Test plants started..

[Ruffsta]

Well, I started a couple of test plants, thye doing ok, I thought they would have been doing a little better by now though.

what I have growing at the moment:
1 banana pepper plant
1 cayenne pepper plant
1 red hot chilli plant

seeds I recently planted:
1 beefstake tomato
1 eggplant
1 baby romaine
1 celery
1 strawberry
1 sugar daddy pea

the tomato and the sugar daddy pea sprouted.. waiting on the rest (still early).

not really sure what soil I should be using to start seeds, but I started my first garden last year (a little late tho, but did ok..), at the moment I use use: Hyponex pure potting soil.

I also use:
Philips 120 Watt BR40 Agro Plant Flood Light Bulb
Philips 75 Watt BR30 Agro Plant Flood Light Bulb (currently not using)

[img]https://img141.imageshack.us/img141/9066/photo0084q.jpg[/img]

is there a way to make the plants grow faster?

[rainbowgardener]

2 suggestions: How close is your light to the plants? You need it to be just 2-3 inches above your plants (hung so that it can be raised as the plants grow). Light diffuses by the inverse square law-- if the light is twice as far away, the plants get one quarter the light.

Do you have some kind of heat mat? Peppers, tomatoes, eggplant are warm weather crops which will germinate and grow much faster if the soil is warmed to 75 degrees or so.

Also does your Hyponex contain fertilizer/ plant food? Seeds and baby seedlings don't need it, but once the plants have a couple pair of true leaves, they will need some nutrients. If it is built into the potting soil, that should be all they need. If not you may want to add fish emulsion, kelp extract or other nutrient sources.

PS, looks like you just added the picture. It looks like there is a dark corner opposite the light. A fluorescent tube might work better.

[Ruffsta]

just uploaded a picture in my original post.. it doesn't say if it contains anything, as far as I know it's just potting soil.

[img]https://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ishJlreuL.jpg[/img]

8lb bag for 2 bux... most of my plants did well after transplanting them into the garden last year... just planted a lil late.

[DoubleDogFarm]

Second, Hyponex All Purpose Potting Soil and Green Charm resulted in poor plant growth. Both of these media contain sedge peat, a fine particle material that tests to a low porosity. There simply isn't enough space within these media for the water and air that plant roots need to grow successfully. Black Gold All Organic Potting Mix resulted in significantly less plant growth in one out of two years

from here https://www.coopext.colostate.edu/4dmg/Plants/pottmix.htm

Another Scotts brand, not for me.

Eric

[Ruffsta]

here's a good result I had using Hyponex..

[img]https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_d8GcKIMPBls/TJ09m90wtcI/AAAAAAAAADE/vTox1Hr3ue4/s1600/1.jpg[/img]

but I agree, I will have to try other starting soils.. but all in all, for me Hyponex didn't do that bad for me last year... it could have done a little better. so I'll agree 1/2 way on that quote eric.

[DoubleDogFarm]

did you apply the recommended Miracle grow?

Eric

[Ruffsta]

yeah, I used the powder mix (add water), but the plants I had shortly died thereafter, so I didn't use it again thereafter.

[DoubleDogFarm]

Scotts

Eric

[Ruffsta]

yeah, I have to go back to home depot and grab another light setup for my other bulb in order to accomplish even light distribution...

[applestar]

I'm a bit concerned that you said "flood" light bulb. Those are usually hot. CFL daylight bulb of 100W equiv (I think 23W) or 150W equiv (24 or 26W if I remember right) are better, and your set up would work with a second light on the left side, especially with all the reflectors you rigged.

I agree with Raibowgardener about using bottom heat to coax tomato, pepper, and eggplant seeds (high 70's to low 80's). Tomatos are easiest to germinate. I think eggplants take longer than peppers and prefer even more heat though hot peppers like heat as well. Lettuce, celery, strawberry, and pea, I'm pretty sure won't need the bottom heat, though they'll sprout faster at 60's or above but not high 70's or 80's.

Celery took a long time to sprout last year when I tried growing them for the first time. Haven't tried growing strawberry from seed under controlled conditions but I do have one that sprouted from store bought strawberry at room temperature (mid-70's at the time). Maybe it's just me, but it's difficult to keep a strawberry plant alive indoors. My 8-leafed baby is limping along -- I have to keep a close eye on it against red spider mites.

