuse the plastic pots (wash them out with a peroxide solution before reusing them to help prevent the dampening off fungus. some people use a bleach solution but I try not to use bleach because it's harder on the environment).
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I've tried growing from seed indoors using grow lights and outdoors using wintersowing. I've had stronger, healthier plants and better germination sowing outside (with the exception of some tender annuals-which I still sow indoors). The indoor sown plants initially developed a little faster, but once they were out in the garden, they didn't grow as fast or strong as the wintersown plants.

Wintersowing is basically like creating little coldframes out of recyclables. There has been some good discussion of wintersowing on other threads in this forum, so I won't go into too much detail. Basically, you use whatever containers you have on hand (2-liter pop bottles, milk jugs, take-out food containers with clear plastic lids, etc.).
1. Put drainage holes in the bottom and top (or take the caps off of 2-liters and milk jugs) for drainage and ventilation.
2. Fill with 3-4" of high quality potting mix.
3. Water the conatiners until mix is very moist.
4. Sprinkle the seeds on top. (cover with a little soil if the seeds are larger)
5. Stick your label in.
6. Make sure that the container is covered in some way (either top half of bottle, lid, clear plastic).
7. Set outside and wait until spring.

I like to use 2-liter pop bottles and milk jugs. I cut around them about 2/3 of the way up from the bottom. I only cut about 4/5 of the way around because I want to create a flap rather than a lid the comes off completely (easier to handle with a flap). When I run out of bottles, I use nursery pots. I place them in a large clear storage tub in which I have put drainage and ventilation holes before I put them outside.

You should sow now, but the seeds won't germinate until they naturally would if they were dropped directly from the plant into the soil. The advantages of wintersowing are
1. the dampening off fungus gets frozen out by the weather
2. seedlings don't have to be hardened off because they grow outside
3. the containers keep the seeds from washing away and from being eaten by critters
4. the watering upkeep is much less than sowing indoors because mother nature provides much of the water you'll need
5. germination is better because the seeds go through their natural freeze-thaw cycle
6. you can plant a whole lot more seeds because you don't have as many space constraints as you would inside
7. you can save your precious indoor space for tender annuals
8. the plants become bigger and stronger than indoor sown plants because they grow in the environment in which they were germinated. indoor sown plants often need initial "babying" when they are first planted out because the harsher outdoor environment comes as a shock to their system.

i'm a newbie, too, and gathering things i need to start seedlings. it will be a small operation, so a 28" long fluorescent tube should do it for me. it has to be really SIMPLE, lighting-wise. i opted for the $14.99 ge fixture with plant & aqua light INCLUDED already.

welcome to dg, maximuspoodle, and good luck to us on growing seeds.

thanks, katie.

Great advice Katie! That will surely help! I do use plastic and peat myself - mostly plastic pots but peat pots are so nice to just stick in the ground without disturbing the roots of the plant. Think tomatoes,etc plants that have strong enough roots to poke through the peat.

Oh and you can get the shop light type lights really cheap - HD, Lowe's etc. When you compare 'building your own' vs. the kits you can order - it's no comparison!

Thanks everyone for your advice, I think that I will take a trip to HD with my standard poodle girl Simone tomorrow and check out the racks and lighting. She loves to stop and sniff any flower!

Tracy

Just a little hint on peat pots. When you plant them in the ground, make sure you cover the whole thing with soil. Exposed parts tend to act like a wick & dry the pot out.
We also use the cheapie lights & homemade plywood tables. Going on 25 years now, some of the fixtures are that old too.

Almost forgot,
Good luck & welcome to DG's,
Bernie

Tracy, what day are you heading to the NW Flower and Garden show. I'm going on Saturday the 12th , and again the last day Sunday the 13th.......Saturday is for wandering, and Sunday is for shopping (that's when they mark everything down so they don;t have to pack it up).

Marc
RikerBear

I am heading up on Wednesday. My neighbors bought me a ticket for my birthday and they want to attend the first day. I have the weekend off work and want to head up and attend a few seminars/ shop! I didn't realize that everything is marked down on the Sunday so I think that I will do my shopping then.
Thanks to everyone who responded to my thread. I did buy a rack and some lights after shopping around and until then I will be weeding. Today 15 yards of compost was delivered and dog lover that I am I let my dogs romp around in it, they were due for a wash anyway.
Tracy

I noticed someone said they use the 28(?) inch lights and I wanted to point out that they are going to cost in the longrun more than twice what the 4 foot lights will cost. You can often find fluorsent lights at garage sales. I have used the shelving units and made my own from stock lumber and they are adequate but I haunted the resale shops and found the shoe racks from a department store that went out of business. The three sections are 15 feet long and two feet deep altogether but I don't have to use all of the sections. It came with 54 adjustable metal half shelves (5'x1') and adjustable supports for them. I use half the shelves and set my lights on the extra supports so they can be moved up and down with no trouble. I usually have 16 light bulbs per section, and five trays per shelf. Some years I have put out as many as 200 flats with staggered sowing times. I paid $45 for the whole thing and it had paid for itself over and over. The really nice thing about it is that it is so adaptable. I just purchased a small microwave for soil pasturization for $29.95. After Christmas sales are great. If I had waited a week I could have gotten it for $19.95. Jessamine