Hey all - I'm a newbie. I have 2 4 foot long grow lights, those 72 hole seed starting trays, and a heat mat.
The 72 little cups are a separate piece from the tray under it. Can I just keep that water under it pretty full, and the water will wick up into the dirt? Or should I keep that base dry and only water the little cups directly, and let them almost try out until watering again? Just not sure how wet they should remain while starting seeds.
The light, I assume, is useless until the seeds come out. But since I guess they'll come out at a different rate, as soon as I see some, I guess I should put the light on them?
So my next question is how long do I keep the lights/heat mat on? 18 hours on and 6 hours off? I know it's probably different from differnt veggies. 90% of what I'm growing is hot peppers.
And the temp of the mat - a regular thermometer insde the dome reads about 86 degrees.
Thanks in advance for your input!
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rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
The idea of the tray and the cells is to water from the bottom, just putting water in the tray. But DON'T keep the tray "pretty full." Put a little bit of water in the bottom of the tray, like 1/4 inch or so, just enough so that it touches the soil at the bottom of the cells. The soil will wick it up. If you come back the next day and there is still any water, don't add more. If the water has all disappeared, you can add 1/4 inch of water each AM.
What you are aiming for is to keep the seeds and seedlings consistently just damp. If seeds/ little seedlings totally dry out, they die. But they are also very sensitive to over-watering.
Some seeds need light to germinate, some don't, depends on what you are planting. Peppers don't need light for germination. But definitely as soon as the seed leaves are above the ground, they will need plenty of light. I keep my lights on 16 hrs a day, but 18 would be ok too. Not more than that, they do need a dark rest period. I leave the heat mat on all the time.
I don't use domes at all. If you do, be sure to remove it as soon as the first seeds sprout. 86 sounds like too hot.
Check out the seed starting basics sticky at the top of this section.
What you are aiming for is to keep the seeds and seedlings consistently just damp. If seeds/ little seedlings totally dry out, they die. But they are also very sensitive to over-watering.
Some seeds need light to germinate, some don't, depends on what you are planting. Peppers don't need light for germination. But definitely as soon as the seed leaves are above the ground, they will need plenty of light. I keep my lights on 16 hrs a day, but 18 would be ok too. Not more than that, they do need a dark rest period. I leave the heat mat on all the time.
I don't use domes at all. If you do, be sure to remove it as soon as the first seeds sprout. 86 sounds like too hot.
Check out the seed starting basics sticky at the top of this section.