Starting seeds indoors

What is a seedling? I think it's one of the cutest words. It merely describes a young plant that was started from seed and according to the Merriam-Webster definition, one that has not been transplanted. Basically baby plants!

Here I will briefly shoot through a few steps that I take when I start seeds indoors- tomatoes in this case.

 Seeds.

OK, maybe not secret (unless you possess some prize winning heirloom seeds). We are gardeners, not wizards. Hopefully, if you've been keeping some seeds in storage, you kept them safe from moisture, heat, daylight etc. I've never tried intentionally freezing them, but that's a method too.

This is my seed bank. These are seeds that I saved from last years plants. I bought a box of super small envelopes from Staples YEARS ago for the express purpose of using them as my own seed packets-they are nice because I can record the seed information directly on the envelop. The jar is an old canning jar I picked up at a garage sale. I throw in a few bags of desiccant, exactly the kind that you find in all sorts of packaging... I read somewhere this past year that they are almost indefinitely reusable.

Here there actually two different varieties of tomatoes. Can you see the subtle difference in size? The smaller one is, unsurprisingly, a cherry tomato variety. They were nice sweet yellow ones I grew last year. Unfortunately I have no idea what variety they were called exactly. I bought the plant as a whim from a local plant sale. The other one is a more normal sized tomato- Black Krim, I'm pretty sure.

Fill your trays with a SEED STARTING mix. Not potting soil. Make sure whatever you get says it's for seed starting. You might be able to use other growing mixes, but they are not necessarily good for starting seeds. There could be potentially too much organic matter or microorganisms, which tend to have higher CO2 levels- which can supposedly retard germination. Remember, growing seeds indoors means this is an artificial growing environment. There is no direct sunlight or fresh blowing winds. As such, there are more risks of issues with diseases or fungus that could be harmful for the seedlings. Potting soils or dirt directly from outside are not sterilized and could harbor diseases like dampening off, which will give your poor seedlings a very premature death. I always feel more secure using something I know is meant for the purpose of seed starting. I've also found that seed starting mix is better when fresh for that particular year. If it's an old bag from the previous year, the seedlings do not flourish as well. 

Using popsicle sticks that have been cut in half, I label every six pack of cells. Sometimes I have to shuffle around the position of the cells within the tray to even out seedlings that start to 'reach' too much for the lights... you know, to balance out their phototropic motion. If you don't have things labeled... especially if you grow several varieties of tomato like me... things get really confusing really fast. I poke a little hole (BARELY) in the middle of each cell. There are some general rules for planting depth. The depth should be about three times the size of the seed... since most seeds are super small, it's hardly below the soil surface in most cases. I always feel like it's better to err on the side of too shallow than too deep.

I place at least five or six seeds in each little hole. Remember, nature produces more offspring than can survive. Maybe all of the seeds will ultimately germinate, but some may not and you might as well have yourself covered so you don't waste space. For example, this year even at that quantity of sown seeds per cell, I had some very poor germination with sage seeds. I have some cells in the six-packs that have nothing growing as a result. 

Lightly cover up the seeds and give them a gentle watering. If you get too crazy with the watering in the beginning (seed starting mix is pretty light weight) you could displace seeds to a deeper depth than you mean to. Once the seed starting mixture first becomes saturated, displacement doesn't seem as much of a problem.

Optional for your seed trays are a clear cover that boosts humidity. I don't always do this, but it's probably a good idea in the early stages. You really want to make sure things are kept evenly moist. Interestingly, the reason moisture jump starts the life of the seed is because as the seed absorbs moisture it can combine with the nutrients that it had stored up... forming a kind of soluble plant food.

I HIGHLY recommend the use of a heat mat. Increasing the temperature of the soil even a little can mean much faster seed germination.

These are the tomato seedlings... again, from seeds I have saved from the previous years plants (some are several generations old)... they germinated very quickly- maybe three days. So far, I've been really lucky with the tomato seeds having a virtual 100% germination rate. 

Here we are a few weeks later. They are not a whole lot bigger. I feel like they normally grow a lot faster than this, but I may have been over watering them. Notice also, that they have been thinned to ultimately ONE plant per cell. I feel like thinning is a whole other topic, but simply put- you are essentially doing a bit of artificial selection of the most robust seedling. At the same time you are eliminating/weeding out competition for water and nutrients. 

sage seedling

 The first 'leaves' you see pop up out of the soil with the plant are actually not true leaves. They are called cotyledons. The cotyledon is a rudimentary leaf structure. At this point in time the seed has enough stored up energy of it's own, but not for long. Hopefully soon after the emergence of the cotyledon, a 'true' leaf will begin to form. At this point, when the plant forms it's first true leaves, you want to begin to fertilize them. Again, the artificial growing conditions of starting seeds indoors involves a little more of your participation as mother nature. The kind I use, can also be used for indoor plants. The container says to mix something like 7 drops of the fertilizer liquid per quart of water, but you should read the instructions on your particular bottle for whatever the recommendations are. Only water with a fertilizer solution about ONCE a week. 

It's getting to be just about that time of year where you can start a lot of different seeds indoors (if you feel so inclined). If you are not sure what to do, read the seed packages. The seed packages from stores will almost always tell you things about the timing to plant, planting depths, time it takes to germinate, and whether or not you should even start them indoors. Some plants should not be started indoors at all because their types of roots can't handle the disruptions of being transplanted. Depending on when your frost free period is (for us it's traditionally Memorial Day) you could also accidentally start some things too early. 

Recommended book: The New Seed Starters Handbook by Nancy Bubel

Happy planting!