Productive gardener turned rookie seed starter....

Ok, here goes...
I have had wonderful luck with my flower gardens and veggie garden for the 5 years that my family has lived here. I give credit to my horses for giving me literally tons of $#*! to compost. I have grown 5 and 6 foot tomato plants that are just unreal. So when it comes to growing and harvesting I think I can hold my own.

As far as seed starting, this is my first year and I think I am a blooming idiot. I started flowers and veggies early but only by a couple weeks for my 'zone standards'. I am waaayyy up here in Maine and we have a ridiculously short growing season. I started with a couple flats that were very therapeutic. Then I started getting addicted, and now I think I may have a compulsive problem. :)

I have done research on indoor growing and I have heard anything from a window sill is fine....to you must use umpteen million flourescents or you are wasting your money. I have taken over every east and south facing window in my 2 story house and almost every seed I planted is coming up...that's the good news. Can I keep these seedlings healthy by watering as needed and rotating in my windows. We are getting almost 11 hours of daylight now with quite a few sunny days....the melting begins. It would literally cost a small fortune to get enough light fixtures hanging in my basement to get all my flats under artificial light. Can I just run with what I have started? I was thinking of getting two lights for my tomatoes and peppers. I just worry about spending all this time just to have my seedling turn light starved and die on me. I did start morning glories and they shot up fast, but seem alittle leggy and fell over. I did stake them, but my sweet peas are taller and they don't need any support yet.

I apologise for the novel...I have never posted before.

No apologies necessary, japtap04! And welcome to Dave's!

I personally can't answer your question; the only seeds I've started were tomatoes and peppers and yes, I did put them under fluorescents. But I bet someone who knows more than I do will be along shortly with a better answer.

I'd never say it 'can't' be done, it's just easier to grow under lights. If you have *really* good window exposure, you may make it- I have done it before, although my plants got a little leggier than they do now that I put them under lights. And your plants will probably lean towards the window, so you should try to turn the flats around each morning so that they will 'lean back' so to speak. They really have to be right next to the window, though- I wouldn't try putting 2 flats deep. You will probably do better with just trying to get a little head start than starting really early. The bigger the plants the harder it will probably be to get enough light. But soon you can probably start moving them outside for part of the day to help w/ sunlight.
Also, FYI, if you watch for shop lights on sale at someplace like Home Depot or Wal-Mart, you can get them really inexpensively, and you can just use regular florescent bulbs. No need for the fancy grow-light stuff. The key is to hang the lights somehow on chains, so that they are only about 2 inches from plants at all times. There are some good PVC (read, inexpensive) designs for shelving on this site. Good Luck!

If you use 4' fluorescents, get one warm white and one cool white bulb for each light... better range of light color for the plants.

Also, a tiny fan barely moving near your seedlings helps prevent damping off. Tomatoes, once they get 2 true leaves, grow sturdier and stronger where it's around 60ºF.

If your morning glory has a few good leaves, then you can nip out the growing tips to make the plant more bushy as with your sweet peas, they will be better plants for it, when you nip off the growing tips, this tells the plant it needs to make new growing tips so it sends out side shoots, this equals more flowering stems, it will also help stop them getting too tall while indoors, as windowsills are normally quite narrow, I have resorted at times to rigging up a temp table to at the windows using boards balancing on the back of kitchen chairs (family not amused by the way when they are perched on stools for dinner) but this gives you slightly more area, so you can then start to pot on the plants that desperately need this treatment, you will of-course still need to rotate the pots to give spread of light, now I have a large greenhouse and cant think how I managed all those years ago without it, but it took long enough to be able to get the cash for that, then fit it out, but like suggested before, end of season is good time to get all your equipment as it is so much cheaper then, keep up the good work, you obviously have the knack.
By the way, a good tip for seed growing as I found out, is to just delay growing all the packet of seeds at the one sewing, I spread some over a 2 week period so that I dont have millions of the one kind all at the same stage, this helps space wise too for indoor planting, as the season gets warmed up, the later plantings soon catch up once out doors. Good luck. WeeNel.