Seed starting is a great way to not only save money, but also depending on when you grow, means you can start gardening early moving up your harvest date!
TIP: Don’t use outdoor soil and bring it in, it can be infested. Seed starting mix has nutrients that help the seeds as they grow.
Soil for seeding
When you receive soil in the mail, it’s usually dry. Add water to the soil so it’s damp enough like a wrung out sponge.
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TIP: If you don’t have a little trowel, use a spoon.
Tap soil in cells
Place the soil in the cells. Tap the soil down with the mini trowel so it’s more compact, and add more soil on top.
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TIP: After you see sprouts, remove the clear lid. It took only 5 days for me to see seeds.
Seeds in cells
Putting the seeds in their cells, some more than one seed (just in case), spray water, and use a clear lid to cover them.
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Set a timer
Seeds need 15 hours of light – use a timer to turn the lights on or off. They also need to rest like us, without light.
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TIP: It is OK to remove seedlings in cells to give plants enough room to grow.
Thin the seedlings
Within a few weeks, it was time to trim down the sprouts, because it was getting too crowded.
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TIP: Over 7 - 10 days, you can expose them to more and more sunshine and wind before planting them in your garden.
Hardening off
What the process is called of transitioning seedlings to the outdoors.
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