so lucky
Garden Master
Hey, dickiebird! Haven't seen you for a while. Bet you are itching to get growing again.
Planting Indoors
- Thread starter mydogdory
- Start date
dickiebird
Garden Addicted
You bettca I am!!!
THANX RICH
THANX RICH
Can I get pictures and more info about using Xmas lights as a heat source?
I'm thinking of starting seeds the first week of January, but still need to get some things together.
Also, how often to add fertilizer?
I want to put them in 3-4cup size containers so that I only need to transplant them once, and that would be from their cup to the ground! Start with potting mix with feed or something else?
I'm thinking of starting seeds the first week of January, but still need to get some things together.
Also, how often to add fertilizer?
I want to put them in 3-4cup size containers so that I only need to transplant them once, and that would be from their cup to the ground! Start with potting mix with feed or something else?
dickiebird
Garden Addicted
I have never added fertilizer until they are planted into their permanent spots.
I start in Miracle Grow potting mix. There are less expensive mixes out there but I've always had good luck with MG.
THANX RICH
I start in Miracle Grow potting mix. There are less expensive mixes out there but I've always had good luck with MG.
THANX RICH
so lucky
Garden Master
I agree, Miracle Gro is a good potting mix. I think they offer it with or without fertilizer, maybe, and with or without added moisture retention qualities. IMO, just the regular M G potting mix, no additives, would be the safest. I don't like the "seed starter" mix either.
digitS'
Garden Master
Starting in Black Gold organic potting soil, I will only use fertilizer if the plants are delayed in going into the garden. That is all "in recent years," except for that potting soil mix. I once had bad experience with an off brand which nearly ruined my season so I'm stuck in a risk-aversion mode.
A late fertilizer choice is just a teaspoon or less of Whitney Farms dry organic and sufficient soil mix to cover. Fish emulation and seaweed foliar fertilisers have been used with nearly as good results but it takes more than one application.
Any fertilizing is only done after the plants have been been in that soil mix for several weeks. Seedlings don't need fertilizer if they are in conventional potting soil. Up-potting to 4" containers give tomatoes a couple of more weeks. After awhile, water and plant growth has pulled (& drained) nutrients out of the soil. They need more for continued growth but I'd really prefer that they have the open garden to find those nutrients.
Most of our garden plants need more light than what they are getting indoors. Life with hours of unobstructed bright sunlight in an established location is what a garden plant is expecting
. It's fine to have a more sheltered environment for them when they are young but they may go looking for more light - stretching. Heat encourages this, coolness suppresses that stretching. If you don't have as much light as is optimum, don't push them with heat. With some, extra warmth is only a benefit in getting that seed started off quickly.
It would be best if a gardener only has one variety of one species to provide for indoors! I'm kidding but think about how different the environment would be between what most benefits a cabbage and a habanero pepper, or eggplants and lettuce ... and here we toss them together and hope for the best. Diversity is strength, however. When we lose control of environmental controls outdoors, the garden as a community benefits from the hodge-podge that our enthusiasm brings to it.
Steve
The time has come, my little friends, to talk of other things. Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings. And why the sea is boiling hot, and whether pigs have wings. Calloo, Callay, come run away, with the cabbages and kings!
A late fertilizer choice is just a teaspoon or less of Whitney Farms dry organic and sufficient soil mix to cover. Fish emulation and seaweed foliar fertilisers have been used with nearly as good results but it takes more than one application.
Any fertilizing is only done after the plants have been been in that soil mix for several weeks. Seedlings don't need fertilizer if they are in conventional potting soil. Up-potting to 4" containers give tomatoes a couple of more weeks. After awhile, water and plant growth has pulled (& drained) nutrients out of the soil. They need more for continued growth but I'd really prefer that they have the open garden to find those nutrients.
