This might be my favorite time of year; it’s time to start seeds in the glasshouse for the garden!
As I wrote in my last blog post, “Seed Organization Tips that Will Improve How You Garden“, I have already started pansy and some geranium seeds. However, now it is time to really get going and start the first wave of seedlings. I now have a glasshouse, and am getting to know how it works. Before the glasshouse, I started all of my seeds in the house. Here’s how I did it.
How I used to start seeds under grow lights.
Prior to my glasshouse, our house was the greenhouse! I loved it! Once the seedlings were growing, I could smell the damp soil whenever I came in the house. (That should be a candle scent for gardeners.) We were very lucky in our last house to have an east facing wall of windows, which I set my shelving in front of. Yes, we had wood floors. I took each tray over to the kitchen sink for watering, and each tray was inside a horticultural tray without holes. I also have towels. We never had a problem with the wood floor from my seed starting escapades.
Once the seeds were growing, I potted them up and the grow lights were removed to allow more natural light to reach the plants on the lower shelves. For this setup, I rotated the trays at least once a day to help prevent the plant stems from leaning to one side.
The only downside of living in a greenhouse is sometimes we had to deal with fungus gnats. The gnats themselves are nothing more than annoying. The problem is the larva that they lay in the damp soil. The larva eat the roots of the lovely seedlings and houseplants, so it’s important to stay on top of eradicating fungus gnats if they show up. I squish them whenever I see them flying around, catch more with the yellow sticky traps, and have moderate success with organic insecticidal soap.
Hardening off seedlings
Once my seedlings are mature enough to go out in the potager, they first must get used to life outside of the house. The main floor of our last house was upstairs, and I put all of my seedlings out on the deck to harden off. This is done in baby steps, and can not be rushed. This is a fragile stage of life. Wind will break their stems, cold air will wilt their leaves and direct hot sun will burn them. The first day outside, the seedlings must be kept out of any wind or direct sun, and only be out for a few hours. If its cloudy and no wind, but cold, you’ll have to wait until it warms up! Each day, the seedlings stay out a little longer and gradually get more and more direct sun. And yes, this means moving each tray out and in every day. When you have over thirty trays going, this takes a bit of time!
If the weather cooperates, this usually takes about a week. I always choose a warm night with little expected wind for their first night out. I usually snug them up against the house for extra warmth and protection just to be safe. By the time they are planted out in the potager, the plants have spent many nights outside and can handle some wind and all day sun.
The year of the dahlia
In spring of 2021, I had the excellent idea of pre-sprouting every dahlia tuber I had in storage. I took some cuttings, creating even more dahlia plants. The great room with the wood floor I mentioned above, was upstairs. (Our house was unusual, in that the main floor was upstairs.) During the great dahlia expansion, I could not put all of the pots on the wood floor, so I put my seed starting shelves up downstairs in the tiled foyer. As you can see, the dahlia pots took over, and we had a walking path about as wide as Clark the rescue dog was long. I have zero self control when it comes to seed starting and sprouting dahlias!
Tomatoes are not the only seedlings that need to be hardened off. Anything that begins life in the protection of a house or glasshouse, needs gradual acclimation to the great outdoors. So, yes, all those dahlia pots in the foyer? They all had to go out and in every single day, along with all the tomato trays. It was towards the end of the week that I started to wonder where all of these dahlias were going to go…
Go ahead, start seeds now!
It’s March, spring is around the corner, and it’s time to start seeds! Even if you don’t have a wall of east facing windows, you can start seeds indoors. You might not need an expansion of dahlias, or 700 tomato plants, (which I sell, more on that later!), so there are many options for you. Shelves can be put up in a garage, (if it’s heated…), a basement, or any room with space. There are loads of lighting configurations available, even small counter top grow light trays. A quick search on Amazon will bring up pages of choices, and a reputable source to look at is Gardeners Supply.
Once you start seeds, you will find your self inspecting the trays for the first bit of green poking through the soil. I guarantee a burst of excitement will shoot through you at the sight!
