Garden

[gardenman]

Okay. Here's the next update photo on the seedlings. I'll try to post an update every Sunday. I'm now up to 24 of the 27 Cool Wave pansies up and growing. I've got germination going on with the Dahlberg Daisies, but they're too small to show up well. They're growing to the right of the pansies. In an odd quirk, one of the cuttings I took of my brugmansias at the end of summer has a flower bud on it despite only being about twelve inches tall. The flowers are twelve inches long, so that'll be interesting to see how that plays out.I

[Lilysmom]

@gardenman, does my heart good to see the new growth!  LM

[gardenman]

@Lilysmom

I'll be posting a new pic tomorrow, but we've got some secondary leaves now forming and the pansy plants are getting bigger. You probably won't be able to see much of the Dahlberg Daisies yet as they're still quite small and fine, but they're also doing quite well. Probably next week I'll start up the 50 lobelia seed pellets. Lobelia are another cold tolerant, slow growing plant that should be started early if you want a decent sized plant come May. 

[Lilysmom]

@gardenman, thanks, I’ll be watching.  And dreaming as we suffer through our polar vortex 🙄.LM

[gardenman]

Here's the latest photo. Of the 27 Pansy seeds planted, I've got 24 very healthy and robust little plants, two iffier guys who are hanging on (the top left six pack,) but not looking great, and one completely dead cell (bottom left.) That's not bad. The seed pack said to expect 90% germination which would allow for 2.7 non-starters and I only had one non-starter, so that's not bad. The two iffier guys may yet take off. They've germinated and are up, but are lying on their side and not looking very robust. They haven't rotted or wilted which is good and I'm keeping the greenhouse cover on to help them with extra humidity, but it's iffy if they'll survive. As you can see we're starting to get some true leaves now after the seed leaves. They're reaching a bit towards the light, but that's because of the greenhouse cover which is shading them a tick. Once that comes off in the next week or so, they'll stop reaching for the light. They'll stay in the six packs for the next month or so then get moved to larger planters and eventually up to four inch pots before going out full time. The Dahlberg Daisies over to the right are up and growing well, but still largely invisible on camera. They start out very small and fine leaved and look like little more than green hairs for a bit before they take off.

[mousiegirl]

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@gardenman wrote:

As to seed starting, a few years back I bought a stainless steel shelving unit from BJ's Wholesale Club that's 48" wide by 18" deep and 72" tall. I've got it in a south and west facing corner of the family room with windows on both sides also. There are currently two four tube T-8 fluorescent fixtures each 18" X48" with four 6500 degree kelvin bulbs in them and a few spare bulbs waiting to replace those that dim. It's a very bright corner of my house. When the lights are lit the ground outside the windows even looks like daylight at night. The extra sunlight that comes in helps plants grow also. I tend to keep the lights on from when I wake up (around 5 AM) until nine or so at night. I've currently got a nearly six foot tall Brugmansia still blooming right alongside the plant light stand in another south facing window. I may add an extra fluorescent fixture to the shelving unit this year to give me three rows of lights, but I'll have to wait and see if I need it. 

Once we get into March the daytime temps pretty regularly hit the fifties and the Dahlberg Daises, Lobelia, and Pansies can spend many days outside in those temps with no trouble. They even prefer it. The Lobelia and Pansies tend to get a bit sluggish in the hotter temps, but the cool stuff they thrive in. The Dahlberg Daisies just don't care. Hot, cold, in between, they'll flower and be happy.

The Marigolds and Thunbergias grow so fast that I can hold off a good bit on getting them started. The Pansies should be out full time by the time it rolls around for those guys to get started. With a little juggling of plants here and there, I can generally keep a few hundred plants happy and growing well with this setup.

I have lots of old six packs from plants I've bought in the past that I reuse for the seedlings, so they don't take up a lot of space. An 18" by 48" shelf can hold a lot of those little six packs. The six packs I use are 5" by 4" so each six pack takes up 20 sq inches of space. The 18" X48" shelf is 864 in sq, so it'll hold around 43 six packs each holding six plants or around 250 plants per shelf and with two shelves that gives me around 500 plant capapcity right now. If I add another row of lights, that'll bump the capacity up to around 750 which is likely more than even I need. 

