My First Starter attempt...

[somegeek]

My wife and I had horrible results last year with our seed starter attempt so this year we've done research and we'll hopefully get starters in the garden from seed.

I have a 2' fluorescent lamp w/ two T12 20W cool white bulbs w/ a shroud about 1" above my tray. On the side I have an 80mm PC case fan powered with a wall wart to put a slight breeze on things to help strengthen the seedlings. This tray is in my office which is pretty warm during the day(~75ºF) with my PCs running. I would have gone with a 4' lamp due to the increased light output but we don't have the room for it. Built the shroud out of 6mil coroplast (same stuff campaign signs are made with) and painted the inside flat white to reflect the light vs absorb it.





My Dahlias are popping up and don't look leggy like other starters I've had in the past. These were planted seven days ago and I put the light over them about four days ago.



My first Lettuce Leaf Basil starter...


Soil is a bit moist as I just shot a few spots of mold with Chamomile tea as well as the shoot... otherwise I've been letting the surface dry up.

These were planted in a peat/potting soil mix.

We planted Roma & Beefsteak Tomatoes, Genovese, Lettuce & Sweet Basil and Jalapeno Peppers. Also the Dahlias and some other kind of flowers that escapes me. Some of the seeds are a few years old and were planted in a 'can't hurt to try' attempt.

Enjoying watching these grow.

somegeek

[The Helpful Gardener]

Us too; keep the pics coming...

HG

[somegeek]

I went ahead and dusted my entire tray of starers with cinnamon yesterday as I read this is a great fungicide. Used a paintbrush to knock any off the foliage. Also potted up a few more basil and tomato seeds using only coir. Used cardboard for some rough dividers since I ran out of the 6-pack trays.



As an aside...

Took survey of my raspberries. Need to move the suckers into the middle row. Thinking with that many suckers we'll have a solid row. We got lucky last year. Planted a half dozen canes in the middle of last summer and they grew to full height loaded plants before summer's end. Anticipate a haul this year.


Lettuce mix is sprouting up...

This mix did great for us last year. Going to plant another row in about two months so once the first one is done, we'll have another to keep us with fresh lettuce for another few months.

somegeek

[BrianSkilton]

Very nice and organized! Seed starting is looking super. . I never heard of using cinnamon as a fungicide, what a great idea. This is way off topic but most people are just aware of the Indonesian cinnamon which is very strong and almost offsetting. Whenever I need cinnamon in a recipe for baklava for instance I always use Ceylon Cinnamon -- very sweet and subtle tasting. (mainly from Sri Lanka) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamon. I'll have to try cinnamon as a fungicide.

Anyway enough of my rambling, everything is looking good, looks like you'll have good success.

[somegeek]

Thanks for the kind words.

I see my first Roma seed sprout has popped up as of this morning...



And a few more Genovese Basil seed sprouts are coming through...



A few Daliahs did die - one due to the light being to close a few days ago and drying up the foliage(left side) and one from dampening off - fell right over when I touched it. Base appeared pinched. Another lesson learned about how not to keep these soaked.



I did note that a few of my starters pots that dried on top formed a bit of a hard crust which I imagine the seed shoots would have difficulty penetrating(?) so I soaked them to soften them.

Learning a lot with this go around so far.

somegeek

[somegeek]

Between yesterday and today the majority of our Romas came up - pretty cool how many sprouted in that short of time:



Beefsteaks are starting to pop up...



Our first pepper is coming up as well - woohoo...



somegeek

[somegeek]

I've learned that using a mix of outside garden soil, organic fertilizer and peat moss was not a good idea for starting seeds indoors. The basil shoots I had all fell over when touched today due to damping off. My pepper trays had a single seed with a brown sprout. The few trays I started with this mix were all emptied tonight and cleaned with bleach spray. Lesson learned regarding using sterile/clean medium.

I have fresh coir I am using for these replacement seeds.

Hopefully they follow the same route that my tomatoes are on.

somegeek

[somegeek]

Dampening off is the gift that keeps giving. I was checking my Dahlias which were also planted with a bad mix of stuff and they too were wobbly and a few tipped over when touched...





Hard lesson learned. Gonna replant some Dahlia seeds in coir now.

somegeek

[somegeek]

The Green Sword cucumber(similar to English) seeds we sowed on Sunday are up already...



Roma and Beefsteak are coming up nicely as well...



Will need to thin the herd though soon. The cardboard dividers will allow me to break these up into four plants easily. Those seedlings getting whacked will just be cut back to soil level.

[somegeek]

The Green Sword cucumber(similar to English) seeds we sowed on Sunday(six days ago) are very much up!



I'm blown away by how quickly these have sprouted. Time to start hardening these to go into the garden?

somegeek

[GardenLisa]

Everything looks wonderful!

[somegeek]

Thanks, GardenLisa.

Beefsteak starters... there's a cardboard divider in there so I'll get four starters out of here to transplant. Just need to figure out who's making the cut here soon.


More beefsteak seedling...


Sweet pepper...


Jalapeno pepper...


Romas...


Genovese Basil...


Side view of my starter tray...


There is an 80mm PC fan with a super fancy paper duct on the right side blowing upwards into the lights to ventilate them and put a slight breeze over the whole bed.

My wife and I picked up a few tomato and basil starters but we saved room in our beds for these late starters(I shoulda started these in early february). Also planning to replace this 24" 2400 lumen lamp setup (2 x 1200 lumen 20 watt bulbs) with an ~8000 lumen lamp setup (3 X 2750 lumen 40 watt bulbs) which I'll assemble myself to save a few bucks, embrace my DIY geek side and ultimately so I can try growing some herbs and what not indoors year round. Fresh basil off the plant in January sounds nice.

Feel like a little kid as I check on these a few times a day at least.

somegeek

[James282]

Great seedlings! How much do those lamps effect your electric bill? I am thinking of starting from seed this year but hesitate to do so due to what I perceive the additional costs to be. Also, because it would be my first time and I intimidate easily

How much does the more advanced lamp cost up front?

Keep the pics coming!

James

[somegeek]

Great seedlings! How much do those lamps effect your electric bill? I am thinking of starting from seed this year but hesitate to do so due to what I perceive the additional costs to be. Also, because it would be my first time and I intimidate easily

How much does the more advanced lamp cost up front?

Keep the pics coming!

James

Sky is the limit, but depending on your budget and intentions you could do a very basic lamp on the cheap.

Get something like an 85watt CFL like this and connect to something like this which you can get at Home Depot.

Put it a few inches above your seedlings and you're set.

If you have the room, a 4ft fluorescent lamp with T12 bulbs is probably the cheapest way to go for a large area of coverage.

somegeek

[James282]

very nice thanks!

James