Seed Starting, Everything You Need to Know

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1. Decide what. you want to grow!

First things first! Deciding what you want to grow! The possibilities are endless with all the varieties, of food, herbs, and flowers to choose from! To make this easier, I’ll break this up into different things to consider when choosing your seeds!

• What do you want to grow for?
  • Are you growing for fun, for production? For interesting food, you cant get at the store, or maybe for storing food for the winter? Maybe you just want a herb garden for teas or a flower garden for homemade bouquets. Whatever it may be, it’s good to think about this now.

• What foods do you actually like to eat?
  • This is advice for those who hope to grow food from a garden. Consider what you actually like to grab for fruits and vegetables at the store. Gardening can open your eyes , and your tastebuds , to a world of new delicious and nutritious food. I definetely dont think you should completely overlook something you dont usually like to eat, as being homegrown can completely change its flavor. As well as you may be inclined to find new ways to prepare and eat these things. That being said, its important to not dedicate lots of your time and energy to something that might end up not being used. For example, dont plant a whole bed of lettuce if no one in your home ever eats salad, or dont plant a ton of varieties of pepper if you hate spicy food. The space in your garden, and the effot your putting in , could be used better elsewhere.

• Consider your growing season
  • Depending on where you live, you will have a different growing season. This can be determined by looking at your predicted first and last frost dates ( We will go over this more in the next step!) This is important when looking at seeds because we dont want to put the effort into something we wont be able to grow in time. There are many methods in extending your growing season, but when just starting out its typically better to just look for varieties that best suit your climate. Tied in with growing season , its also important to keep in mind the type of weather you typically get throughout it, as some varieties of plants do better in the heat, while others do better in cooler temperatures.

2. Check your first and last frost date, and start keeping track of the weather.

When growing food, one of the most important things to start keeping an eye on is the weather. Something that’s usually overlooked as a boring topic, will now become extremely relevant! It’s very important for the overall success of your garden. If planted too early, some plants, such as tomatoes, could easily all die if hit with any frost. While other plants enjoy the cooler temperatures before the blazing summer heat. The first thing I would recommend doing is going to

this website!

There you can put in your location, and it will give you the estimated first and last frost date for your area. This can help to give you a good idea about when to do what, but keep in mind, the predictions are not guaranteed. Definitely watch your forecasts as it leads up to your last suspected frost. It would be awful to plant something for it to struggle or die because of unanticipated weather.

3. Plan out your start dates

Now that you have decided what you would like to grow, and gathered your info, you can start making an actual plan on when to start! For example, I like to start my tomatoes 6-8 weeks before my last predicted frost date to compensate for my short growing season. Look through your seeds and figure out what will be planted ahead of time, what will be directly sewn, and when to plant.

Something to keep in mind, however, is your setups. We will discuss this more in the next step, but when planning you want to make sure to consider if your setup can handle bigger plants. The earlier you start a seed, the bigger it will get before being able to transfer it outside. You don’t want a seedling that you cant handle and either have it crowding your home, or being forced to take it out early and risk the frost.

4. Get your growing areas setup

Now before you can actually start your seeds, you need the area prepared that you’re going to start them! For direct sewing plants, this can just be your garden beds or plant pots. For starting ahead of time, you may be lucky enough to have something like a greenhouse. What I am mainly going to talk about though, is a grow light setup. To have a grow light set up, all you need is an area in which to do it, the grow lights themselves, the soil, and the containers to grow the seeds.

• The Growlights
  • When looking for grow lights, you may be advertised ones that say they are specifically for growing plants. However , you can find lights that work perfectly that may be much cheaper. When shopping for grow lights, theres two important things to look for. First is the lumens. Lumens is basically the intensity of brightness. For growing seeds, the lumens should be between 1,500-3,000. Second is kelvin scale. The kelvin scale is basically the color temperature of your light. This should be between 4,500-6,500. With both of these, the higher the better, but as long as they are within these guidelines, they will work for you as grow lights! Heres some links to what I personally would reccomend !
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• The Soil
  • The soil for seed starting can be very simple, but theres still a few things to keep in mind.
    • Dont use just any garden soil. Most garden soil will be too heavy. You want something a softer more fluffy mixture
    • You can use potting soil , but keep in mind if you dont mix anything else in with it, you will almost defintely have to fertilize your seedlings, as pot mixes are sterilized.

• Containers
  • There are many options for seed starting containers. The market is filled with them, many of which I do reccomend , and will link down below. However, you dont need to purchase your containers! You can use just about anything you probably have around the house, from yougurt containers, milk containers, plasctic cups, ect. All you have to do is poke some holes at the bottom , and just about anything can be used! Keep in mind as your seedlings get bigger, you will have to have bigger containers to transfer them in , until they go to their spot outside.
    • Links to products I like
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• Other things to consider
  • There are a few other things to consider in your setup, such as a way to keep plants labeled so you know whats what, or even a timer for shutting your lights off at the correct time every day if thats something you dont want to keep up with.

5. Plant your seeds and keep them happy!

It’s finally time to actually plant your seeds! Seed starting day always brings me so much happiness! When starting your seeds, make sure to read the back of the seed packs. Different seeds might require a different depth in the soil, or a different amount recommended to sew per container. Typically I would say for most seeds that just a slight poke in the soil, drop 2-4 seeds, and simply dust the dirt back over. I also recommend always watering your pots before putting the seeds in, as watering after could cause displacement or some other issues.

Now you just have to maintain your plants!

• Remember to turn your grow lights on and off. They should be on for between 8-11 hours a day to be affective.
• Remember to water, but don’t over water, only when your soil is dried all the way through. You can check just by poking your soil.
• Once your seedling grow, you will need to either seperate some seedlings or get rid of them. This is defintey hard , but it must be done in order for there to be enough space for them to grow properly. Its very sad in the moment , but I promise , its the best thing in the long run.

That’s everything! I hope this was helpful to you, and I hope it shows that growing plants can be possible for you no matter your situation!