New to starting plants from seed, could use some pointers

[Cass]

For those looking to poke holes in plastic containers --- heat a nail (I use my electric range element to do that) and use the hot nail to put a hole in the container. No more split bottoms trying to push something sharp through brittle plastic. Hold the nail with a pair of pliers so you don't burn your fingers.

(thanks mom for that idea)

 

[Casa de la Luna]

For those looking to poke holes in plastic containers --- heat a nail (I use my electric range element to do that) and use the hot nail to put a hole in the container. No more split bottoms trying to push something sharp through brittle plastic. Hold the nail with a pair of pliers so you don't burn your fingers.

(thanks mom for that idea)

Great idea! I always used a drill but this sounds easier and less messy!

 

[grow_my_own]

Finally got 72 Jiffy peat pellets, my cells, and my trays! Here we go!

 

[HunkieDorie23]

Finally got 72 Jiffy peat pellets, my cells, and my trays! Here we go!

I just went out to Wally World and picked up 3. I have a soil blocker I am going to use for my bigger seeds but for what I am starting now I am using the pods. I am setting up the Seed Stations TODAY!!!

 

[grow_my_own]

Got my seedlings started in my Jiffy pellets this morning! This is worse than setting eggs in the incubator. LOL!

 

[ducks4you]

JUST DO IT. I suggest you start with easy to sprout seeds, like lettuce, onions and tomatoes.
Don't start your tomatoes NOW, unless you live in zone 6 or higher.
Make sure that you water from below, so put holes in yogurt or sour cream containers and put a bowl--plastic or styrofoam from restaurant leftovers work well--with water in it. If you saved plastic pots from plants you've bought you can clean them with a bleach solution and reuse. Don't worry about any chips or rips--I use mine until they fall apart. =b
Save bigger plastic containers for transplanting your seedlings. MANY people start their tomatoes and transplant up to the top set of leaves 3-4 times before they go into the garden. When they're really little you carefully handle the leaves to transplant. Transplanting loses some sprouts, but the ones that survive are hardier for it. I have had little success starting beets indoors.
COOL weather starts can go out in the garden in early spring with not too much hardening off.
WARM weather starts shouldn't go into the garden until it's REALLY warm enough.
When you move out the cool weather starts you can start seeds for tomatoes and peppers in their spots. Try putting a sweet pepper in a pot that has started to rot in your refridgerator. I did that once and got about 50 plants! You just need to separate them while they are small to prevent the roots from almost locking together.
Even though my last average frost is April 15th, I don't put my tomatoes in the ground until Mother's Day. I move them onto my screened in, east facing porch for several weeks so that the breezes harden them off, but they won't get the coldest night temperatures. After that I have to harden to direct sunlight.
This Fall try bringing IN a few herbs that you grew outside. I bought chives (for pennies, on clearance) that I had out in of my beds. The original pot was about 3 in. diameter, but when I dug it out of my raised bed the root system was 10 inches across. I have it in a north facing window, happily growing. I also had a huge root system on the thyme that I'd bought, and then potted for winter inside growth. I have 13 geraniums growing next to my upstairs windows now. I took them inside in October and I'll wait until late May to put them out again. Upstairs it's dry enough to keep from soaking them--they like it dry--but when I kept THEM in my basement windows I got yellow leaves from overwatering. THIS can happen to your sprouts if it's too damp inside, like in my basement.
The mild winter made some spring bulbs put up leaves in December. I brought several inside. They won't grow again in 2012, but they'll flower in 2013 for me.

I love gardening bc when you lose a plant it's not the same as losing a pet and you gain experience.

 

[grow_my_own]

According to the brand new USDA Hardiness Zone map for 2012, we're in 9A. This used to be 8A. This is my first year growing in this area... my old area was zone 7 (which is really only about an hour away).

We got a late winter... it showed up this morning. I got up with big plans to put onions in the ground today, only to find the ground covered with these big mounts of frozen white stuff... (i.e., it snowed). First snow we've had at all this winter. Hopefully we won't get too many of these. It's already melting. I am not a fan of snow.

 

[grow_my_own]

Well, apparently it is not quite as spring here as we thought. We didn't think we'd get much of a winter this year. We've had about 4 cold (REALLY cold) nights, but nothing really serious.

Had a very light dusting of snow yesterday, though. I hear more is coming & we'll be snowed upon for the rest of the week.

Just lovely.

 

[lesa]

Mother nature has plans of her own, apparently! Hang in there, spring is coming!

 

[grow_my_own]

Mother nature has plans of her own, apparently! Hang in there, spring is coming!

I am kinda glad we're having a late winter and that we'll have a somewhat wet spring. We really need the precipitation this year for the farmers et al.

Besides, the only things I'm going to be planting in the next couple of weeks are winter/cold-tolerant vegetables. In the meantime, we're doing other prep work indoors such as making seed tapes, starting early seedlings of broccoli in jiffy pellets, etc.

I had also never heard of a cold frame until this year, but living in the warm valley floor, it was never a necessity until we moved to the mountains which is probably why I never heard of it. Last fall, we built a small garden bed (3 x 16 feet), and my hubby built a nice frame for it so we can cover it with thick "greenhouse" plastic. I'm planning on using half of that for a makeshift cold frame to harden off seedlings, and the other half is where I'm planting my cold-tolerant cruciferous goodies. Then when all the seedlings are hardened off, that half will also be used for planting lettuces & leafy greens in about another month.

Last fall, we filled that 3 x 16 garden bed with leftover hay from the henhouses and some alpaca poop AND "thirds" (the lowest quality fiber we sheared from the alpacas last spring... not worth spinning but makes a great mulch). I've been turning it, have added some sand and some of our soil from right here in the yard & a little commercial garden soil and the contents of our compost tumbler, and I've been stirring it up over the last few months. Now, it's SO gorgeous and rich, and it's totally ready! I wanted to get my onions and brussel sprouts in it the other day, but I had to wait until my day off which is tomorrow... but alas, we're getting snowed upon again this morning, and I hear it's gonna keep up like this all week.

I don't so much mind snow when it's regular snow... it's this "light" snow that just shows up and makes everything mushy and slushy and freezes up the animals' waterers and makes the yard slippery, and nothing is really covered in white except the rooftops. Everything's just muddy.

In the meantime, as long as we got snow coming, I got plenty to do as far as making my seed tapes. If I am successful with these, I am gonna be SO thrilled! Eliminates the need for thinning/spacing later down the line. I like that.