Seed Starting: 5 Things I Wish I Did Differently
In 2022, I started my first vegetable garden! I have been a houseplant owner/fanatic for years but caring for a garden was very different! I am still learning, and my opinions might even change by next season, but with just a couple months of this gardening journey I have already learned so much. I want to share 5 things that I wish I would have done differently when starting my seeds!
Disclaimer, I was eager to start gardening so I chose to start my seeds indoors so that I could have a longer growing season. This is not necessary in order to grow your garden from seed!
1. Too Small of Containers
I wanted to save on budget and also use a sustainable option for my seed starting containers, so I asked my mom to save egg cartons for me. Egg cartons break down easily and would decompose when planted (not the styrofoam ones of course). I started many seeds (peppers, tomatoes, etc.) about 8 weeks before I was planning on planting them into the garden. While for 1-2 weeks of growing the egg cartons may have provided enough room, 8 weeks is enough for a seedling to grow to a decent size, and I found that the egg cartons did not provide enough room for these growing seedlings. This caused me to then have to transplant all the seedlings to a larger container, before transplanting them into the garden bed. When moving the seedlings into larger containers, almost all the seedlings had roots stuck to egg cartons and this caused some root damage. I would recommend using 2 inch containers when starting seeds this far ahead of time in order to allow them enough room to grow until you are ready to transplant them to your garden.
2. Not Understanding the Germination Rate
This one has two parts. First, I underestimated the percentage of seeds that would germinate. For whatever reason, I thought only 50% or so of all seeds would actually sprout. While this might be the case for some varieties, I had an abundance of cabbage and other seedlings that I was not prepared for! While it can be a good idea to start more seeds than you need, so you can have back up plants started in case anything happens, but you would probably want to have them in a larger space. Either way, I did not need the 30 cabbage seedlings that started. The second mistake was not realizing how some seeds take much longer to germinate than others. I had some seedlings such as cilantro and lettuce that were outgrowing their containers, meanwhile the strawberry and parsley had no growth at all yet. Next year, I will be scheduling out my seed starting so that the seedlings will be mature when it's time to plant them.
3. Overwatering
When you are trying to germinate seeds you want to make sure that soil stays moist. Seeds need moisture and heat to germinate. I made the mistake of continuing to water the seedlings the same amount after they had already germinated. Once the plant actually has started to grow, they are just like any houseplant, you don’t want to overwater. Wait until the soil starts to dry, then give it a good watering. This gives the roots a chance to grow in search of more water.
4. Starting All Seeds Indoors
I was eager to start gardening even though it was still very much winter, so I started all my seeds indoors! First of all, there is nothing wrong with starting your seeds indoors, it can definitely be worth it. I will continue to start tomato and pepper plants indoors, as they can take longer to grow. I do think in the future, I will directly sow leafy greens for a few reasons. I won’t need to transplant them from their container to the garden, which means I won’t disturb their roots and risk stunting their growth. Secondly, these seedlings grew very fast for me so I don’t think they need to be started so much ahead of time. Lastly, having these seedlings indoors made them get very laggy because they did not have enough sunlight from just the window. You could get a grow light or maybe you have more natural sunlight than I do, but I personally think it will be worth it to plant these directly into the garden.
5. Hardening Off Seedlings
When it starts getting warmer outside and the time is coming to transplant your seeds into the garden, you have to harden off your seedlings. This basically means you need to expose the seedlings to the elements slowly and gradually. Take the seedlings outside for an hour one day, two hours the next, and so on. My mistake was trying to harden off the seedlings on a windy day. Wind can be too much for young seedlings. Choose the hardening off days well! I ended up putting up a small plastic greenhouse, and using that to harden off the seedlings. I still took them outside gradually, but the greenhouse allowed the seedling to experience the fluctuations in weather without it being so severe.
