Seed Starting Setup

Winter has only just begun, but I am already turning my attentions to the coming Spring.  I am preparing to have home grown seedlings to plant out in my garden when the weather is right and to do that I needed to get some things in order.  First and foremost was setting up the shelves I use for growing my seedlings.  Last year the set up was disorganized and spread out across my living room.  This year I have made the sunny window in my kitchen into my seedling zone.  I set up the shelves next to each other and then proceeded to work out the tangle of cords associated with my grow lights.  I tried to find new bulbs for my existing lights, but was disappointed to be unable to find them at the local hardware store.  I did find some inexpensive LED grow lights that would work, so I added two more lamps to my collection.  In years past I have used recycled 3 inch seed pots from a local nursery, but they took up a lot more space than I had to spare.  This year I was also able to score a couple of professional seed starting trays that would work for me to get things going.  Each tray could start 72 seedlings and only occupy a single shelf.  I think that will work out well as long as I can keep up on potting them up as they grow.  Some seedlings like my broccoli may just get moved outside into a cold frame when they are ready instead up taking up precious space on my seedling shelves.

I use the foil as reflectors to keep as much light pointing at the seedlings as possible.  I want to avoid growing seedlings that are leggy because they didn't get enough light.  As of January second I only have one seed tray planted.  The first crops to go into the dirt were celery, broccoli, sweet bell peppers and basil.  I am hoping to cycle the seedlings to the higher shelves as they outgrow their cells and their low shelf.  If I can stay on top of things, these shelves should start filling out nicely in a month or two.

I decided to keep them in the kitchen because it is one of the sunnier and warmer rooms in the house.  Temperature and humidity play an important role in seed germination.  I generally keep my house fairly cool in the winter, so keeping them in a warm window should help keep things moving along towards the real growing season.  The professional seed trays also come with a light fitting cover to help keep humidity levels right for germinating seeds.  Once things start appearing, the covers will come off to help with air circulation.  I am so excited to think that I will have this year's garden growing in my kitchen in just a few short weeks.