Start Seeds Like a Pro: Easy Setup for Huge Yields
Seed Starting like a Pro
Iâm gardener coo and this is Nacho and here are the 8 steps you need to become a seed starting pro! Starting seeds at home can be a great way to save money on buying plants from the nursery but most importantly, you get to grow all the coolest stuff! Nureries donât carry a 100th of what you can find from seed companies. Think new flavours like cinnamon basil, to unusual tomatoes for your zone to rare flowers like spanish flag. So let's begin!
âFirst you're going to need trays and pots. I recommend getting two different size pots, one 4 or 6 packs and the other a 4â pot. The plants you start in a 4â pot are the types that donât like to have their roots disturbed and also donât want their roots to touch the sides of the pots. This would be your squashes, cucumbers, melons and sunflowers. When planting these you want to get the plants out of the pots as gently as possible, place in a prepared hole, and gently push the soil in around it. Think nitroglycerin and youâre planting this correctly. For all other seeds I use 4 packs. For trays, I bought these sturdy ones from Amazon that I can reuse year after year but feel free to get the thin black plastic ones from the hardware store. Just make sure itâs watertight and never move them when they have water in the bottom, itâs a great way to get that water all over you! Now here is one of the tricks to seed starting, always water from below. Watering from above invites all sorts of diseases to the party when your seedlings are at their most vulnerable.
âThe second thing youâll need for your seedlings is a light. Leds have made seed starting so much better! You can use these little artificial suns to start your seeds weeks earlier and they no longer take a ton of power. I ziptied 3 of them to a wire rack where each level is a little taller than the last, that way you can move the seedling down the tower while getting them up to size. I have the lights on a timer for 14 hours of the day
âThird, you want to get a heat mat with a temperature probe. Seeds really respond well to bottom heat and this will make them sprout so very very much faster! Different seeds like different temperatures and it should say the temp on the seed pack. It basically falls into two grounds though, Spring/fall plants and summer plants. Spring fall plants like around 70/75 degrees and this includes your brassicas like kale and cabbage as well as your lettuces and chard. Summer crops predictably like it a little warmer at 80/85 degree and this group includes your tomatoes, melons and chilis.
âThe fourth thing you need to start your seeds is your soil medium. I prefer the miracle grow yellow. It has a ton of peat moss in it which seedlings love, a wettening agent which means the soil gets evenly moist with no dry pockets, and also a slow release fertilizer which most seedling mixes do not have for a reason that baffles me. Fill the pots and the 4 packs outside with the soil dry, I repeat, DRY, this makes life so so much easier. There is a wettening agent in the soil that will make sure the soil evenly moistens once water is added. Once you have your seeds sown and the flat on the heating mat, then you add water in place. It will save you a ton of hassle as well as spilling water over absolutely everything. I usually add about a gallon of water after the seeds are in place, more if Iâm doing 4â pots
âNumero cinco is the most important and there are a few general rules here but itâs super simple. READ THE SEED PACKET. !!!!!!! Most important rule for seeds! Read it! The packet should have all the info you need to successfully start the seeds. Why? Some seeds need light to germinate. These you press lightly into the top of the soil. Seeds that donât need light to germinate you want to plant them half the depth of their width. So if you have a big seed like this logan fruit pit or a bean, youâll be going down half an inch but if youâre planting Kale they have small seeds so I just run my garden scissors through the soil and sprinkle the seeds in. I once started seeds that required fire to germinate so I set a small, very very small, fire on the top of the pots. It worked too!! This is why reading the packet is so important.
âNumber six may be the second most important and seem like the least, Plant tags. If youâre growing twenty different types of tomatoes, it is imperative you know which one is which, because some tomato plants get 1â tall, others will get to 8â and keep growing until cut down by frost! And as seedlings they look identical!!!! So label your plants and save yourself some existential pain later!!
âNext you need a DOME of HUMIDITY. This seventh thing is super easy, it comes next to the black trays at the hardware store. The Dome keeps the soil moist, speeds germination, and makes it so after sowing your seed and hydrating the soil you donât have to do any additional thing till germination. Once the seeds germinate do promptly remove the DOME of HUMIDITY. For plants youâre sowing in a 4â pots the dome doesnât fit. In this case use a peice of plastic wrap and flip it daily until the seeds germinate. Flipping it stops the build up of harmful pathogens. You can also do this with the seeds in the flats if you donât have the dome but it is quite a hassle.
ââFinally to number 8 and this one couldnât be easier. After the seeds are out of the DOME OF HUMIDITY, and they have their first couple sets of true leaves you want to point a small fan at them. This helps strengthen their stems and gets them ready for real world conditions. I just plug this into the same timer as the light. You can find all the products I talked about in the description of this video.
. âI hope this video will help you become a seed starting pro like me and that you hit like and subscribe. Gardener Coo and copilot Nacho out! Go get dirty!
Items from this video (paid links)
Pot 4â https://amzn.to/4kyQlNA
Pot 6 Pack https://amzn.to/44P7myx
Grow lights https://amzn.to/4jjz8qn
Plant tray single https://amzn.to/3SktrgU
Plant trays 4 pack https://amzn.to/4kEIu17
Heat Mat https://amzn.to/3Sk8R03
Miracle grow Potting Soil https://amzn.to/44MRYCL