With rotating the Lobelia (50 seeds), Pansies (25 seeds), and Dahlberg Daisies (50 seeds) outside as the weather warms, it frees up a lot of space for the rest of the plants. When the plants are ready to be rotated outside they get transplanted into larger flats that hold 32 plants each. They'll stay in those until it's time for them to be planted for real in late April or early/mid-May. The larger flats give them a bit more room to grow and are more forgiving when it comes to drying out on a sunny and windy day. Those little six packs dry out fast outdoors given the chance.

I love the red salvias, but finding them in retail (at least locally) has become nearly impossible and when you do, they're often quite tall and spindly. They fill out pretty quickly when planted, but when you buy them they look pretty grisly. If I grow them myself, I end up with beautiful little plants.

Seeds are truly a bargain if you've got the right equipment on hand. I've been doing this for decades (literally) so I'm well prepared for it. When I have to buy plants I cringe at the price difference. My most expensive plant will be the Pansies and they'll be a tick over a quarter each to grow. If you buy them in a store come March, you'll typically pay around $3 each for them.

I don't even use seed starting mix to fill the containers. I just use a normal potting mix for the bottom three quarters of the container and seed starter mix on the very top. You get the benefit of the seed starter mix where the seed is starting without the cost of using that exclusively. The plants even seem to prefer that approach.

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@gardenman  I am going to try the potting soil/seed starting mix, have always used seed starter, but it dries out fast.  I have a unit like ours, though in recent years, I have just been planting all vege seeds in the pots outside where they will grow, no snow here, but for large quantities of flowers, the unit is great.

[gardenman]

@mousiegirl

Yeah, shelving units like that are great and a fraction of the cost of the store bought plant light stands. I really like that potting soil in the bottom and seed starter on top combo. Most seed starter mixes have no fertilizer and seedlings start to need fertilizer pretty early on, so unless you give them a bit of diluted fertilizer mixed in with their water, they can get pretty hungry. The potting mixes have fertilizer mixed in, so once the seedlings' roots get down to that level, they get the food they need with little intervention on the human side. It's a cost saver, easier, and better for the plants. It's a win all the way around.

[Catlady Nicole]

Hello @gardenman!  I'm thrilled to find this post!  I've had hopes of starting seeds for our garden for a couple years now and this is the year it's finally going to happen.  I just ordered a grow light.  Learning as I go about the different technologies, I ended up with

LED Grow Lights 300W by Hipargero for Indoor Plants Veg and Flower with 1200K 5000K Full Spectrum COBs and High Power CREE LEDs from Amazon.  I hope it's a good choice.  I'm starting small this year, to test my skills and we don't have a huge garden spot, so we have to be conservative with what we plant.  I'll be starting veggies mostly.  We're in USDA zone 5b, so we don't plant outdoors until Memorial Day or after.

Do you use a seed heat mat also? 

I love the idea about mixing seed starting mix and potting soil!

Your plants look great, love seeing the new life

[gardenman]

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@Catlady Nicole wrote:

Hello @gardenman!  I'm thrilled to find this post!  I've had hopes of starting seeds for our garden for a couple years now and this is the year it's finally going to happen.  I just ordered a grow light.  Learning as I go about the different technologies, I ended up with

LED Grow Lights 300W by Hipargero for Indoor Plants Veg and Flower with 1200K 5000K Full Spectrum COBs and High Power CREE LEDs from Amazon.  I hope it's a good choice.  I'm starting small this year, to test my skills and we don't have a huge garden spot, so we have to be conservative with what we plant.  I'll be starting veggies mostly.  We're in USDA zone 5b, so we don't plant outdoors until Memorial Day or after.

Do you use a seed heat mat also? 

I love the idea about mixing seed starting mix and potting soil!

Your plants look great, love seeing the new life

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Congratulations on joining the seed starting family! I don't use a heat mat. The seeds I start generally do fine without bottom heat. If I'm starting something more tropical, I might put them on top of the fridge for some bottom heat.

[gardenman]

Despite my recent hospitalization, my seedlings are still alive. Well, for the most part. I've lost a few while they were under the lights 24/7 for fifteen days. They're a bit lighter green than I'd prefer, but that should improve now that they're back to getting both days and nights. I'll start giving them a hint of fertilizer also. Here's a picture from moments ago.

The Cool Wave Pansies are on the left and the Dahlberg Daisies are on the right. They're a bit leggier than I'd like, but all things considered, they're doing okay. It's not ideal to leave them under bright lights 24/7 for fifteen days, but they survived.