transplanting seedlings- what do I do about light?

My seedlings are growing out of the tray but it is too early to put them outside. I have grow lights but when I transplant into bigger container the light space will be limited. What do I do?

:) Jennifer

Same thing happened to me a few years ago. Planted way too much & ran out of room when I put them into bigger containers. Did a little head scratching and came up with a solution. Slipped the picnic table under the kid's swing set. Covered it with vapor plastic and held it down with landscape ties. Stuck a little propane tent heater under the table. Had myself a nice little greenhouse that was cheap & easy. It was fine thru a few snowstorms too. I posted the pictures in the greenhouse forum.

edit to add link
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/827836/


This message was edited Feb 28, 2009 3:57 PM

If you don't mind a little extra work, you could rotate plants in and out of the lights...typically seedlings do best if they get 14-16 hrs under the lights, but you could potentially still do OK if you divide the seedlings into 2 groups and put each group under lights for 12 hrs a day. Of course then you've got to move either the plants or the lights twice a day but it's better than having some of them go without lights.

Depending how tall your seedlings are, why not just transplant each in 2" pots. Or, transplant them in one of those trays that hold individual 1" pots, found in garden centers and Walmart. It is better to transplant seedlings in small pots, rather than large to prevent overwatering.

I too used to oversow. This year I started using kitchen paper towels to germinate a set amount of seeds in. Others use coffee filters. I prefer the towels because you can squeeze out the water easier, than filters. This may not work for tiny seeds. I have never tried it with that size.

I cut the paper towel in half, fold it and place 10 seeds in one corner, or double the seeds for the number of plants I want to allow for loss. I then fold each end over. Place it in a zip lock bag, blow some air in then quickly zip it up. The air will remain in the bag to prevent the plastic from laying directly over the paper towel. Depending on the variety of seeds I'm sowing, I place the baggie where it is warm, or in the refrigerator to stratify. As soon as you see a small thread-like root, sow them as you would usually do. I use a pair of tweezers, dig a hole, and carefully guide the root into the hole and close it up. I add a bit of soil on top of the seed, according to the depth it is suppose to be planted.

At the moment, I have germinated in paper towels and transferred to soil Scabiosa, Hardy Geranium, Silver Sage, Datura, Swamp Weed, and Centaurea macrocephala.

The Centaurea seeds are old that I tested this way. As you can see in the photo, they are very much alive. These sprouted in 7 days. Seven out of 10 sprouted.

Usually, I sow seeds that need stratification in my coldframe in Oct. to germinate when conditions are right in the spring for the variety I sowed. My coldframe is full and I got started on this to test seeds.

I am delighted to find how well it works. I usually don't want a bunch of plants and sowing the full package of seeds is a waste. I do share plants with my daughter, but even then, I get too many. So, this works out great.

And here are those seeds planted. I put 2 in a 3" foam pot for lack of room. The foam wall tears off easily for planting in the garden. I will just separate them. These are going to my daughter's house. She has a sun room.