Seed Starting
You can start the biggest garden from the tiniest seeds. Here’s some tips to help you get ideal results.
Please note, if you end up purchasing any of the linked products below, we may get a small commission, but they’re mainly there to give you an idea of what to look for. You can find many options in your local stores!
Use a multi-celled starting tray.
Seed-starting trays with multiple cells can help get the growing process started in an organized way. We’d recommend a tray with heat mat like this as an example, but you can find celled trays in a variety of sizes. We also like keeping our seed trays inside a shelf greenhouse like this one, with grow lights like this installed on each shelf.
Spacing is important.
It may be tempting to try to put tiny seeds close together, but tight spacing makes your seedlings compete for resources and nutrients. If you’re using a multi-celled tray, don’t plant more than two seeds per cell.
Know the difference between sowing and transplanting plant types.
Certain plants just need to be sowed (planted) directly into where they’ll be growing. This includes beans, peas, carrots, radishes, beets, onions, and more. Otherwise, most plants that we offer can be started from seeds and transplanted after they grow.
Watch Closely.
The first month of seed starting is an adventure, with plenty of exciting growth, but also the most danger for the plants. Check on your plants at least once a day, and keep notes and pictures on what’s doing well or not. You can usually fix most issues more easily if you catch them earlier.
Plan carefully.
Before you start your first seeds, it can be really helpful to plan out your future garden and where each plant should end up.
Timing is another thing to plan out. Work backwards from your area’s typical “last frost” date, then start your seeds inside 2-3 months before that.
Transplanting can help.
You can start your seeds in pretty small cells, but they will eventually be limited in size by how small the cell is. You can transplant seedlings into small individual pots like this, and let them get a little more growth in.
When it’s time to transplant to your garden, you’ll want to acclimate your seedlings to outside conditions for a few hours at a time before actually planting them.