Not sure about starting peas this early. Are you going to be able to plant them out?

[Ruffsta]

I asked and explained what I needed at home depot, and these are what he recommended..

[img]https://www.homedepot.com/catalog/productImages/300/18/186c108e-fd8e-4a65-be05-ac7645cacd59_300.jpg[/img]

they don't get too hot, I'm more concerned about the soil than I am about the lighting.. as far as planting them outside... well, it's rhode island (it snowed a lil today lol) and 12 weeks before I can transplant to the out doors.. worse comes to worse, large container lol.

again, these are just test plants, so... right now I just want to improve seed start offs

last year I couldn't get celery, strawberry, lettuce, romaine or onion to go further than sprouting... hesitant to bother with them again this year.. trying baby romaine tho only because my wife loves romaine.

[applestar]

OK. Hyponex potting soil is too heavy IMO for starting seeds. I would mix 2:1 with sand (2 parts potting soil, 1 part sand), but some people might use Perlite instead. I use screened compost from my compost pile or worm compost, good garden soil, and sand in approximately equal proportions, sometimes less sand. This works fine for me as long as I know what the seedlings are supposed to look like because all kinds of volunteer seedlings (a.k.a.weeds) will sprout along with the intended seeds. sometimes I separate out recognizable volunteers like tomatoes. I use the same mix more coarsely screened for containers and have had interesting surprise volunteers like wax begonia.

Personally I don't like Perlite because they float away, easily get green algae on them, and is a mined product. Perlite dust is choking and another reason I avoid it as much as possible.

[DoubleDogFarm]

Personally I don't like Perlite because they float away, easily get green algae on them, and is a mined product.

Apple,

Yes I agree with what you are saying, but isn't sand a mined product. Your thoughts


Eric

[applestar]

Here's a thread in which perlite was discussed in conjunction with vermiculite:
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18177

Maybe I'm thinking perlite is a processed/manufactured product.
Is sand mined? I tend to think of it as just shoveled up rather than dug up, but maybe I'm wrong.

[GardenRN]

I'm surprised you've had such trouble with lettuce! It has always been the easiest for me. Seeds usually germinate in 2 days and are about 3 or 4 inches tall with two leaves in about a week after that. But then again I always just start mine outside as soon as nights are consistently above 40 degrees. I am however, starting lettuce inside this year. The girlfriend fell in love with my lettuce last year and I want lots to donate to the food bank.

I saw that hyponex on sale at walgreens (drug store here in Va just like CVS or Rite Aid) for $.99 a bag. I went to get some but I have to be honest, it looked so generic I turned away from it. I have tried cheap potting soils before and I usually get what I pay for. I'm at the point now I just add a bit more horse manure and compost each year and let it ride. And as far as starting seeds goes, I literally go out to the garden and fill up two % gallon buckets and bring em inside about a week before I plan to start seeds. This gives the soil a chance to warm up to room temps. I don't really buy into all the sterile soil hoop-lah. I mean I believe that it helps prevent plant diseases and everything, but I've never had a problem with regular old potting soil.

As for your hyponex and everything else, if it's one thing I've learned it's that there are no hard fast rules to gardening. Do what works for you man! But as far as that light goes, I'm with rainbow, get a couple of those cheap $10 fluorescent light fixtures from walmart. They're cheap, easy, and I have had fine luck with just two regular bulbs, no special growing bulbs. There are two different types of regular bulbs though "warm" and "cool" I think just referring to the intensity of the light, not the actual temp. I first got both and put one of each in each fixture. The plants DEFINITELY prefer the "cool" bulb. You could tell because every plant I had was leaning toward that bulb. It is brighter so I guess that's probably why.

[DoubleDogFarm]

Is sand mined? I tend to think of it as just shoveled up rather than dug up, but maybe I'm wrong.

I guess it depends what your definition of mining is. Shoveling, stripping, dredging, blasting IMO all mining.

Here's a thread in which perlite was discussed in conjunction with vermiculite:
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18177

Another interesting topic. The Helpful Gardener (Scott) seems to break things down one step further. I like that. Fossil Food.

Eric