Most of our garden plants need more light than what they are getting indoors. Life with hours of unobstructed bright sunlight in an established location is what a garden plant is expecting
. It's fine to have a more sheltered environment for them when they are young but they may go looking for more light - stretching. Heat encourages this, coolness suppresses that stretching. If you don't have as much light as is optimum, don't push them with heat. With some, extra warmth is only a benefit in getting that seed started off quickly.It would be best if a gardener only has one variety of one species to provide for indoors! I'm kidding but think about how different the environment would be between what most benefits a cabbage and a habanero pepper, or eggplants and lettuce ... and here we toss them together and hope for the best. Diversity is strength, however. When we lose control of environmental controls outdoors, the garden as a community benefits from the hodge-podge that our enthusiasm brings to it
.Steve
The time has come, my little friends, to talk of other things. Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings. And why the sea is boiling hot, and whether pigs have wings. Calloo, Callay, come run away, with the cabbages and kings!
SprigOfTheLivingDead
Garden Addicted
Any potting soil that is labeling itself as a 'seedling mix' is just using a marketing gimmick. Use the same soil when a seed/seedling as you will when it's a year old.
Fertilizer is not needed until it's in a final container/location. Also, if you're going to add extra fertilizer make sure you're giving it enough water as adding nutrients but not providing the water is akin to giving a kid a soda then telling them to sit still. You're setting yourself up for failure.
For soil I part ways with the others here and will actually keep away from Miracle Grow. I've had enough bad experiences with that brand's soil being completely infested with fungal gnats. I prefer Fox Farm.
That there is some good advice
Fertilizer is not needed until it's in a final container/location. Also, if you're going to add extra fertilizer make sure you're giving it enough water as adding nutrients but not providing the water is akin to giving a kid a soda then telling them to sit still. You're setting yourself up for failure.
For soil I part ways with the others here and will actually keep away from Miracle Grow. I've had enough bad experiences with that brand's soil being completely infested with fungal gnats. I prefer Fox Farm.
Most of our garden plants need more light than what they are getting indoors. Life with hours of unobstructed bright sunlight in an established location is what a garden plant is expecting
It would be best if a gardener only has one variety of one species to provide for indoors! I'm kidding but think about how different the environment would be between what most benefits a cabbage and a habanero pepper, or eggplants and lettuce ... and here we toss them together and hope for the best. Diversity is strength, however. When we lose control of environmental controls outdoors, the garden as a community benefits from the hodge-podge that our enthusiasm brings to it
That there is some good advice
Thanks.
We only have 3 south facing windows. 1 is in the bedroom which must remain covered during the day, DH works nights. 1 window is in the kitchen and is in the spot where you stand to wash dishes, so it'd be in the way and not a very large space anyway, 2.5-3ft of room. Last is in the hallway, but my 2 house plants need it.
So there is no window for them, rest are north facing.
I have some shelves in the hallway I'm clearing out and 4ft shop lights I'll be hanging over the plants.
I have a GrowLight, expensive!!!, but the plants did no better than the ones under the shop lights.
We only have 3 south facing windows. 1 is in the bedroom which must remain covered during the day, DH works nights. 1 window is in the kitchen and is in the spot where you stand to wash dishes, so it'd be in the way and not a very large space anyway, 2.5-3ft of room. Last is in the hallway, but my 2 house plants need it.
So there is no window for them, rest are north facing.
I have some shelves in the hallway I'm clearing out and 4ft shop lights I'll be hanging over the plants.
I have a GrowLight, expensive!!!, but the plants did no better than the ones under the shop lights.
SprigOfTheLivingDead
Garden Addicted
Growing indoors is all about creating the right conditions for fruiting, or leafing out, if the leaves are what you're after. Normal florescent bulbs are usually at a 3000-4500 color temp, so they'll keep a plant alive, but won't provide enough energy to really help the plants flourish.
You can easily seed under basic lights, but if you want to produce a product to a significan amount you'll need to have the right setup. I'd suggest finding some 6000 color temp bulbs for your shop lights to help those plants be happy
thistlebloom
Garden Master
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This is what I use for germination, mostly for peppers and tomatoes.
As Steve pointed out, the heat is good for faster germination. I have a pretty cool house generally and things like peppers can take forever to come up if the soil is too cool. I keep a thermometer in the box so I know what the temp is inside, and I use a soil thermometer to see how much heat is transferred to the soil above it.
The reading on that thermometer in the box is much higher than the actual soil temp.
