Starting plants and have some ?????????

[Grow 4 Food]

OK
For all you seed starters I have a few questions. I have made an indoor greenhouse in my garage. I have loaded my seed start trays with potting soil and a seed. Placed them on the shelf turned on the lights and turned on the heater.

Now for the questions.

Lights always on?

How hot does the heater need to be?

How moist does the dirt need to be?

Anything that should be avoided that will harm the start?

How long before I see a plant and at that point what should I change or alter?

Thanks for the help!

 

[vfem]

I would not keep the lights always on until after they have germinated. Just keep them on like 9 hours on and the rest off until you have a good amount of sprouts going. I keep my house at 70 and my seedlings seem happy. I always under water them in the trays, rather then water them from the tops.... I always keep the peat pots most enough I can see them wet from the outside.

Now this is only what "I" do... so I hope it helps.

 

[patandchickens]

I would not leave the lights on 24/7 unless you really know what you are doing, most plants IME do best with some 'night' and there are some that you will mess up your harvest by shortening their daylength as they get older. (Since shorter is the only way you can GO from a 24-hr daylength <g>). Personally I use a 14-16 hr day.

Temperature depends a whole lot on what you're growing. For instance peppers like it hot (70 F and up), spinach likes it cool (40-60 F), etc. For many plants, soil temperature is as important or more important than air temperature.

The soil should be kept comfortably between the limits of too wet (poke it and water oozes out) and too dry (light colored, not just on the very surface but actually into the medium, and plants thinking about wilting). It will require some trial and error for you to learn to recognize this and learn to provide it without surprises.

Make sure they have good air circulation -- the worst thing is to shut them into a nearly sealed 'greenhouse' with still air and little air exchange. If you have to have a nearly sealed thing for temperature reasons or etc., consider setting up a very small fan on a timer. Air movement will reduce problems with damping-off, and having the plants wiggle a little bit in some 'breezes' makes them grow much more strongly and harden-off more rapidly and gracefully. I start my seeds where they periodically get some of the outwash from a forced-air heating vent

Time to germination depends on what kind of plant. Some will come up in a couple days (with good soil temperature), others it could be a month or more, I don't know what you've planted When they do come up, make sure they have good light (indoors, you want fluorescent tubes just 2-3" above the top of the leaves, really truly) and make sure they do not get too wet, too dry, too air-stagnant, or grow to where you should've raised the light already

Have fun,

Pat

 

[vfem]

I guess I totally forgot to ask if your seedlings are veggies or flowers or even shrubs?!

I treat them both differently. I give more length of light to my flowers... and my veggies have all been moved to a southern facing window and only receive natural light now. I think it will make them easier to harden off.

Which I am going to bring a couple trays out on the deck this weekend for a few hours here and there.... and the same next week. I want my tomatoes out in the garden and hardy by the 15th.

 

[Grow 4 Food]

Thanks for the insight. I guess you hit it on the head pat when you said it is a lot of trial and error.

Vfem to answer your question as for as what I am growing - note the screen name Not fluffy flowers here.