How to Grow Seed Starter Cells

Seed starter cells allow gardeners to start their crops indoors before the ground thaws out. This way, once it's safe to transplant outside, your plants already have a head start. How early you start each crop will depend on how long the seeds take to germinate, the plant's maturity cycle, and when it can safely be planted outdoors. Most seed packets will be clearly labeled with whether (and when) to start the plants indoors. If you're worried about transplanting delicate seedlings from plastic starter cells to the soil, use starter cells made of peat or other organic material that you can plant directly into the garden along with the seedling.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Seed starting cells
• Soilless potting mix
• Seeds

1. Fill each starter cell with a soilless potting mix, which are usually made primarily of ground-up moss. Alternatively, you can use standard topsoil or even compressed peat pellets to fill the starter cells. Just soak the peat pellets in water until they've fully expanded, then place a pellet in each starter cell.

2. Plant a seed or seeds in each starter cell. The general rule is to plant each seed between one and two times as deep as it is wide. So a 1/4-inch-wide seed would be planted between 1/4-inch and 1/2-inch deep. How many seeds you plant in each cell depends on the type of plant you're growing and how old your seed is. Generally, the older the seed, the lower its germination rate---so you may want a few extra seeds in each starter cell to guarantee viable sprouts.

3. Moisten the planting medium in the starter cell and keep it moist until the seeds sprout. Most seeds will sprout sooner if placed in a sunny area or under grow lights for up to 16 hours a day; some gardening systems even allow 24-hour lighting until the seedlings sprout.

4. Pinch off any extra seedlings that may have sprouted in each cell---this will happen if you plant multiple seeds---once they have four leaves. It should be obvious by then which seedlings are the strongest and most vital. Leave those, but pinch the others back at soil level and discard. Keep the potting medium around your seedlings moist, and keep them under the grow light between 12 and 16 hours a day, until they're ready for transplant to their permanent homes.

Tips & Warnings

• Some seed starting cells come with tiny plastic domes you can snap in place over each cell to increase humidity and warmth. Make sure to remove these as soon as the seedlings sprout. Otherwise, the seedling's quick growth may be stunted as it becomes trapped inside the dome.

References

• Gardeners.com