How to Start Vegetable Seeds Indoors

While many vegetables will grow just fine and produce bountiful harvests from seeds planted directly in the ground, some need a head start, especially in areas with short growing seasons.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Misting Spray Bottles
• Gardening Books
• Compost Bins
• Fluorescent Lights
• Humidity Gauge
• Miniature Trowels
• Panes Of Glass
• Peat Pots
• Potting Soil
• Seed Flats
• Seed Starting Kits
• Seed-starting Medium
• Seeds
• Water-soluble Fertilizers
• Watering Cans
• Thermometers

1. Read the information on the seed packet. It will tell you when to start your seeds and what they need in the way of soil and air temperature, humidity and light, as well as any special pre-planting treatment.
2. Start seeds in a flat - a shallow box, usually plastic, between 2 1/4 and 4 inches deep with holes in the bottom for drainage. You can find flats and complete seed-starting kits in most garden catalogs or at your local nursery.
3. Fill the flat to about 1 1/4 inches from the top with a sterile growing medium made especially for starting seeds. Put the filled flat in a larger pan and add water to about halfway up the sides of the flat. Let the flat stand overnight to moisten the soil.
4. Press the seeds into the planting mix to the depth recommended on the seed packet. Water with a misting spray bottle or with a fine overhead spray from a watering can. Keep the growing medium evenly moist, but never waterlogged.
5. Ensure sufficient humidity by placing a thin pane of glass on top of the flat, and keep it in a spot where you can provide the soil and air temperatures and the amount of light recommended on your seed packet.
6. Make up for any deficiency of sunlight by placing fluorescent light about six inches above the flat. Keep the lights on around the clock until the seeds germinate.
7. Watch for signs of germination: The first thing you'll see will be a set of what appear to be small leaves. These are actually food storage cells called cotyledons. (Germination times vary greatly; again, your seed packet will tell you when to expect the first signs of life.) Continue to water so that the soil stays evenly moist.
8. Watch for the next step, which will be the first set of true leaves. When they appear, thin the seedlings to the spacing recommended on the seed packet.
9. Choose the smallest and weakest-looking seedlings, pull them out gently so you don't disturb the remaining plants, and add them to the compost pile. Begin to feed the plants once a week with a water-soluble organic fertilizer at 1/4 of the directed strength.
10. Transplant the seedlings to individual pots filled with potting soil when you see two or three sets of leaves. Just before transplanting, water the seedlings, then gently lift them out with a spoon or a miniature trowel.
11. Set each seedling into its pot, carefully firming the soil around the roots. Water gently but well, and continue feeding until it's time to harden off the plants and move them to the garden.

Tips & Warnings

• Though you can buy seedlings of common vegetables such as tomatoes and peppers at your local nursery, you won't find a fraction of the colorful, flavorful varieties you can choose from if you start from seed.
• Some seeds need a period of chilling before you plant them; others need to be soaked in water overnight or scarified (nicked with a file or knife) to speed germination. Some seeds need light to germinate; others require total darkness. Read your seed packets carefully.
• Peat pots make ideal homes for transplanted seedlings, because at planting time you set pot itself into the soil, thus avoiding damage to delicate roots.
• Gardening is as much art as science, and there are many ways to do just about everything. Over time, you'll develop your own methods, shortcuts and tricks.

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