Doing your own starts (seedlings or small plants) is fun in many ways.  First it puts you back in a growing mood way before the garden can (around the end of February).  Then there is the pleasure of watching seeds germinate up close.  Further you can chose among hundreds of varieties, instead of the few dozens offered by nurseries.  And last, the plants you will grow will do better probably than the fertilizer-happy plants you find in many commercial nurseries (a rule of thumb with nurseries is that if they grow their own you are in a much safer place).

They are many ways of growing plants.  I will only explain my own as I prefer to write from direct experience.  I start with a good set-up.  I have a small green-house attached to my shed with about 50 square feet dedicated to seedlings.  It contains a two level wood structure.  Below is what I call the germination box where I keep my trays enclosed and heated at night.  The heat comes from a small portable radiant heater which is better I think than heat lamps.  The un-germinated trays are laid on the ground. 

When the seeds start breaking, I let the trays in the box for another two day at the most to try to get a well germinated tray.  Waiting too long is a mistake as your earliest seedlings will start starving for light and overextend.  The trays then end up on the "top floor", the seedlings-bench,  where they are drenched in light with 6 "shop-light" types of fluorescent fixtures floating about 3 inches above the plants.  The closeness is important.  I keep my lights on from 6 am to 10 pm (16 hours daily), even when it is sunny. How do you water?  You can install a misting system on a timer (as I did in the past) or use a hose with a bit of dancing around the lights.  My set-up cost $50 and looks a bit funky given the amount of recycled wood and used materials I used.  Or you can spend up to $1,000 for a similar set-up usually sold as "easy-install" kits.  You are more than welcome to visit my greenhouse to see it all in action.

Nutrition this early is tricky.  It is easy to over-feed a plant which is in low-gear.  So I keep my soil mix ultra-lean and actually I am experimenting with the simplest mix I have ever dared to use: peat-moss, sand and lime (for PH balancing).  No plant food goes in the mix.  The only nutrients come with fish-emulsion which is mixed-in when watering.  I have learned that fish emulsion is about the most gentle way to bring along a plant's growth.

Once on the bench the plants have to tough it out as the green house is very cool.  But I would rather have slow-growing hardy plants than fast growing wonder-kids which crash once in the field.  I do use a piece of floating cover for very cold nights (below 30) which traps some of the heat escaping from the box underneath.

last modified on: Monday November 10, 2008 06:41 AM -0600