Vacation Seed Starting

Since I had a ten day Florida vacation planned, I thought I’d try and germinate my seeds while I was gone.

March 11, 2020

The trick is to keep the seeds moist and warm during that time and make sure they don’t dry out. I not only watered the seed bed well, but I also covered it with a plastic well-fitting top. I put the shop lights right above the plastic lid. I then left on vacation and after ten days, this is what I came home to. I use ProMix as my seed medium and cover the seeds with vermiculite. I do have a tiny bit of fertilizer in my ProMix.

March 21, 2020

March 21, 2020

I came home to hundreds of seedlings and look forward to transplanting them into other containers.

I’ll probably wait two weeks before I use a pencil to transplant them to individual cells.

Spindly Seedlings

If you are in the process of starting seeds inside, here are a few tips to make your seedlings strong and robust. There are four steps.

• Light
• Fan
• Fertilizer.
• Potting Mix

The more light the better. I use a shop light with four bulbs and keep the lights as close to the plants as possible. You want to give the plant as many lumens as possible. The string in the picture is a way for me to move the lights up and down.

Use an oscillating fan to blow on the seedlings. You want to exercise them by moving them back and forth to strengthen their stalks.

Add a slow release fertilizer to your potting mix. I use Osmocote Plus plus I use a 1/4 tsp water soluble fertilizer in my watering can.

I use Pro-Mix potting mix. It includes Mycorrhizal fungi which helps plant growth. They have a number of different versions, but any will do. This mix usually does not include fertilizer.

1000 Seeds in 10 Minutes

Rudbeckia hirta – germinate inside in 5 days.

Rudbeckia hirta, also called Black-Eyed Susan is a short-lived perennial, which can also be sown as an annual. I planted seeds outside on March 26th and these are the flowers On July 23rd.

Here is how to get a 1000 seeds in just ten minutes.

First tear off the outer parts of the flower.
Note – I wear a glove on my left hand to protect it from the sticky parts.
Note that I also leave a 2″ stem so that it is easy to hold.

Using a philips head screwdriver, run it through the seed head to remove the seeds. The seeds are the tiny black objects in the picture above. I’ve found that you can usually get about a hundred seeds from one flower.

I also use parchment paper to collect the seeds and put them in a plastic bag.These seed heads have been sitting around for a couple of months in a paper bag, so they are plenty dry.

October 17, 2021

The plants are still flowering, but not as vigorously.

Saving Seeds from Your Garden

Collecting seeds is the easy way to have hundreds of plants in the spring for no cost. If you figure that many plants can cost $10.00, you could save hundreds and thousands of dollars by collecting and planting your own seeds.

Almost every plant will produce seeds. You just need to be eagle-eyed to spot the seeds and gather them as they ripen up.

I have already collected seed from maltese cross, milkweed, poppy, rue, columbine, echinacea, golden alexander and lots more.

The trick is to allow the seed to ripen and dry on the plant and then grab it just before it might drop to the ground or be blown by the wind. I place all my seeds in a lunch paper bag and mark the bag with a black permanent marker.

Each plant will usually give you hundreds/thousands of seeds, so this is a great way to share with friends.

I also allow some of the seed to fall to the ground as I collect it. This will ensure that you have some seedlings coming in the spring at that exact spot.

The final tip is to only select seed from the best plants. Any plants that do particularly well, I mark with gold paracord so I remember to collect these seeds.

Free Plants from Your Garden

While I might not be able to go to the nursery and buy plants, what I do every year is just use the seedlings that Mother Nature provides.

What you can see in the above picture are eight echinacea seedlings. The trick is to be able to recognize the seedlings and not just assume they are weeds.

One trick I use is edging around each of the flower beds. I create a valley by the edging and the seeds from various plants get caught in that area and give me lots of free plants every year.

Every year the voles eat quite a few echinacea roots, so I count on the new seedlings to keep up my echinacea population.

Once the plants get larger, I will move them to their final location.

Ten Day Vacation Germination

Since I had a ten day Florida vacation planned, I thought I’d try and germinate my tropical milkweed seeds while I was gone.

March 11, 2020

The trick is to keep the seeds moist and warm during that time and make sure they don’t dry out. I not only watered the seed bed well, but I also covered it with a plastic well-fitting top. I put the shop lights right above the plastic lid. I then left on vacation and after ten days, this is what I came home to.

March 21, 2020

March 21, 2020

I came home to hundreds of seedlings and look forward to transplanting them into other containers.

Late Winter Seeds

One of the tests I am doing right now is to see if late winter seeds that I collect March 1st still have the ability to germinate.

Echinacea pods with lots of seeds

80 seed pods collected March 1st.

