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| Up and growing! Burgundy amaranth seemed to germinate especially easily in just a few days. So did the bunny tails, which are already exhibiting their grass-like appearance (second row from the top). The zinnias on the top row are a little harder to see in this photo, but they germinated really well too. The bottom row here (cut off in the photo) are cucumber-leaf sunflowers, where germination seems a bit more erratic. |
I love starting annual flowers and vegetables from seeds, but until about a week ago, I had always direct seeded my plants in the garden rather than trying to start them indoors.
For some reason, I thought starting seeds indoors sounded too hard - I'd need a propagation bench and special lights and seed starting soil etc. etc.
Well, I was at Home Depot recently to pick up some mulch and saw a little seed starting kit from Burpee on sale for around $10 or $12. It included a reusable seed tray, expandable coconut coir pellets as a growing medium (they expand when you pour warm water on them) and a transparent lid to create a greenhouse effect. There's a mat that uses capillary action to soak up water from a reservoir to give the seeds water from the bottom, so you don't even need to worry about misting the plants.
I figured, what the heck? Why not give it a try.
My wife and I sowed the seeds together on March 26th - Zinnias, Bunny Tails (a.k.a. Lagurus ovatus), Burgundy Amaranth, Strawflowers, Cucumber-Leaf Sunflowers and Clemson Spineless Okra. (Well, actually the okra was planted on March 27th because I forgot that it's best to soak okra seeds in water for 24 hours to aid germination.)
Instead of using fancy grow lights, I decided to just rely on natural sunlight and place the seed tray on a luggage bench at the southwest corner of the house nestled between two windows.
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| Here's another slightly more distant shot that shows you the okra that has sprouted (somewhat unevenly) in the bottom cells. I'm a little worried that the growing medium may not be dense enough for the okra, which seems to have flopped over already, but time will tell... |
Then I went away for the weekend to visit family, came back today and - voila! - plenty of sprouts are up and growing!!
Honestly, I'm not quite sure what to do next.
I seeded 2-4 seeds per cell thinking I might not get 100% germination and that I could thin them later on. I'm figuring I should wait until the seedlings start getting a bit stronger and sturdier and then try to thin to the strongest one in each cell?
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| It was just last week that we sowed the seeds. Here you can see the process of pouring warm water (which we heated on the stove) into each of the cells in order to expand the coir pellets. It's fun watching the pellets rise like a loaf of bread in the oven! So far, the seed starting process has been really enjoyable. |
And when should I transplant these outdoors? From what I understand, it's typical to start seeds indoors 4-6 weeks before planting outside, but I worry that these plants would be completely root-bound in that length of time. Maybe better to transplant in just a couple of weeks, provided that temperatures outdoors are warm enough? We've had a cool March, but the long-range forecast seems to show warmer weather ahead.
Our average last frost date is ~April 15th. Maybe I should set them outside sometime after that, presuming the look strong enough?
And should I remove the translucent plastic cover at some point? I don't want the seedlings to have their growth stunted by bumping into the lid, which some already seem on the verge of doing.
Advice and suggestions from experienced indoor seed-starters would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks :)
