Garden Seed Growing Update

So a few weeks ago, I started my tomato and pepper seeds for the garden.

My goal is to learn how to start seeds affordably. I don’t have the space or the funds to have a large, expensive seed starting operation here. So I have been researching how to have a decent set-up in a small space with spending as little as possible. Here’s an update on how my hodge-podge seed starting attempts are going.

I planted seeds in cardboard egg cartons, because I had like 14 of them sitting on top of the fridge. So I planted one carton of each: Roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, peppers and hot peppers. I put them in a plastic under-the-bed tote that wasn’t being used at the moment, plopped the tote near a southern window, spritzed them with water daily, and waited. And waited. And waited.

I waited so long for a sprout that I got paranoid that nothing was ever going to happen and almost pitched the whole operation. But then I remembered that I was supposed to cover the plants and make like a greenhouse atmosphere for them. Whoops. I used Saran wrap to cover the tote, and kept up the watering, and within TWO days I had Romas sprouting. So obviously that greenhouse effect is the key. As of now, nearly all of the tomatoes have sprouted. Only a couple of pepper plants have, but I think they have a longer germination time, so I’m going to try to be patient.

My homesteading book recommends uncovering them once they’ve sprouted, so I just cut apart each little “container” as they sprout and move them to a smaller plastic tote.

Once they’re here, I start watering from the bottom…I add just a little water into the container every morning and the plants just soak it up.

A step that seems rather important is having a flourescent light to help grow the seedlings. Since I am trying to do this on the cheap, I was hesitant to go buy a new light. Well. I lucked out and found a somewhat scary but perfectly functional light for $1 at a garage sale last weekend. Holy cow, the plants LOVE it! They are growing like crazy now.

My makeshift method of telling the seedlings apart is this: using markers, I color coded toothpicks and stuck half a toothpick in each container. So Romas get purple toothpicks, cherry tomatoes get orange, and so on. Not the most ingenious plan, but for now, it’s working.

Here’s a shot of the plastic tote greenhouse set-up (sorry for the dark pic…)

My book says to wait until the seedlings have their second set of leaves and then transplant them to a larger container. And I’ve been told that once you transplant, it’s best to move them to the basement so they can develop strong roots. So we’ll see how things progress. I’m hopeful… 🙂