It Has Begun! (A Little Chit-Chat About Seed Starting)

Yesterday afternoon I got started on my 2016 gardening season!  Some plants need about 12 weeks to really get going - especially petunias and peppers.   They are slow to germinate (sometimes as much as 3 weeks), and they are slow growing seedlings.  So I figure if I plan to put the plants out in the greenhouse by early May, I am probably already "behind schedule"!  I started all the different varieties of peppers that I plan to grow except for the largest variety (still waiting for the seeds to come in the mail, but the seed company says they shipped them so it should be arriving soon).  This year I am going to grow those wonderful tiny little sweet peppers that are getting to be so popular.  You know - the ones that are little red, orange and yellow and come in a zip baggie at the grocers.  Sometimes they are called lunchbox peppers or mini bells.  They are great for snacking, for dips, and when you just need a small amount of chopped peppers for a dish.   Often the big green or red peppers are too big for one recipe, so you end up having to put the rest of the pepper in a baggie in the fridge (and then you often forget about it until it becomes a science experiment!).   But these little peppers are so good and so sweet.  I'm hoping to grow so many of them that I can put a variety into containers to sell at our vegetable stand this summer.
     I also started 4 trays of petunias and pansies.  Some petunias are red, or white, or blue, or wave type, and plenty of them are various shades of pink.   I just love petunias!  They are easy to grow, so colorful, the bees love them, and so do the hummingbirds.   A neighbor gave me some seeds from a gorgeous shade of deep purple wave petunias she had - hope I have good success with them because they were absolutely stunning in a hanging planter.
     Every couple weeks I will be starting more plants.  Next on the list is tomatoes - I will try my usual variety of Rutger's Select, plus a couple of determinate varieties and some yellow tomatoes.  I just discovered how delicious yellow tomatoes can be.   Determinate tomato varieties grow to a certain height and most of the tomatoes ripen at once.  Indeterminate varieties grow to any height and have continuous production.  After last year's "greenhouse jungle", I decided that determinate varieties of tomatoes would be better suited to greenhouse growing!
     I like to start my plants using a good potting soil.  After trying many brands of potting soil, I am convinced you  can't beat Miracle Grow brand with the extra slow release fertilizer.  The 6 month Miracle Grow is, in my humble opinion, the best potting soil to use.   I save whatever trays and inserts I can from previous years and ask friends to save pots for me.   Then I set up everything on the kitchen table and have fun:

I usually remove the big pieces of sticks and debris found in the potting mix.  It might be OK for larger planters, but for little seedling cups it is more of a hindrance than a help. 

A good cheap way to mark the seedling cups is to cut up the lids of ice cream pails and use a fine point magic marker to write on the strips.  It is permanent and I also use the larger strips out in the main garden too.

Cut up the lids of ice cream pails for seedling markers and for garden markers.  The best part is that you "have" to eat all the ice cream in order to get the markers!!  ha! (Or you could stay skinny and get your friends to save them for you, but that's no fun!)  Write on the strips with a fine tip marker.  I have some that last from season to season.

A tray of petunia seeds marked and ready for germination.  I put the plastic clear dome on top and keep things moist.  Later I thin out the seedlings and transfer the best ones to other pots to grow bigger.

If you enjoy gardening, I urge you to start your own plants.  It is SO easy and a lot cheaper than buying them from the local garden center or nursery.   Plus you know exactly what you are getting.  You can buy organic seeds or heirloom varieties, too, and then you know you won't have anything GMO.  To be even thriftier, you can save your own seeds of non-hybrid varieties and save even more money.   I start my plants in a sunny window on a few large boards across sawhorses by my big bay window, but if you don't have a big sunny window, you can still start plants inside any room with a table set up, and some grow lights.   I got two grow lights at Home Depot and they were about $12 each.  Here is a photo from a few years ago (2012) showing the way we set up the grow lights:

We have grow lights on a frame.  Even though I have the plants in a sunny window, I still run the grow lights in the evening to give the plants a boost of light.  When I go to bed I turn off the grow lights until early evening of the next day.  If there is a string of dark cloudy days, the grow lights come in handy for extra light for the plants.