Growing indoors - Need input

[kevin47]

We are growing plants from seed indoors for the first time, and are looking for recommendations.

Specifically, which light do you recommend. Also, would you recommend the use of a heating pad?

If we are looking to grow 12-18 plants for transplanting, how many seeds should we plant?

Any other advice would be great.

[morwen]

Here's the set-up we use for seed starting. You can adapt it to accommodate more or less plants. http://eatingfloyd.blogspot.com/2011/... Your biggest concern is enough light and even though we have south facing windows with lots of light pouring in we've never been able to grow good transplants with just that.

I haven't found it necessary to use heat mats. The top of the fridge is a good place to start seeds that need extra warmth but as soon as they sprout move them into good light. I do use a good bagged potting soil for seed starting but not specific seed starting mix. I generally plant at least 2 seeds per hole (a total of 24-36 seeds for you) and when the sprouts have their first set of real leaves, snip off the weaker of the two at soil level.

For seeds requiring only 1/8-1/4" planting depth I lay the seeds on top of the damp soil and then sprinkle more soil or vermiculite on top of the seeds to the correct depth and dampen with a misting bottle. To retain moisture while the seeds are sprouting cover the container with plastic wrap. As soon as you see sprouts remove the wrap. Water your containers from the bottom by placing them in a larger water filled container allowing the seeded one to soak up water from the bottom. This method protects the seedlings from being washed away, over watered or otherwise disturbed, and helps prevent damping off disease.

[Gio]

That's the grow stand we used too, Morwen. Loved that the lights could be raised or lowered as needed. I never used heat pads but did find that a small fan set on low added necessary air circulation, placed not too near the seedlings but just far enough away to gently stir the air.

My seeds were started in a seed starting spoil mix in containers like the following:
http://www.gardeners.com/APS/APS_Cat,...
I like this setup because the water well made it easy to keep the seedings suffeciently moist without over watering. Two seeds per pot sounds about right, and sprinkling with vermiculite or sphagnam moss keeps the seeds from dampening off.

[morwen]

Oh yeah! I forgot about the fan. We have a little desk top model from the dollar store for that.

[gimlis1mum]

For seed-starting I use well-washed plastic containers from berries and lettuce that I buy in the winter (if they don't already have holes in the bottom for drainage, I poke them in with a knife). I close the containers and put them on old baking sheets, and leave them around on top of our radiators until they sprout. (We have hot water heat - great for seed sprouting, it doesn't get too hot). Then I open the containers (sometimes I cut the container top off altogether if space is at apremium on the seed table) and move them to the cellar where we have shop lights hung from a couple of garment racks, arranged over a table.

I do need to get a fan down there, too - it's so windy in our yard that every year the poor seedlings get whiplash when I bring them to the porch for hardening off.

I'm near Boston in Zone 6, so I think it's OK for the seedlings to be growing in the cool cellar since the nights here are still a bit chilly when I bring them out for hardending off. But I grew up in Pittsburgh, and my mom kept the grow lights in the attic where it was pretty warm, never hardened off her plants at all, and still had a more productive garden than me (I suspect their soil was much less acidic and her garden got more sun than mine).