This is my first year growing seeds, so I’m pretty excited to see how it goes! I just started my spring plants a couple days ago so that they’ll be ready for transplanting in April/May.
Any advice on my set up?
For reference, I plan on bringing in an oscillating fan once I start getting sprouts. Humidity of the greenhouse is doing really well right now, staying around 95%!
I’ll be happy for any feedback or advice, as I’m still learning!
Thanks!
by The_sleepy_nurse
13 Comments
youre about 2 months early if you want vigorous transplants that arent root bound by last frost in Illinois. Everything will be stunted and when you transplant they’ll take a very long time to rebound.
Is this indoors or outdoors? If outdoors, how are you heating?
I have an attached sunroom on the south west side of my house that I heat with space heaters, trying to heat to 60f max, and it really jacks the electric bill. Im sure the pet door doesn’t help 🤣
That’s quite a set up! You are pretty early so be prepared to up pot stuff a couple times, but looks like you have lots of room. You also might benefit from moving those lights close to the plants when they sprout, they’re wasting a lot of their energy to light the room.
As someone said, you are very too early. The seeds you should saw sooner are the peppers, indoor, late February. All the rest can wait mid march and April for, let say, zucchinis.
You need to the lights way closer to the seedlings. I hang mine from small chains
It’s too early for true warm season crops like tomatoes and peppers.
It’s perfect timing for kale, broccoli, onions, woody herbs like rosemary.
IME, peppers take forever to germinate, so starting them early may be a good thing. As the other commenter said, some of your plants may outgrow their pots before you can plant outside. One solution is to up pot, transplant them into larger pots with more soil.
Does this use only artificial light? If so, get a mobile app like Photone to get a “good enough“ measurement of light intensity (PAR Meter). Insufficient light is the most common cause of failure that i see. I use the following guidelines:
Seedlings: 200-300
Vegetative state: up to 600
Flower state: up to 900+
Ymmv.
Also, i see you’re paying attention to humidity- great! If you really want to up that game, google ‘VPD chart’, which looks at both relative humidity AND temperature, which is super important for seedlings.
Edit:formatting
I see heat mats as well as lights. Don’t use both at the same time. Use the heat mats until they sprout and then unplug them. Once you have sprouts turn on the lights and move them so the light is just a few inches above the plants.
Very cool! You definitely need lights ALOT closer to avoid leggy seedlings. They need to be adjustable as the plants grow so you can continue to raise up the lights. As others have said, be prepared to re-pot a few times to avoid root bound plants. I start my seeds in late March and get them in ground by mid May. You really only need 4-6 weeks inside. Good luck!
Hello, if it’s alr, can I ask where you bought that transparent tent thingy?
It’s your first year take pictures and make notes , every setup and yards are different, my tomato plants are 8” it took 8 weeks to get 8” so I have plenty of room for more growth I start indoors and move out to my shed once temps stay above freezing, peppers take time to grow and a temp between 60-70 till hardening off time , zucchini/cucumbers grow way fast so you can wait for those , I’d rather be ahead of the game then behind, I planted my tomatoes first of April last year (just one ) and it snowed and got down to 31.5 degrees according to my weather station I do have pictures but it almost died but did not and part of that plant is in my tomato sauce as I write this , so anything is worth trying, But if they get stunted they will just sit and regroup for awhile but will make it , good luck
Awesomeness!! And I wish.. I still have to wait two more months before my seeding process begins. 😌
I started my peppers already. Have a greenhouse setup in garage. Have an excellent grow light. Have a very short cool growing season so they are setting fruit when they go in the ground.