One of the reasons you want your seeds to germinate quickly, is the fungal disease, damping off. This disease will kill your seedlings. If you notice some white stuff on the top of your seed starting mix, this is an indication of the disease. You can see the seedling is the upper left has thinning on it's stem which is making it start to bend over, that is damping off. The fungus will kill the seedlings and it can spread. If you notice the white on top of the soil, or the thinning of the seedling stem, you should cut that cell out and throw it away, immediately! Don't put it in your compost pile; never put any diseased material into your compost pile. If you take care of what is infected, you have a good chance that the rest of your seedlings will be ok. To avoid this disease, make sure your seedlings have enough light; which means a good 14-16 hours a day. Make sure they have enough heat (use a seedling heating pad if your place is chilly). Keep them watered, but don't over water, over watering will help the fungus as well. I've had this fungal disease from time to time, not very often and it doesn't usually get to all my seedlings. I keep watch for it, and try to make sure my seedling have what they need to avoid this disease.

No matter how many years I do this, it's always exciting to see the first seedlings coming up. These are long cayenne peppers. I'm going to let the 2 seedlings grow a bit, and then take one out. You'll have better results if you only have one seedling per section. Not a lot of room in there for more than one, and you want a good sized, healthy plant to put in the ground. The best way to eliminate one of the seedlings, is to use a small scissor. Just cut one seedling near the soil line. It's safer than trying to pull out one seedling. The roots of the two could be close together and you might damage the one you want to keep, by pulling out the one you aren't.

I'm pleased the seedlings are starting to grow. You want your seedlings to germinate quickly. You need enough light, and heat to get them going, and also help avoid damping off. Damping off is a fungal disease which will kill your seedlings. To avoid it, make sure your seedlings are in a nice warm place. If you place isn't that warm, use a seedlings heating pad to give them the warmth they need. Good air flow, and enough (but not too much) water, will get your seedlings off quickly, and hopefully avoid damping off. I'll post a photo of what you should look for if your seedlings start to get damping off tomorrow. 

Planted Basil today, this fills my first seedling tray. I planted the basil a week later than the hot peppers and eggplants because it tends to grow faster than them. You want your seedlings 2" under the lights, but if the basil is larger than the peppers or eggplants, then one of them is either too close, or too far away from the lights. This is one of the reasons it's good to keep a garden (or in this case, seedling) log. You can write down what you do, what went right, and what didn't. You can refer to the log and adjust the things you do so that you get the best results possible. Good to keep a garden log for what you plant outside as well, when you plant it, how it did. It's a great way to learn and keep getting better. That's my cat, Muddy. He's pretty good, leaves the seedlings alone, but he does like to chew on the seedling labels.

I know, i only started these a few days ago. And considering they're hot peppers, eggplants and parsley, the odds of the seeds coming up already are slim. Hot peppers can take up to 2 weeks to germinate, a certain amount of patience is required. It's why i start my hot peppers, eggplants and parsley early, they take a bit longer to germinate than basil or tomatoes. But if you've ever started your own seedlings, then you know the feeling. You just can't help looking at them, every day, a few times a day, just in case there's something coming up! I love starting seeds cause it gives you a lift, a hope that spring will actually get here in the not too distant future. The excitement when i see those first green shoots, gives me a thrill when i'm thinking winter will never end. I'd love to say I was patient, but that's a virtue i seem to have been born without.And one more tip, when you start your seeds, put seed starting mix in, water it BEFORE you add your seeds, then add the seeds and a bit more seed starting mix to cover them. This way, they have moisture but you're not watering them way down into the seed starting mix. You want the seeds close to the surface to germinate faster.

I like to use these plastic 6 packs to start my seedlings in. I used to use peat pots years ago, but found out we've been depleting the peat bogs too much, and it's not an easily renewable resource. So, i went to the plastic 6 packs. I sterilize them every year before planting and with a bit of care, they'll last years! When/if you're going to start seedlings, make sure you use seed starting mix. Don't try to start your seeds in potting soil, it's too heavy and seeds basically want no nutrition at all, least at first. Tomorrow i'll post a recipe if you'd like to make your own seed starting mix instead of buying it pre-packaged.

Here's my seedling set up. As they grow, i take out the magazines to keep the seedlings 2" under the lights.

February 17th, 2013

Started seeds for my garden this year today. Nice thing to do when there's still so much snow on the ground. I sterilized last years flats and trays, easy to do, just a 10% solution of bleach to water. Rinse them out and wash them and they're ready to go! Planted Rosa Bianca eggplants and Long Cayenne peppers. Was going to plant flat leaf parsley as well, but.. oh! i forgot to soak the seed.

If you're planning on starting your own seeds, a few things you should know: Seeds like the blue range of light, so use plant/aquarium lights. They're not too pricey ($8 - $9) and will give your seedlings the light they need. You don't need to use full spectrum bulbs. You want your seedlings to be 2" under the lights at all times. You can use any method to make sure your seedlings stay at that height. I use my old national geographic magazines, i pile them up underneath my seedling tray, and as the seedlings grow, i take out the magazines to lower the tray and keep those seedlings 2" under the lights at all times.

Februaby 18th, 2013

Planted the flat leaf parsley today. You should soak the seeds of parsley for about a day before you plant them, helps with a faster germination which is something you want when you're starting your own seeds. You want your seedlings to germinate as fast as possible for a couple of reasons. First is, faster germination, faster growth, bigger transplants! Second, the faster the seedlings grow, the less chance there is of damping off. Damping off is a fungal disease that will kill your seedlings. I'll write more on that in a later post. For now, if you want to start your own seedlings, you want warmth, air flow and 12-16 hours of light per day. I go for the higher range, i find 14 - 15 hours of light a day sufficient. Course, that's a lot. I use a timer, i set it to go on at 4am, go off at 7pm. Timers are cheap and really useful. If you go out, you don't have to worry about shutting the lights off. If you don't want to wake up at 4am (who does?) it's ok cause the timer takes care of that. I'll post some photos soon!