It's official, I can't wait anymore I'm going to plant inside

[Brucepierce]

That's it....today I get started...Thanks for the inspiration

 

[erinszoo]

I got some tomato and squash seeds in the mail for some reason and did an experiment with them. I soaked a paper towel with water and wrung it out, set the seeds on the towel and folded it until it would fit into a ziplock sandwich bag and put the bag on top of my boiler in the basement. Flash ahead 2 days and I looked at them today and the seeds had sprouted, I transplanted them into seed cups, in this case it was a muffin tin, filled with a soilless mixture, covered it all with saran wrap, and put them back on the boiler. I won't start my garden seeds until the first of march as the snow and melt keeps me out of the garden until about the middle of may, but I just wanted to see how this was going to work.

That's how we sprout our pepper seeds because they take so long otherwise, except we put them on top of our dehydrator while it's running. They get nice and warm.

 

[erinszoo]

I'm going to try this. Last year I started some seeds late in the growing season in seed cups that I made from newspaper. I watered them from the bottom and this seemed to work real good.They were outside all the time they were in the seed cups. I have a heat lamp that I put a 25 watt light bulb in and set it real close to the plastic bin I have the seed cups in hoping to keep them warm. When I put the lamp on them the temp was 71 degrees, I just looked at them and the temp is 85 at the top. hope this isn't too hot. We'll see what happens.

cmcanallen, thanks for the help. If this fails I'll go your route.

How cold were your outside temps while you had them outside? Even if they are sprouted if they get below 50 degrees they will stop growing. Even with a light bulb on them, I can't imagine in Michigan at this time of year it would anywhere near warm enough to keep them going ... I could be wrong. The other thing with squash seeds is that they don't like too much water but have to have "enough". Tempermental ...

 

[3forfree]

How cold were your outside temps while you had them outside? Even if they are sprouted if they get below 50 degrees they will stop growing. Even with a light bulb on them, I can't imagine in Michigan at this time of year it would anywhere near warm enough to keep them going ... I could be wrong. The other thing with squash seeds is that they don't like too much water but have to have "enough". Tempermental ...

when I planted seeds in cups last year it was in july or august not this time of year. temps were in the 80's. Nothing grows around here except the size of the snow piles this time of year.

 

[erinszoo]

Quote:
Lol. It could have been that the temps were too high ... I planted parsnips in fall two years in a row with no success until someone told me that they needed cool soil to germinate.

Anyway the seeds I don't start in paper towels, I just plant in seed starter in a mini greenhouse, water well until the soil is moist, stick on the the clear lid and put on top of my dehydrator where it's warm. Once the seeds come up they go under lights or out in the greenhouse. Nothing fancy.

 

[3forfree]

It may be that the seeds were not good seeds, since you got them randomly in the mail.

I don't sprout or soak my seeds. I take a bag of garden soil and:
1 cut the top off an old plastic bottle
2 Fill it half full of soil
3 drop the seed in
4 cover with 1/4-1 inch of soil
,5 water until the soil is good and wet
6 cover with seran wrap
7 tape the wrap down
8 put in a warm, well lit location for 2-3 weeks
By this point, all the seeds that are going to germinate have sprouted. I toss out the dead ones and start again. Also by this point I can take the seran wrap off and just let the seedlings grow.

I have some seeds sprouting, they sprouted about 3 days ago should I leave them, or take the saran off and continue with the lights.

 

[cmcanallen]

I have some seeds sprouting, they sprouted about 3 days ago should I leave them, or take the saran off and continue with the lights.

I leave the seran wrap on them until the leaves touch the wrap or the seedlings touch each other if I'm sprouting more then one seed in a container. They take more work once the seran wrap is off. If your house air is dry, it'll dry out your seedlings fast so keep an eye on them.

 

[cmcanallen]

Love this time of year! Seedlings are growing strong. DS and I spread our cotton seed mill and alfalfa pellets in the garden yesterday. Today Ruby (my new mantis tiller) and I got half the garden rough tilled. Tomorrow, more tilling. Hopefully by this weekend, I'll be planting

 

[3forfree]

thanks, I'll leave them alone as they grow alittle more then take the saran off. Humidity stays around 30% in the house. I used an incubator last year to sprout some seeds after a frailed hatch attempt, and the sprouts were doing real good, then they just fell over and died. maybe they just dried up.

 

[3forfree]

doesn't look like any more are sprouting so I took the saran off and have put a fluorescant light over them. I had raised the bulb that I was using for heat last week and the temp went down to the high 70's, not sure what temps if any I'll get from this single fluoescant bulb.