My Very Basic Seedling Set up

The picture above shows my tiny seed starting area. I know, it’s kinda ugly, but it’s functional. This small out-of-the-way area is about 4′ x 4.’ Last year, I used the top of a metal shoe rack to start seeds, but that didn’t give me much growing space, so this year I have expanded my growing area to two folding chairs.

*** You don’t need a table or even chairs- you can set up straight on the ground in a room that’s not drafty. So if you don’t have much space or furniture, don’t be discouraged!

I started these seeds in mid March. I hope to transplant everything outside by mid May. I used two seed starting kits with expandable peat pots. Next year, I will probably just use a bag of seed-starting soil because the peat pots aren’t that great; they dry out very easily and I’ve learned that they aren’t very environmentally friendly. As I sowed each seed, I wrote it down on a seed tray grid to keep track of everything. It’s very easy to forget which cells were already seeded, so I write it down as I go.

I also added two small grow lights to my set up because last year, everything I grew got leggy (stem too long) and a lot of plants didn’t make it after I transplanted them. A grow light really is a must for growing indoors. But I didn’t have big money to spend on large grow lights, so I bought two inexpensive clip-on lamps and 2 LED grow bulbs, which are basically the same size as regular light bulbs and screw into most lamps, but they provide the right kind of light that seedlings need to develop properly. And since they’re LED, they’re more energy efficient. I put the lamps on an old timer I had and that’s it. I water the seedlings every day. If I see that something’s not growing well, I pull it out and sow something else.

After a few weeks, some of the seedlings started looking a little stressed out, so I transplanted them to slightly larger pots made from old milk containers or newspaper. This is a great tutorial showing how to make newspaper pots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dlGQP81yfo

I used two sheets of newspaper per pot to make slightly larger pots and then placed the pots in a foil container because they are definitely not waterproof. That should hold them over for the next two weeks.