Starting Flower and Vegetable Seeds Indoors

One of the best ways to get through the dark, cold days of the end of Winter is to plan and prepare for a garden. Whether you map out your garden plot, scour seed catalogs, or just dream of sinking your teeth into a vine ripened tomato, planning a garden can be as emotionally healthy as it is physically healthy.

One way to get a jump on the growing season is to start flower and vegetable plants from seed indoors. Little plants can get as much as 4-6 weeks head start on seeds that are started outside, directly in the ground.

Growing your plants from seed is a great way to stretch your gardening budget as well. If you purchased a marigold plant at your nursery or home store, you could easily pay close to $3 for one plant. If you wanted to use 10 marigold plants in a flower bed, you would pay $30. However, a packet of marigold seeds costs around $2 and contains around 50 to 75 seeds. Marigolds are one of the easiest plants to grow from seed and will do well no matter how little gardening experience one has.

Here are a few suggestions for starting seeds indoors. With very little effort, you can save money and be four to six weeks closer to your harvest.

Soil

For very best results, use a sterilized soil or potting medium. If you bring in soil from outside, you will also most definitely bring in weeds, fungus and insects or other pests. You can sterilize your own soil by heating it, covered, in the oven to 200 degrees and maintaining that heat for 30 minutes. However, it's much easier to head down to your nursery or home store to pick up a bag of sterilized soil.

Fill containers full with dirt. This will allow air to move across the surface which will discourage types of fungus growth. Follow the directions on the packet for planting the seeds. Some require very little or no dirt coverage.

Light

Your seedlings will need about 14 hours of direct light a day. This may be the biggest challenge in starting your seeds indoors. The sun will move past even the brightest window in your home, causing your little seedlings to stretch towards the light and become leggy.

A special plant light, positioned a foot above the tallest plant will create more of an even light source. Leave the light on, even during the day light hours for best results. Fluorescent lights work great because they emit very little heat and will not dry out your plants.

Water

For seedlings, it is better to water from the bottom than from the top. Simply set your pots in a pan filled with 2 inches of water and let the soil or potting medium soak up the water like a sponge. When you see the top of the dirt start to darken and get wet, remove your pots and place them back under the light.

While seeds are germinating, it's important to keep the soil moist, but not too wet. If the soil is allowed to dry out completely, the seed will die and will not germinate. However, if just the top of the soil dries out a bit, you probably don't have anything to worry about.

Getting the right amount of water might take a little trial and error, but it's better to err on the side of "too little" because too much water will produce a weaker seedling.

Before your seeds germinate and emerge with their "first leaves", you may want to cover your seedlings with plastic wrap or a plastic dome. Before the seed germinates, you will not need to have them under a grow light. However, after the plant emerges, remove the plastic and move the seedlings under the light.

Hardening Off

Once your seeds have grown a second set of "true leaves," they will be ready to move out doors. (True leaves are the next leaves to emerge after the first set of leaves when the seedling germinates.)

It's very important to get your little plants used to being outside by hardening off. To do this, simply set your plants outside, out of direct sunlight for about an hour on a calm day. Double this amount of time every day until the plants have stayed out all day. After about 4 days, your plants should be ready to go in the ground.

Suggested Varieties

Great flower varieties to start indoors include: zinnia, marigold, petunias, lobelia, stock, snapdragons, dusty Miller and coleus.

Vegetables that do well when started indoors include leaf crops like spinach, lettuce, chard, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, tomatoes. Start these indoors in late February and March. Cucumbers, squash, pumpkins plus the other warms weather vegetables can be started indoors in late March and April.