February means I am well into seed starting for the year! It’s exciting to see those newly planted seeds turn into sprouts and begin growing. Every year I try to plant a large variety of vegetable garden plants including the must have tomato and peppers plants. I also enjoy getting a lot of ornamental seeds growing too. Below you can see a video of where I’m at with my seed starting, take a look at some of the process of starting seeds, and check out the seed starting setup I use.
Important Points Covered in the Video
- Plastic Cups for Seed Starting (mini-greenhouses)
- Grow Lights – I just use simple fluorescent shop lights. I’m switching to LED bulbs as they go out. (48″ ballast)
- Heat Mats
- When to Start Tomato and Pepper plants
- Frost Date – For Us around April 15th
- Seed Starting Setup
Vivosun Heat Mats
In the video I showed these seed starting heat mats from Vivosun. The mats are flexible and can slide onto a 4ft long shelf that is about 20 inches deep. They have other sizes are available that may fit your shelves if you are using different sizes than I am.
The link includes a bundle kit that has a thermostat for adjusting the heat mat temperature. You can buy those separately or not at all if you choose. Link: Vivosun Heat Mat (aff) If you just want the thermostat here is the one I bought: Vivosun Thermostat (aff.).
How to Fix Leggy Seedlings
One common issue many gardeners have when starting plants from seed is legginess. This is a problem that is normally a result of not enough light and is easy to fix! My current batch of tomato and pepper seedlings is showing signs of legginess and…
Growing Dogwood Trees from Seeds (Cornus florida)
Have you ever wondered what the inside of a dogwood (Cornus florida) seed looks like? If you read yesterday’s Name that Seed post you caught a glimpse of some dogwood seeds that were cleaned off by the birds. Many birds enjoy eating the berries that…
Seeds and Where to Find Them
By now you may have received your first seed catalog(s) in the mail. It’s a fun time of the year for gardeners. We get to sift through the pages, read the descriptions designed to entice us, and dream of what we will plant next year….
How to Grow Buckeye from Seed (Aesculus pavia)
A couple years ago I bought a fantastic native plant at a local native plant nursery. It was a red buckeye (Aesculus pavia) and is great for attracting everyone’s favorite tiny garden visitor, the hummingbird. The flower clusters are red (you probably expected that from…
25 Plants that Benefit from Cold Stratification for Germination
Milkweed Seeds Seed starting is just about to begin in earnest for the year. In some cases the seeds you might want to grow may require some extra steps to germinate best. Annuals tend to do just fine without much pretreatment but often perennials need…
Float Testing Acorns for Viability
The majestic oak is one of Tennessee’s most beautiful native trees. It’s also an extremely useful tree for our local wildlife as it can host over 200 species of insects and animals. You can see why you would want to cultivate more oak trees! Recently…
Discover more from Growing The Home Garden
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.