I have been putting mine in those little seed starting cells things but my friend said when they were little her dad started them in a box or something, then they transplanted the seedlings in little pots. She couldn't remember how large they were but I'm thinking that would be a better way of doing it because all the cells would then have a seedling in. I seem to remember a site that sort of described that way to plant tomatoes as well.
How deep would one plant the seeds to be able to take out tiny seedlings and plant them? What would you use, peat or regular seed starting stuff. I'll bet coir would work great.
Can anyone explain this method in detail, pics too if possible.
ways to start and transplant seedlings.
I use those 'little seed starting cells'.
The method your friend is describing is what I call the 'loser, brown thumb method'.
I am being sarcastic, of course and mean no real insult to your friend.
Her way is to sow a bunch of seeds into a small amount of potting mix and pluck those that germinate out and transplant into individual cells.
My way is to start with individual cells large enough to grow the plant until it is put outside.
Ending up with empty cells is the result of not sowing enough seed. Some seed vendors are really good about testing the germination of the seed they sell and indicating germination rates on the package. Most don't.
What I do is figure on 75% germination unless the package says otherwise. More often than not this means I have to kill seedlings.
If I have a cell with no germination I likely have a cell with two plants in it so I just pluck one out and put it where nothing germinated.
If you plan for a 75% germination rate, 99% of the time you will have more plants than you know what to do with.
Oh. I thought it sounded more effiecient. I guess I'm not really missing anything. I was putting 2 or 3 seeds per cell but practically all of them sprouted and I feel like I am needlessly killing when I pluck out a seedling! LOL! So the last time I just put one seed per cell, then on the few that did not seem to germinate I just added another seed.
My bell peppers took a month to germinate! They were sharing a platform with my borage so the cells did not get thrown away but I had given up on them. Then a month later I had seedlings! They are still growing and I hope to plant them soon. This was before I had a grow light so I was moving them in and out. We had some cold snaps which stunted the borage and killed my first batch of tomato plants. The little dormant pepper seeds were out there too but it didn't kill or even stunt them.
Next year I won't be purchasing plants, I'm going to start everything I can by seeds. I wasn't sure how my garden was going to do in my yard so I did not want to invest too much. It's hard not to get addicted though.
I start in seed starting trays with 72 cells. Then I transplant into 4 inch pots.