When you factor in the cost of one tomato plant vs an entire package of tomato seeds, you can see the obvious benefit of starting vegetable seeds indoors. One established plant costs more than an entire packet of seeds.
At first thought it may seem like a lot of extra work when you can just go to your local nursery and buy the plant. I admit that the convenience is hard to resist. But growing your own from seeds isn’t really as hard as you think.
I used to buy tomato and pepper plants every year. Then a couple of years ago I decided that if I can make other seeds grow in the dirt outside, I should be able to start tomatoes and peppers from seed as well.
This decision evolved into more than just tomatoes and peppers. Last year all the vegetables were started from seed except the potatoes which were started from “seed potatoes”.
Is It Necessary To Buy Expensive Grow Lights?
No!! Many years ago I tried to grow tomatoes from seed and they ended up dying. I didn’t have grow lights. I was just putting them by a window. I’ve heard this works for some people but I didn’t work for me. It’s possible I just didn’t have a sunny enough spot. But when I decided to do this again, I made the decision to use grow lights but . . .
What I found was that grow lights under such a name tended to be expensive. Shop lights, however, can be a fraction of the cost. They are exactly the same thing. I bought one shop light the first year and it worked great.
Then I discovered that my dad had several of these boxed up in his shed and had never used them. He was kind enough to let me have 2 of them. I did have to buy the bulbs but at least the fixtures themselves were *Free*. I bought the bulbs specifically for plants but I don’t know if that’s absolutely necessary.
Do You Have To Have A Fancy Greenhouse?
No!! No fancy greenhouse is required. It is helpful to have some sort of clear plastic to lay over the seeds to make sort of a greenhouse effect. But even saran wrap will work if that’s all you have.
What About Those Seed Starter Kits With Cute Little Trays?
No!! You can repurpose whatever you have around the house. I have used small terra cotta pots in the past.
Other things I’ve read about:
- DIY newspaper pots
- card board paper towel rolls
- toilet paper rolls
- egg cartons (although I think they are too small and shallow)
- plastic water or soda bottles
- the containers you bought plants in and saved from last year.
Just to name a few.
This is what I did, and while it may not be fancy, the cost was minimal.
I started with a few bags of Natural and Organic Seed Starting Mix. You can make your own, and I hope that one day my compost will allow me to do this. But this was not that year.
You need to add quite a bit of water to dampen it. I used a bucket to do this.
Then I repurposed the packing material that stabilizes the wine bottles in the cases of wine I have shipped to me.
Yes . . .I buy it by the case. No judging allowed please and thank you . . . it’s cheaper that way and I’m all about saving money and getting free shipping. I’m frugal like that.
It occurred to me that these are biodegradable so I decided to use them for seed planting. I also used a plain cardboard box and some of the little plastic containers that I saved from flowers I had purchased in the past. *Free*
I filled them with the dampened dirt and planted the seeds as instructed on the packets.
I have been buying my seeds from the Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah Iowa. They are a nonprofit devoted to collecting and vaulting more than 20,000 varieties heirloom and open pollinated plants. They have a huge variety and also sell herbs, fruit trees and perennial flowers. I could go on but you can just go to this website and read so much more about who they are and what they have to offer. It’s great to know there are companies like this out there.
Once the seeds are planted I make sure I label which seeds are which.
These only contain the tomatoes and peppers. I have more containers with other plant varieties.
Then I covered them with clear plastic. This is plastic that I repurposed from the kits we use for procedures at the hospital where I work. When we open these packs for procedures, there are times when we don’t need everything included depending on what type of procedure we are doing. So the extras are thrown away brand new and never used.
It seems like a waste to me so I brought a few of these plastic covers home to use as my “greenhouses”. *Free*
I use a spray bottle to dampen the top of the dirt and cover the seeds with the plastic. Then I adjust the shop light so it’s pretty close to the tops of the planters.
How Much Light Do They Need?
I leave the lights on for about 14 to 16 hours a day. I turn the lights off when I go to bed and I turn them back on as soon as I get up in the morning.
There are some who say that the plants should have a warming mat under them. It is true that seeds such as peppers require warmer temperatures to germinate but I have never used a warming mat and have not had a problem getting the seeds to sprout.
How Much Water Do They Require?
I check the progress every day and if the soil looks dry I give it a spritz of water with a spray bottle till the soil looks damp. I have no magic formula. Just check them daily to make sure they aren’t too dry. The plastic cover helps keep the moisture in and you will see condensation form on the inside of the plastic.
I planted the tomatoes and peppers a couple of weeks ago. The tomatoes were making their way through the soil after about a week.
I will be thinning these out soon. I like to see which will be voted “most likely to succeed” before I play God and decide who will stay and who will go.
The participants are:
- Large Red Cherry
- White Cherry
- German Pink
- Amish Paste
The peppers are just now starting to come around.
As I said, they take a little longer.
The peppers:
- Jalapeno, Traveler Strain
- Napoleon Sweet
- Feher Ozon Paprika
- Georgia Flame
- Poblano
Last year I grew Ceyanne as well but I still have a bunch of dried ceyanne peppers to use so decided to use the space for something else.
Here are the onions. I have several variety’s of those too:
- Zerbrune Shallot
- Yellow Borettana
- Yellow of Parma
- Red Wethersfield
Then there is the cabbage:
- This is the Early Jersey Wakefield green cabbage
And
- the Mammoth Red Rock red cabbage.
These all need to be thinned out too. Again, waiting to see who is the biggest and strongest.
The eggplant are starting to emerge.
- This variety is called Diamond.
I grew these last year and had so many that I had to get really creative on what to do with them. I just finished the last of the Eggplant Caponata that we had in the freezer. Amazing stuff!
Last but not least, the celery.
- This variety is called Tall Utah.
It’s a little shy as you can see. Or can’t see since it hasn’t woken up yet. But it will. Celery as you will see later in the year is unique in that it requires a blanching technique that tames the flavor down to the familiar taste of celery we all know and love.
Without this blanching you would not like it’s bittery taste. More on that if I can keep the rabbits out of it after I plant it in the ground. But first things first, it still has to germinate.
So that’s the indoor seed collection. These will require a “hardening off” period before they can be planted in the ground but more on that when the time comes. All the other seeds will be planted directly into the ground in the not so far off future.
But seriously, there’s still time to get your garden started now! There’s great satisfaction with knowing that you started all this from a tiny seed so small you can hardly see it and watching the seedlings grow into mature, responsible plants. Being the proud parent of a garden is a great and wonderful thing.
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