Gardening for food has become popular again this past year. If you’ve tried to purchase vegetable seeds or plants, you may have found empty shelves instead. Even kale seeds were sold out!
If you are a novice gardener, or are new at seed starting, you may have been disappointed by your results this spring. Your seedlings may have emerged, then quickly fell over and died. Maybe your seeds didn’t germinate at all. With a little bit of knowledge and the right materials you can successfully start your own vegetables from seed.
If you are concerned about finding tomato, eggplant or pepper plants, go ahead and try your hand at starting these from seeds. Since these take a little longer to grow into transplantable size, you should plant seeds indoors in January or early February.
Before starting, you will need some sturdy seed trays with equally sturdy watering trays, seed starting mix, a bright light source (grow lights), and a warm place for your setup. We purchased a big industrial wire shelving unit from a warehouse store and used S-hooks to hang LED grow lights. Most of our seed- starting stuff can be found at our local hydroponics store.
Light is the biggest factor in seed starting success. Placing your seed tray in front of a south-facing window will not be sufficient. Some people have been successful using fluorescent shop lights, but we’ve found that the lights specifically made for, ahem, plant growing work best.
Seed-starting mix is like potting mix, except that it has no fertilizer and is lighter weight. It can wick water without getting too soggy. After you have filled the cells with seed starting mix, gently compress so that the soil level won’t go down too much when you start watering.
Read the seed package for guidance as to how deep the seeds should be planted. Planting too deeply could result in the seedling dying before it has a chance to reach the surface. Some seeds require light to germinate, so if they’re not sitting on the surface they may never get the message that it’s time to grow.
Do not plant too many seeds in each cell. You will notice that many plants sold in garden centers have lots of plants in each pot – this makes the pot look impressive, but overcrowding is not healthy for plants.
Usually the grow lights will provide enough gentle heat to induce germination. Avoid placing your seed starting tray in a cold, drafty location. If you suspect your seed tray is too cold, you can use a horticultural heat mat to warm things up a bit. Most seedlings appreciate a temperature of around 75 degrees.
Water the tray from the bottom, and don’t let water sit in the bottom tray for too long. Too much or too little water can doom seedlings. If you are using a heat mat, closely monitor the moisture level since this will cause the soil to dry faster.
Once you see the first set of true leaves (not the little dicot leaves, which are the two tiny leaves a plant produces before its true leaves grow), apply dilute fertilizer once or twice per week.
Before planting outside, the tender seedlings should be acclimated to the outdoors (this is called “hardening off”). Place the seedlings outside in a sheltered place and gradually increase the time spent outside so they are not shocked by too much sun.
Have questions? Email gardening@scng.com.
Looking for more gardening tips? Here’s how to contact the Master Gardener program in your area.
Los Angeles County
mglosangeleshelpline@ucdavis.edu; 626-586-1988; http://celosangeles.ucanr.edu/UC_Master_Gardener_Program/
Orange County
ucceocmghotline@ucanr.edu; 949-809-9760; http://mgorange.ucanr.edu/
Riverside County
anrmgriverside@ucanr.edu; 951-683-6491 ext. 231; https://ucanr.edu/sites/RiversideMG/
San Bernardino County
mgsanbern@ucanredu; 909-387-2182; http://mgsb.ucanr.edu/
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January 07, 2021 at 11:39PM
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How to start a vegetable garden from seed - Press-Enterprise
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