What is seed starting? As a gardener, it’s always feels refreshing when you grow your own foodstuff such as vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers. As the winter season comes to an end, it’s time to prepare your garden for spring which is the gardening season. However, many gardeners newbies and seasonal have a challenge when it comes to seed starting. They often encounter many problems when trying to germinate different types of seeds indoors.
This is attributed to a number of seed starting mistakes that are frequently repeated thus, hampering the success rate of a particular seed starting project.
Starting a garden from scratch and growing healthy crops requires excellent seed starting procedures.
If you want to get healthy and strong seedlings, avoid making the following common seed starting mistakes.
Seed Starting Too Early
Different seeds require different duration to germinate and be ready for transplant. Most of the seedlings become ready for transplant when they are about 4 to 6 weeks old.
If you seed start too early, your seedlings will overgrow and outgrow your garden trays and pots. It’s advisable to research more about the growth duration of different seed varieties that you intend to seed start so as to plant them at the right time.
- EASIER SEED STARTING: Our Burpee SuperSeed tray with 36 flexible pop-out cells is designed to simplify indoor seed starting for all your favorite vegetables, flowers and herbs. Just add seed starting mix, seeds, water and light to get growing! Rows are labeled alphanumerically for seedling identification with included Plant-o-Gram diagram. Tray dimensions: 11.5″ x 10-3/8″ x 2-1/4″
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- SEED STARTER TIP: Many favorite vegetables, including peppers and tomatoes, must be started indoors before warmer weather arrives. Start pepper seeds 8-10 weeks before your area’s average last frost date, and tomato seeds 6-8 weeks before last frost. Check your Burpee seed packets for instructions on when and how to plant any of your herb, flower and vegetable seeds.
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Last update on 2022-12-26 at 12:52 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Using Normal Garden Soil
Are you thinking of taking a handful of garden soil and use it to seed start? Don’t even try. Seedlings are very delicate plants and they are prone to diseases.
Garden soil may contain diseases and pests which can tremendously affect your seedlings. Consider using certified potting soil which contain essential mixes to kick-start your seed starting project on the right environment.
Quality potting soil can either be DIY or you can buy from the nearby certified stores if you are just starting.
Related; Container Gardening 101
Not understanding specific seed’s requirements
Different seeds have different planting procedures and requirements. Some require specific care while others have varied depth requirements.
It’s important to ensure that you have read and understood the planting procedures of your seeds as stipulated at the back of the packet.
You will understand the type of seeds that requires to be planted deep and the ones which do best when planted just beneath the potting soil.
Lack of enough light When Seed Starting
Seedlings require enough source of light in order to grow healthy and stronger.
When the seedlings are indoors, they may not enjoy full supply of natural sunlight and that’s why it’s important to have a grow light to supplement the light.
Seedlings require a constant supply of light and a grow light can help you achieve this. They should be placed at ideal heights and be adjusted accordingly as the seedlings grow.
Not hardening the seedlings before transplant
The environment indoors where you are growing your seedlings is very different from the environment on your garden.
Therefore, if you don’t prepare your seedlings well enough to survive the ever-changing outdoor environment, many of them will just die due to extreme weather conditions.
When your seedlings are mature and ready for transplant, hardening off can be done by irregular watering and gradual removal of conducive indoor environment to acclimatize them to the outdoor garden environment.
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Last update on 2022-12-26 at 12:53 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Observe the above seed starting mistakes every time you are preparing to plant your garden and you will increase your seed starting success rate.