Seeds and Fluff Extracted

I have now planted ten seeds inside under lights and the rest of the seeds were planted outside on March 1st.

March 10 – 3 inside seeds have germinated.

Echinacea collected and planted March 1st

June 2020 – Seeds are doing well.

Seed Starting Tips

Here are the basic steps I use with almost all seeds.

•  I use the 36 per tray plastic cells in a 1020 tray. Usually available at nurseries. Also get the clear tops. I find that the 72 size cells are a bit too small to get good root growth.
• I now buy all my trays and cells from GreenhouseMegastore.com
• I cut out one cell so that I am left with 35 cells. I water from the bottom through that hole.
• I put this 1020 tray in a heavy-duty plastic tray. It prevents leaks. The 1020 trays are usually made of cheap plastic. GreenhouseMegastore has different qualities, buy what you can afford.
• I use my preferred potting mix as a base – BX Pro-Mix with some Osmocote. You can find this at either a nursery, Walmart or Menards and some smaller hardware stores. Any Pro-Mix product should be fine. This product is what the professional nurseries use. ProMix adds lime to all it’s products since the peat moss is acidic.
• Make sure the mix is well watered before you add the seeds.
• I put 1 to 3 seeds on top of the mix. It depends on how expensive the seeds are and how many I have.
• I top the seeds with a light layer of vermiculite.
• I spray the vermiculite with water.
• I label each cell with the date, seed name and number of seeds. I use vinyl blinds that I have taken down. These are easy to cut and label with a pencil.
• I also put in about 1/8 inch of water in the bottom of the tray in case the mix needs to absorb some water.
• I cover the tray with a plastic clear top.
• I lower my Lithonia T8 shop lights to within 1/2 inch of the plastic top.
• I keep the lights on 24/7 to keep it warm.
• Note – I grow all my plants in the basement. I either use a 4-shelf – 2’x3’x6′ shelving unit or hang the lights
• from the basement ceiling.

I can get 3 trays under 1 light.

• When the seeds are well germinated, I take off the clear top.
• I also use a rotating fan on the seedlings.

Most of the seeds I grow need about a soil temperature of 70 degrees. That’s what Shaw Nature Reserve uses and what has worked well for me in the past.

Note – I used a Laser Infrared Thermometer to get the soil temperature.

In the past I have used heating mats to achieve this temperature, but I noticed a difference this year since I have started using different lights.

I now use and recommend, Lithonia Lighting, 4-Light Grey Fluorescent Heavy-Duty Shop Light. They use T8 bulbs. I now uses these bulbs close to the seed trays with a plastic cover. LED light bulbs have 1800 lumens/bulb. The traditional T8 bulbs put out 2600 lumens/bulb. I prefer the traditional bulbs because they put out more light.

As you can see from the picture, there isn’t much difference between trays with or without bottom heat. In fact the bottom heat tray seems to have poorer germination. I did notice that the bottom heat trays got up to 97 degrees while the trays with just the 4 bulb lights got up to 77 degrees. I eventually turned off the bottom heat since it seemed to be to high.

I probably won’t use my heating mats in the future since my new lights put out enough heat to get seeds to germinate.

My Favorite Potting Mix – you have to add Osmocote.

The final product

Fans help with strength and fungus

Tithonia Lights with Shelving

Testing Old Seeds

If you have seeds leftover from previous years, rather than throwing them away, test them out now and save yourself some money.

I like to test them out by using conditions similar to what I normally use. I put in three seeds in each cell and mark each with the name of the seed and the date. I cover the seeds with a plastic lid to keep things moist and also use a shop light to keep things warm inside.

If the seeds germinate, then you know you can use them this year.

I used some vermiculite I had, but you can use any good potting mix. I don’t plan on keeping these plants – they are just letting me know the germination rate.

Note – I am also testing some new seeds from dollarseed.com

Test Results

• Kale – 3 days
• Marigold Cracker Jack – 5 days – Dollarseed.com
• Zinnia – California Giant – 3 days – Dollarseed.com
• Tropical Milkweed – 7 days – Dollarseed.com
• Maltese Cross – Dollarseed.com
• Dames Rocket – Dollarseed.com
• Purple globe amaranth – Toms – 3 days – almost all seeds germinated.
• Rudbeckia hirta – 5 days – from my garden.
• Tomatoes – 4 days
• Zinnia – small gold – 4 days. – one seed germinated.

Inexpensive Butterfly Seeds

The even have some hummingbird and bee mixes which have hundreds of seeds for the same $1.00!

While some seeds can be quite expensive, here is a source I am testing out that seems very inexpensive – Dollarseed.com

Each packet costs $1.00.
I just bought five packets for $7.75 which includes postage.
They even put in a free package of lettuce seeds.

The marigold and zinnia germinated in 3 days.