Starting Seeds

Growing plants from seeds offers significant advantages in terms of cost-savings. For the price of a single plant, you can potentially buy 100 seeds, greatly reducing your gardening expenses. Starting from seeds also allows you to carefully time and control the growth process, ensuring your plants reach the ideal size at precisely the right moment.

While local nurseries typically have a limited plant selection, the selection of seeds that can be ordered is vast. You can order seeds for plants you'd never find in retail outlets, and seeds for varieties developed especially for your growing conditions. I look for seed suppliers in the southwest US to get varieties adapted to my dry, high elevation conditions.

A few suggestions

Should I start seeds indoors or outdoors?

I generally recommend starting seeds indoors for the best results. The small spaces and controlled environment mean good germination rates and easier work. You'll use less water to get things going and can time seed starting so that seedlings are just the right size when it's time to plant them out. By transplanting seedlings in the garden, you can fill in space with no gaps and get to harvest quicker.

What if I don't have room or want to start them outside?

Sometimes starting seeds outdoors works fine. I start all my cover crops in ground, and some plants that seem to do well when planted outside. Keeping seeds moist outdoors is more challenging in dry climates. I soak or even presprout some seeds like peas and beets before planting them. I also may use newspaper or burlap to cover the soil until sprouts come up.

What containers are best for seed starting?

It all depends on how many seeds you want to start and what you have on hand. When you're starting out, yogurt containers or reused pots are fine. Water seedlings by setting them in a tray with water until they soak it up from the bottome. This keeps the water from washing away the dirt when top watering.

I start many seeds at once so multi-cell trays work best for me, and there are a lot of options. I like starter systems that have a tray of cells over a water reservoir with a capillary mat drawing water up to the roots. This keeps my plants from drying out between waterings. Otherwise bottom watered trays work fine.

Another option is to start seeds in flats. For my garden a "flat" could just be a 4X4" pot, but for big plantings or gardens, a larger flat might work better. Seeds can be planted densely in the open flat and then transplanted out once a set of true leaves forms, or the seedlings can be planted into individual pots to grow larger. It's an easy way to start a lot of plants at once.

Strengthen Your Gardening Skills

Getting ready for Seed Starting

Selecting Seeds

Wherever you are, pick seeds and varieties that are going to thrive in your conditions. How long is your growing season? What are daily conditions like in the summer? What is your elevation? If the garden seeds you pick aren't well-adapted, they'll need more attention and water while producing poorly. Do yourself a favor, be selective and buy from reputable suppliers.

Ultimately, saving seeds from your favorite veggies will save money. Buy open-pollinated seeds to get started and then save some seeds from the most successful plants. This way you'll build a seed stock that has adapted to your conditions.

Include some flowers that will help attract pollinators to your garden. They do the great service of mixing up genes but they can only do that if they are in your garden. Plant native plants that support native pollinators whenever you can.

starting seeds

Seeds & Viability

Viable seeds are basically seeds with a living baby inside them. Not all seeds are viable or easy to start. Most common seeds will germinate fine if kept moist and not too cold. If the seed you want to sprout has low germination, be sure to plant extra to compensate.

You may want to test some seeds by spreading 10 seeds on a damp paper towel. Place the paper towel in a plastic bag in a warm place and watch for sprouts. Count the sprouted seeds and multiply by 10. That will give you the percent, so if 7/10 sprout, that would be 70% germination.

If you're starting specialty plants and perennials, you are more likely to encounter seeds that are hard to start. Some plants may be easier to start from cuttings than from seeds. You may want to try several different treatments on these challenging seeds to see what will work best.

For plants whose seeds have a tough outer coat, nicking or sanding holes in the seed coat can improve sprouting. Some plants, parsley for example, make anti-sprout compounds in the seed coat to ensure long lasting seeds. These will sprout much quicker after 2-3 days of soaking with several changes of water. Others may need a prolonged period of cold before sprouting, either stored outside or in a refrigerator.

I frequently pre-sprout or at least soak seeds ahead of time if I'm planting directly in the garden. I pre-sprout beets, peas and beans. Cucurbits like cucumber, squash and melon do fine with being sprouted to 1 set of true leaves in a small pot or cell before being planted out.

Transplanting

Because I start many seeds indoors, successful transplanting is an important part of my garden system. The plants should be healthy and not rootbound. Harden them off by taking them out into the garden for short and then for longer periods before transplanting. This will reduce transplant shock and help them thrive in the garden. Be sure to keep them from drying out during this transition time.

If my pre-planning was good, I'll have starts at a good size ready when it's time to plant them out. Planning requires knowing my first and last frost dates, crop days to harvest, and best transplant dates. I also need to know how quickly seeds sprout and reach good transplant size.

My favorite way to use transplants though, is to have a few extra plants of all types to stick in an unexpected open spot. Herbs, salad greens can get tucked under other plants or in shady spots. This ensures continuous harvests and no wasted space.