Jump start your garden

Starting seeds at home is a great way to get a jump on the garden season, grow unusual plants and sometimes save some money. Here’s a short guide as to how you too can get a jump start on your veggies.

Place

Pick a spare bedroom or basement space where the temperature stays between 60-70 degrees. South facing, sunny windows are fine but day and night temperatures can vary greatly in that location so plan accordingly. You don’t want your seedlings to get fried during the day and frozen at night.

Light

Young seedlings need good, strong light for 12 to 14 hours a day to grow well. Some seeds even require direct exposure to light to sprout. Seedlings that don’t get enough light will grow leggy and develop weak stems.

Fluorescent light shop fixtures suspended a couple of inches above the plants are the best way to provide light. While one fixture will work, two or more side by side is even better. The fluorescent lights are cool enough so they don’t burn the plants. Suspend them on chains above your growing area, so you can move them up as the plants grow taller.

If you don’t feel up for building your own stand for the lights, commercial stands are available at most garden and hardware stores.

You can use either special growing or ordinary fluorescent tubes. Grow lights are expensive but produce a broader spectrum of light that is more similar to natural sunlight. Ordinary tubes don’t provide quite as broad a spectrum of light so seedlings can develop a bit leggier. Change the tubes every year or two.

Soil

Always use a good quality germinating, potting mix or compost to start your seeds. Break up any large chunks in the mix. Don’t use garden soil as it is usually too heavy for seed starting and can carry disease.

The day before you plant, moisten the potting mix thoroughly. Mixes are often made with a high percentage of peat moss, which makes it very difficult to get wet in the beginning yet holds a lot of water once it is soaked. When you squeeze a handful, the soil should be about as damp as a wrung-out sponge.

Containers

Seed starting containers need to be large enough for a good root system to develop and hold sufficient water for several days.

Homemade containers can be large cottage cheese cartons, foil roasting pans or old plastic storage containers. Be sure to punch small holes in their bottoms to allow excess water to drain away. Skip using egg cartons: the individual cells are too small to allow good root development and they are difficult to keep watered.

Commercial containers include peat pots, plastic seed flats and cell packs. Peat pots are great for plants that don’t like a lot of transplanting as they can be directly planted in the ground.

Plastic flats and cell packs provide lots of space for seeds to grow, and let you use the space under the lights efficiently. They are also reusable for several years, if you clean them up after use.

Planting the Seeds

Buy good quality seed, and it’s true you get what you pay for: Inexpensive seed often doesn’t germinate well. Carefully read the planting instructions on the packet before you buy, as some seeds are more difficult to start than others. Some seeds may need more special handling than you are ready to provide, or they are actually better just planted outside.

Don’t start seeds too early. If the seedlings become root bound indoors, once you plant them out in the garden it may take several weeks for them to recover and begin growing properly. Our local growing season is too short for that.

Start hardy perennials and vegetables that can be set out before our last frost date (May 15) anytime after mid-February. Start frost tender plants like tomatoes and peppers from mid- to late-March into early April. Remember that some seeds will sprout quickly and other may take several weeks, so take some time planning this into your schedule.

Follow planting directions carefully – don’t plant too deep or too shallow. Tiny seeds like snapdragon can be mixed with fine sand to help spread them evenly. Seeds that need light to germinate can simply be pressed into the soil surface.

Tamp the seeds in gently to put them in contact with the soil. Water the container a bit and place under your lights and watch the magic unfurl.

As the seedlings grow, keep the soil moist but not soggy and remember to move your lights up as the seedlings get taller.

Good luck.